The creators of Viva Chuck Todd are very proud to announce that Viva Rachel Maddow is now hot and ready for prime time, just like it's namesake.
Maddites (that's right, you heard us, "Maddites") now have a place to follow their favorite Doctor of Political Science and clock cleaner of conservative asshats. And just like Viva Chuck Todd, the site will be a stunning success only with the involvement and contributions of it's readers. So, start commenting and sending those emails about what you would like to see on this site alongside the patented "Viva" flavah.
You know, there's a rush us Chuckolytes get when Rachel Maddow throws us some crossover love as she works The Chuck's goatee into the opening schtick of Countdown's Oddball segment.
Looking like a bacteria under attack in someone's bloodstream, Andrea Mitchell persevered beneath a onslaught of balloons on the floor of the Republican Convention post McCain acceptance. Our Man Willie does a great piece on the incident and the man responsible for the balloon deluge. The video is worth watching just for Scarborough's laughter in the background. Love'im or hate'im, Scarborough probably has one of the most infectious laughs second only to this kid.
The Chuck held court today for a gorgeous blooper and fed the beast with some innocent post-interview questioning that caused former McCain 2000 campaign manager and Republican strategist, Mike Murphy and Wall Street Journal columnist, Peggy Noonan to voice their genuine opinions about Sarah Palin and the new Republican gameplan while their microphones were mistakenly still hot.
Just the fact that the acclaimed wordsmith and doyenne of diction, Peggy Noonan uses the word "bullshit" makes this a classic and perhaps the greatest soundbite for a dance mashup since the Barbra Streisand classic. The surrounding content of her profanity is in direct contradiction to her column in the Wall Street Journal this morning which heaped praise on the "transformative" figure that is Palin. It brings this to a level of irony that is to be relished by all political junkies and anyone who gives a less than Christian gesture to the screen when Noonan comes on.
UPDATE: Noonan's column is now complete with a mea culpa posited as her "mugging" by the media. She also proclaimed regret for "blurting" a "barnyard epithet". Sorry honey, when you say "excuse me" before you let loose with your potty word, you ain't blurtin' a thing - that's premeditated cussin'.
One of the main reasons for hauling our cans out to Denver was to meet Chuckolytes from all over the country. To be honest, we truly didn't anticipate the sheer numbers or the enthusiasm of the free-range Chuckolyte as they roamed the Denver streets.
We learned first thing Wednesday morning that the Morning Joe crew is raucous band of hardcore Chuckolytes. But when we got to the MSNBC broadcast cube to hand out Viva Chuck Todd schwag we really saw the revolution. Once our staff and their trusty yellow Viva Chuck Todd messenger bags filled with posters and Chuckolyte pins were spotted by The Chuck's fans we were essentially mauled. During The Chuck's anchoring gigs throughout the week, the crowd proudly held aloft Viva Chuck Todd posters and screamed his name.
One of the true highlights of this crazy scene was on Thursday when Obama Communications Director, Robert Gibbs came by the set to talk with The Chuck. While he was being mic'd he noticed all the Viva Chuck Todd posters. Mr. Gibbs cracked an impressed jovial smile and commented to The Chuck on how great the Chuckolyte presence was. After his appearance, Mr. Gibbs along with his staff made his way to a waiting car. Our editor Paul intercepted him and Mr. Gibbs immediately recognized the trusty yellow Viva Chuck Todd messenger bag and came over. He was genuinely amused by the Viva Chuck Todd schwag and asked if he could have each one of the posters; we gladly gave him several along with a handful of Chuckolyte and Chuck'08 pins. We were truly struck by how down-to-earth and just plain nice this man was. He graciously posed for a picture with us and got on his way not showing any of the stress someone in his position should show considering his candidate was hours from giving the biggest speech of the campaign. As we shook his hand, we wished him the best of luck on the evening's event...like that crew even needed it.
So let's just say right now that given the chance we'd drop everything and happily be Rachel Maddow's scantily clad house boy or girl forever. This woman is funny, classy, brilliant and also happened to know who the hell we were when we rushed the stage she was on in The Big Tent.
This is how it went down: She was moderating a discussion with the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt on the Internet and Politics. It was a packed house but we were ready with our video camera and Viva Chuck Todd schwag. When the discussion ended, desperate techies with their resumes waving rushed Schmidt and those of us with a borderline dysfunctional adoration complex for Rachel shouted for her attention like 11 year-old Jonas Brothers fangirls. Being that Paul, our editor-in-chief is 6'5" and 220lbs the other geeks didn't stand a chance. He reached over the masses, handing Rachel a Chuckolyte pin, to which in all the chaos she said, "what's this?" That's when Paul held up his trusty yellow Viva Chuck Todd messenger bag and Rachel immediately recognized us. Now this is where we get all misty. Rachel squealed with glee and hugged Paul. After we brought Paul back to consciousness, we told her how popular her e-cards had become and she laughed mentioning that she'd received a bunch. We asked her if she'd say hi to all the Viva Chuck Todd fans and of course she obliged. You may be able to make it out in the video, but if not, after she said "hi" to all of you, Paul threw out the question "guess who owns 'Viva Rachel Maddow'?" Rachel looked down at us with a bit of a mischievous smile and a wink saying "I know, I know". Then...she was gone.
And we can't end this post without wishing Rachel with all sincerity, best wishes on the debut of her new MSNBC show, Monday, September 8 at 9pm EST. In celebration of that hallowed event, VivaRachelMaddow.com will officially launch on the same day. It will have all the flava you've come to know and love with Viva Chuck Todd along with some new surprises - bookmark it now.
So we crashed The Big Tent in Denver and found the man of the hour, DailyKos founder, Markos Moulitsas signing his new book, Taking On the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era. We had to get in his face and present him with some Viva Chuck Todd schwag. Being the solid and accommodating chap he is, he agreed to give a shout out to the Viva Chuck Todd fans. Okay fine, it's obvious he didn't know who the hell we were, but he gets major points in our book for playing along.
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.
As the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention comes to an end, it is inconceivable to believe Chuck Todd is going to survive the remainder of this week.
The man is superhuman. He shows up looking like the cat that swallowed the canary this morning on Morning Joe, simply beaming from the excitement of knowing that for the rest of the week he will be applying his gifts and opinions towards unfolding history. Hell, just the fact that he still had his hearing and a semblance of a voice after that mosh pit of a remote at Sams #3 diner where the Morning Joe crew was working from was a miracle in itself.
At 12:00pm EST he settled in nicely doing the anchor thing with some great guests such a former Governor of Virginia Mark Warner and presidential historian Michael Beschloss. After that it was a free-for-all for The Chuck popping in and out of everybody's broadcast all the way up till The Nightly News with Brian Williams. Believe it or not, the lad looked as fresh as he did 16 hours prior.
Below is a nice recap of the evening filed by Viva Chuck Todd Chief Field Correspondent, Lenore K.
7:11 p.m. ET Chuck talked with Matthews about the Denver bubble they're in, saying the Clinton die-hards are a small group with a louder voice than numbers, and about how this is the British version of campaigning due to the 70-day sprint to the election, unless there's a days-long recount.
7:36 p.m. ET (following some Keith/Chris vs Joe unpleasantness) Chuck with Keith — Hillary. Again. The rollcall. Again.
After Keith launched into one of his endless multi-part questions, he got The Chuck smackdown: "Keith, you asked about eight questions. I'm going to try to answer a few of them."
He said the campaigns are working closely together on the rollcall, that the speeches are more contentious than the rollcall. That would seem to invite a follow-up question like, "How so, Chuck?" But no, apparently, the minds of Keith & Chris were elsewhere.
8:07 p.m. ET Chuck talked about "the hidden hand of power of Nancy Pelosi," how she did a lot to shift the party away from the Clintons to Obama; how, while going after the superdelegates, the Clintons would still have had to get through a convention run by Pelosi & Dean, "two people who felt they never owed the Clintons anything."
10:08 p.m. ET With Brian Williams — Chuck talked about how modern conventions are defined by these moments (Kennedy speech), how there's a bigger thing [than the Clintons], how the keys to the party will be handed over to the Obamas even though Bill's still hanging on to them a bit.
10:28 p.m. ET Chuck listed the three things Obama has to do this week: fill in the gaps (of his bio); create contrast with McCain; and create unity.
10:55 p.m. ET Chuck said Michelle had a tough act to follow, but she was trying to connect with blue-collar voters, and with Hillary Clinton voters (because, I learned today, there's no more important bloc of voters in the whole world).
And in his 16th hour of work — 11:41 p.m. ET Chuck said there'll be two memories from this convention: Obama's speech & Teddy Kennedy's, & the Clinton drama may fade into the background. Chris Matthews ended this segment with these insightful words: "I don't know how we could do any of this without Chuck Todd. He's the best. Chuck, you're the greatest."
Back on August 5th we asked who would be the best 4th wheel (besides The Chuck) on the set of Morning Joe. Well, the results are in and the clear winner with 38% of the vote is "Anyone who tells Joe he's full of crap". Yep, anyone. Any warm body who'll sit across from Scarborough and call bull$#!& on him. Once again, the wisdom of our readers is frankly humbling. A strong second went to Ol' Man Barnacle with 28%. Third place went to Harold 'chuckles" Ford with 14% of the vote and the rest of the pack followed up with single digits.
Although it will be hard for you to believe, we're going to be serious for a moment.
This morning's round table discussion on Meet The Press was one of Chuck Todd's finest moments. Not exceptional in what was discussed, but exceptional in how it was discussed and by whom. The Chuck sat down with three of the most respected journalists in the area of politics. Tom Brokaw, the lion sage with a trusted timbre and historically sentimental publishing cred that has gained him respect beyond his newscaster days. Gwen Ifill, host of PBS's Washington Week and Senior Washington Correspondent for the News Hour with Jim Lehrer was herself a front-runner seriously speculated on to inherit the Meet The Press chair in the days after Tim Russert's passing. Her strength and intelligence were never more apparent as in the 2004 Vice Presidential debates which she moderated. It was there she reined in a pugnacious Dick Cheney like a calm assertive school marm (gender be damned). And lastly but not least, John Meacham, Editor of Newsweek magazine and eloquent author of one of the more gifted theses on the influence of religion on the founding fathers. These three are not from your usual chattering class and The Chuck was holding his own right there with them.
In fact, each member of the panel at one time or another agreed or referenced a point The Chuck made prior. The Chuck was succinct, yet conversational and possessing the radiance of someone who still can't believe their good fortune.
The Chuck spoke of how the Democrats are beginning to bristle at the the McCain POW defense for all things sensitive to the GOP candidate. He also put into context what Biden is truly going to be from now till November 4th: "Obama hired himself a defense lawyer" Adding to that pithy summation that he was also going to be his working-class ambassador where in "one speech, he can sell the [Obama] biography better than Obama himself can do." Agreeing that The Chuck was right on the points mentioned, Meacham gave the Democrats some steel by imagining that a "Democratic Fight Club" has been established in light of their prospects and McCain's aggressiveness.
After discussing the tired but vexing question of Hillary voters and what they'll do, The Chuck complimented the McCain buzz machine for keeping in the news and probably pushing the Biden announcement to the last minute with headline jockeying stories such as Lieberman's consideration and the like. Brokaw brought up Colin Powell being floated as a potential McCain VP shortlist occupant. Everyone agreed this was dangerous and The Chuck offered up some great points to the group. One being that Powell is over 70 and that would be an immediate detriment and he also gave fantastic insight on how Powell should be pleased about the Biden pick considering the productive and friendly working relationship they shared back in the day. Meacham called it a "nightmare scenario" for McCain if Powell announces, after the convention dust settles, that he's endorsing Obama.
Brokaw closed the segment by half-joking but also making sure everybody knew that The Chuck would be on from midnight to midnight for the remainder of the week. The Chuck warmly shot back at Brokaw reminding him that he would be right there with him burning the midnight oil.
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.
The Viva Chuck Todd offices are abuzz. It's a combination of of the freakin' Olympics finally coming to an end and the political season getting defibrillated back to life with the Democratic National Convention next week.
What we'd really like to know is how many of you are going to be there next week?
So legions of Chuck Todd fans have signed up so far, have you?
We've been sending out cards and buttons to new members daily and have enjoyed meeting fans from all over the country. The most astonishing thing is that we've received membership requests from red states, blue states, conservatives, liberals and independents. Proving The Chuck is beyond the divides and is admired for his neutrality and the way he does his job.
We'd love to hear from the folks who have already received their membership packets. Leave some comments to let your uninitiated Chuckolyte brethren know what they're missing out on. Click on the little Chuckolyte icon below to find out how you can sign up today.
Our man Willie took it upon himself to once again display his physical gifts and show the world how it's done when it comes to the hammer throw and shotput...simply breathtaking.
The creators of Viva Chuck Todd are very proud to announce that Viva Rachel Maddow is now hot and ready for prime time, just like it's namesake.
