Saturday, August 23, 2008

Christmas Morning in August



Christmas morning will come twice this year. The second time will be at its usual time in December; but for Chuckolytes, the first occurred this morning.

For most, it was an early morning that brought nothing but gifts to those of us that live for the politick, the drama and of course The Chuck. Yesterday NBC announced that it was going to be kicking the long-in-the-tooth Olympics to the curb and in place would be a day, a whole glorious day devoted to the Democratic Vice Presidential announcement.


It all started pre-dawn with an Alex Witt warm-up act. She handed out the new information with a sterile ease and had a couple of guests via satellite, one being Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart. Now before you roll your eyes, there was something newsworthy about Diva Capehart's appearance this morning. Get this people: he had no tie! There he sat with an open-collared dress shirt sans tie with the most generic looking white crewneck t-shirt (possibly a poly-blend no less) peeking through. "Diva Capehart almost looks butch!" Viva Chuck Todd fashion correspondent, Devon O'Toole shrieked in horror.

A golden moment in this MSNBC maelstrom was with our crazy uncles Matthews and Olbermann as they primed the prime-time pump with their goofy observations and non-sequiturs. The best came from preternaturally tan Uncle Chris Matthews when he used the words “striptease” and “climax” in the same sentence to reference the suspenseful build-up and explosion if you will of the Biden announcement. Cigarette anyone?

As if it couldn't get any better, the day was ushered in by our old friends, the cast of Morning Joe for a Special Edition of the aforementioned A.M. staple. Special, because as Joe said, “It wouldn’t be ‘special’ if Willie weren’t here.” We second that emotion Scarborough. And, as if to bookend the Capehart fashion fumble, Scarborough was wearing a tie (cats loved on dogs and birds flew backwards as a result).

And then, the moment we all waited for, The Chuck. Let's just say right now, any morning that has The Chuck chiming in every hour in a festive mood is our kind or morning. And this morning was that kind of morning. The first appearance of The Chuck had Scarborough introducing him in the usual fashion and then he said the following: "The kids are in the streets, they’ve got their t-shirts on, they’re eating salsa and chips and shouting Viva Chuck Todd!” We're not even going to try to wrap our brains around the salsa and chips reference.

The Chuck unfazed from his intro came to us from pre-dawn Denver looking alert and fresh giving a stunningly succinct yet copious rundown of the VPshortlist. No teleprompter, no referencing notes, just a smooth delivery of why Biden was chosen (“least amount of drama”). And why Bayh, Kaine, Sebelius, Dodd, Nunn and Edwards (Chet, that is) were the bridesmaids. Although, the Bush/Cheney antithetical comparison to Obama/Biden was a little disconcerting until you put it in the geek fan-boy context of the classic Star Trek episode where the goatee-flaunting evil Kirk and Spock from a parallel universe meld with the Enterprise in this...oh screw it, you know what he meant.

Alright, we have to wrap this up. We have a plane to catch to Denver.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting that not only was Chuck on every hour, so many people inbetween his appearances would reference him, as in "...like Chuck Todd just said...," or "... I agree with what Chuck said ..." or "Chuck Todd was right before ..." Maybe they don't need other guests.

Anonymous said...

Lenore, I totally agree. :) Chuck is all we need for the political scoop!

Anonymous said...

The Chuck shines the light of the above on the political mess. It was delightful seeing MJ in the morning. I never thought I would say this but I missed my favorite morning crew. I would have had a hard time envisioning Willie up and about on a saturday morning if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

But, I do have my own bone to pick with the review of the day. Let's lay off The Capehart. He is not here to please us. We are not Viva Johnny Capehart. In the light of The Chuck, other pundits are but slight bumps in the road of our political day.

I would like to see The Chuck and Willie tag team for a while. Call the show "Willie and The Chuck" and give the set a sort of "Chico and the Man" motif. Willie could run around the set moving Cars and auto parts around, and The Chuck can stpe otu of teh office on occasion and give him political updates, and complain about Willie's new fangled ways. Wait, that sounds more like a job for Ol' Man Barnicle.

Anonymous said...

Watching Saturday’s Morning Joe was akin to torture. With Mika and Joe alternating between acting like bickering children and a bickering old married couple, it was difficult to hold on until the adults made an appearance.

To the powers to be at MSNBC, NBC, and GE, please, please relegate Joe and Mika to the children’s table/desk so they may be seen not heard. Let Chuck and Willie talk about the grown-up subjects.

Keep Buchanan who, to steal a Biden line, sentences contain a noun, a verb, and Nixon. And ya gotta love Barnicle Man who with all his $ never fixed the gap between his front teeth.

Anonymous said...

why are talking bad about joe and mikea? that ain't cool.

Anonymous said...

Becasue Mika yacks, yacks, yacks, while others are trying to discuss an issue and Joe is boring, boring, boring, and wrong on most political issues.