The Viva Chuck Todd staff visits the set of Morning Joe in the Mile High City crawling with Democrats

It's been a bit of a whirlwind for the Viva Chuck Todd staff since we touched down in Denver yesterday. Yes, you are correct in the fact that we were supposed to fly out last Saturday, but poor managerial skills by our office manager Kelly resulted in her delegating the travel booking responsibilities to one of the interns; who in turn booked us tickets to the Republican Convention in St. Paul leaving last Saturday. Yep, she transposed the events and dates and gave us literally tickets to nowhere (no offense St. Paul).

So we finally made it to the mile high city and got to see history first-hand. And that history would be a live Morning Joe taping at Sam's #3 diner in Downtown Denver. Angels sang as we walked through the door and saw the lights, the cameras and the back of Scarborough and Mika's heads. Through the glare we were able to see our man Willie and Ol' Man Barnacle. Simply...we wept. Once we composed ourselves, we split into teams to notify the appropriate people that the staff of Viva Chuck Todd had arrived. It's not presumptuous, that's just the way we roll.

And let us just say right now, that there were never a more hospitable group of people than the Morning Joe staff and their guests. We met everyone. Scarborough, Mika, Ol' Man Barnacle, David Schuster, Jonathan Capehart, Andrea Mitchell, Courtney Hazelet and of course, Our Man Willie. Who, lit up and welcomed us like a family member when we introduced ourselves. When presented with their Chuckloyte packets, Both Joe and Willie sincerely enjoyed getting their honorary Chuckolyte cards and Joe slapped his Chuckolyte pin on his lapel immediately. Willie in fact gave us a moment of his valuable time to personally address the Viva Chuck Todd fans along with the lovely Ms. Hazelett.



Once the excitement of being in the presence of such 21st Century media greatness ebbed, we realized that there were a couple of people who, shall we say, we have been less than cricket with. The first being Ol' Man Barnacle. Our editor Paul was chatting it up with him in quite a convivial manner which caused us to breathe a sigh of relief. It appears that Ol' Man Barnacle likes his curmudgeonly title and Viva Chuck Todd. He too enjoyed getting his Chuckolyte membership packet and shared some great Pat Buchanan stories with us. A true mensch.

Another chap we were a little nervous about confronting was Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart. Let's be frank, there's only so much ribbing a gentleman can take about his fashion sense. Well, Capehart laughed out loud in astonishment when our editor Paul introduced himself. Capehart, personable to say the least and was all quite good humored about the whole thing. The two of them even compared their silk Gordian knot cufflinks. Trust us, we rolled our eyes too. Capehart was kind enough to give us a moment of his time as well:



There's plenty more to report on what happened this morning, but we'll leave it there for right now. We have some absolutely plastered staff to scoop up and get into a taxi. But tomorrow we will be on the street in front of the MSNBC media megalith interviewing actual Chuck Todd fans and maybe we'll hear from the surprise MSNBC personality as well.

Who's the best 4th wheel on Morning Joe

The 4th Chair at the Morning Joe table has seen it's regulars. But given a choice, who would you want to see next to our man Willie indefinitely? You've got your regulars like the irascible, yet lovable Ol' Man Barnacle, Harold "Chuckles" Ford (the man wouldn't even crack a smile when Triumph, the insult comic dog was on), the foppish Jonathan Capehart, poster boy for the phrase "still waters run deep", David Schuster and Tiki "Ambien" Barber. Of course, you may have your favorite, so feel free to write it in that little gray box under "other". And don't hold back on putting in a fantasy choice either. Here at the office, we're trying to decide who would pop a blood vessel in Scarborough's head first: Keith Olbermann or Michael Moore.

This isn't so much a fansite, as it is a Celebration!

So, once again Morning Joe paid off in spades this morning for, as Willie put it,” everyone’s favorite website - Viva Chuck Todd". Joe, Willie, Mika and even one of our favorites, David Schuster got in on the act of celebrating The Chuck for being the rising media star that he is.

Willie pointed out that there is in fact a "movement" afoot. A movement that has chosen to embrace all things Chuck and we're proud to say that this site has become the vanguard of that movement. We were disheartened to hear the cynical rebuke from The Chuck as to the intentions of our symbiotic relationship that has been informally struck with Morning Joe. I believe we speak for Morning Joe when we say, that we are nothing more than fragile Aspen leaves carried aloft by the winds of celebration for Chuck Todd (Scooter Libby and Judith Miller were consulted for that last part). Even Schuster proclaimed that he knows "a lot of Chuckolytes"; and if there's anyone we're going to believe in that studio, it's Schuster. Willie was quite taken aback by The Chuck's mood. Our man Willie was simply trying to get out the fact that Viva Chuck Todd is offering a free ring tone of Joe playfully introducing The Chuck and The Chuck proceeded to cast a pall over our intent and declare us some sort of Morning Joe puppet masters - j'accuse indeed Mr. Todd - you cut us to the quick. Once again, we are merely two parties, clasping the same ribbon as we dance in celebration around the Chuck Todd maypole if you will.

And now, back to politics
Inevitably, the conversation flowed back to politics and The Chuck was in the zone. He has been noticeably nonplussed by the opportunities the McCain campaign continues to fumble. His earlier point as to why McCain hasn't "danced on Ted Stevens political grave" was laser sharp and given to the McCain camp on a silver platter. His further analysis and dead-on analogy of McCain being the "slow boxer" bear-hugging Obama so he couldn't throw any hay-makers was indeed apt as was the calling him out on the whole celebrity issue; indicating that McCain enjoys his celebrity as well.

Viva Chuck Todd Editorial aside
We at the editorial offices of Viva Chuck Todd would like to chime in on this whole "celebrity" kerfuffle and say the latest McCain ad which includes Britney Spears and Paris Hilton just underscores how ridiculously out of touch he is with pop culture and the youth vote. Hilton and Spears are so 2005 it's not even funny. They're yesterday's news. But then again, this is coming from a guy if asked who should be a singled out in an ad showing sexpots with international appeal he probably would say Elke Sommer and Gina Lollobrigida
end Viva Chuck Todd Editorial aside

Apparently The Chuck was feeling exceptionally sassy this morning as to ruffle the feathers of his NBC overlords and speculate that an Obama VP announcement during the second week of the Olympics would most likely not suffer from nor fear the concurrently airing games. The Chuck in fact with great conviction warned all newsies to be on "high alert" for Obama to make such an announcement at that time - a bold prognostication from The Chuck.

Back to the Celebration
Then the hijinks started again with The Chuck taking a swipe at Joe and Mika insinuating that they'll be vacationing with the Kerry's during the Olympics; Scarborough quickly corrected him. Joe and Willie will apparently be doing the Lord's work in Guatemala and during that time they will be festooned in Chuckolyte wear. Because as it was pointed out by Joe, Chuck's huge in the Americas.

Everybody celebrate!

Sunday is going to come whether we like it or not

You've heard it, we've heard it - The macabre murmur of necessary speculation on who will fill Tim Russert's chair. Politico.com and National Review Online have already weighed in on the potential heirs as have multiple blogs with insightful, albeit biased, yet consistently respectful opinions on the next chapter of Meet The Press.

The reason that we've decided to chime in on this uncomfortable subject is because at last count by our editorial staff, Chuck is at the top of most lists. As you read their observations, you understand that Chuck is the visceral choice. He emulates the qualities that Russert did; a warm humility, disarming intelligence and a voracious appetite for all things sport and politic. On the flipside, the logical choice is David Gregory. Logical in the sense that he's a known quantity by having been a guest-moderator several times before and is a fixture of the NBC News Political team. But what echoes constantly when Gregory's name is brought up is his elite arrogance and cozy relationships he shares with key political figures sometimes skewing his objectivity.

Andrea Mitchell, Gwen Ifill and Chris Matthews (I know) have been suggested as well. Even Tom Brokaw is making the lists. The new talent such as Keith Olbermann (not new per se, but new to this level of serious consideration for political coverage) and David Shuster have been hinted at with the all usual right-wing pot shots reserved for Olbermann.

Many people have pointed out the similar backgrounds both Chuck and Russert shared. The humble roots, strong family ties and respect for the golden rule. Some of the more heart-wrenching moments on Friday were when people like Andrea Mitchell and Keith Olbermann introduced Chuck as essentially one of the best things that happened to the NBC news team in a long time and each one emphatically praised Russert for being the one responsible for bringing Chuck on.

Let's just put it out there and freely admit that this is hardly the repository for objective analysis on Chuck Todd and the NBC News Division. We all want the best for Chuck and Meet The Press. What we don't want is a hasty solution in the midst of this historic election that causes a truncated epilogue to the tragedy that was Friday.

That's why we want to hear from you. Knowing that the vast majority of us would want nothing more than to see Chuck ascend to this role - we also know that there will be some decisions made on grounds antithetical to emotion. With that said, vote in the poll below and leave comments on why Chuck should get the job or why he shouldn't. Perhaps the right people who have influence read Viva Chuck Todd. We certainly like to think Tim Russert did.