The Chuck on the Meet The Press

So in case you missed it: The Chuck tickled the Surface, McCain's screwed electorally and Scarborough was part of the round table. Yeah, Scarborough. I know, as if five days a week weren't enough.

Hey look! It's Pat Riley - Oh wait, it's The Chuck

Many of you commented on The Chuck's appearance this morning on Morning Joe. Most notably, the saucy wet look he was sportin'. Well, the senior editorial staff of Viva Chuck Todd was briefed late this afternoon on the cause of the moistened follicles.

It appears while en route to work (the NBC Washington D.C. Bureau) early this morning from his bucolic Virginia home, The Chuck caught sight of a building ablaze. He quickly responded to the sight by skillfully wrenching his black 1964 Corvette Stingray across three lanes and a grassy burm to the nearest highway exit to investigate. By the time The Chuck roared to the scene, the building was a hellish inferno. It turns out that the burning building was the Susan Lucci Home for Wayward Youths. A halfway house for teenage actors who didn't quite make it in the Baltimore theater scene and ended up on the street. The home was essentially an angel with shuttered wings helping unfortunate young soap star wannabes find a future.

Upon arriving at the scene, The Chuck was immediately recognized by law enforcement and firemen. He asked if there was anything he could do. The on-scene Fire captain, William O'Shaughnessy deferred to The Chuck. As six engines turned the full wet fury of their hoses on the building, The Chuck doffed his suit jacket, loosened his tie and bolted for the front door of the building. Minutes later, he emerged with a teen on each shoulder. He carefully handed them over to the EMT's standing by and raced back in knowing that there were more to be saved. Eight people later, The Chuck sat on the curb, soaking wet and wrapped in a blanket sipping bottled water asking Chief O'Shaughnessy if everyone was accounted for. The Chief's answer was "yes". The Chuck grabbed his jacket off of the hood of his car and was about to leave when a young girl ran up to him pleading that he rescue her puppy "Luntz". According to eyewitnesses, this young girl sank into Chuck's heaving pecs and begged that he rescue the poor dog. She admitted that the dog was significantly overweight and not that smart, but she loved him just the same. Not wasting a moment, The Chuck gently placed the girl in the arms of a county child protective services worker and sprinted for the building. As beams and embers fell like confetti, The Chuck darted from room to room calling for Luntz, the fat stupid dog. Luntz was in the bathtub of the very last room The Chuck was able to check. Scorched and soaked, The Chuck scooped up Luntz and began to head back from whence he came. It was then when the ceiling collapsed and all sources of egress were eliminated. The only way out was out a small bathroom window 25 feet above the street. The Chuck threw Luntz out the window to the fireman below where he was successfully caught. People on the street could see The Chuck begin to scramble through the small window when at the same moment a gas main blew. In a half-second the building was a cloud of splinters and orange heat. Many on the scene believed that there was no way The Chuck could've survived the blast. But to the shock of all who witnessed the pre-dawn conflagration; unexpectedly, a black Stingray squealed from the scene as quickly as it arrived.

Six minutes later, The Chuck was on-air sitting next to the lovely Andrea Mitchell speaking of the anemic McCain numbers and October surprises.

Little did any of us know that The Chuck's hair was still wet from the fire hoses and his heart was still full from saving lives, especially Luntz, the beloved stupid fat dog.

News You Can't Use:Andrea "Boom Boom" Mitchell

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.

Who do you think Obama will pick?

So The Chuck let David Gregory enjoy his chair this past Sunday on Meet The Press, where he was also joined by the always lovely Andrea Mitchell and Joshua "Batman-kinda intense" Green from The Atlantic. It was all quite boilerplate and nothing new really. The Chuck set the tone by discussing his electoral map containing the "lean states" that Obama is "putting away" and the states that McCain is just holding onto. The round table discussion soon moved to the topic the pending VP announcements from both campaigns; Obama's presumably coming first. The group seemed to lean Biden. What say you?

Since Chuckolytes are some of the most politically astute individuals in America, we thought we'd get your choice for Obama's upcoming pick. This poll will run till the announcement:

The Chuck on Meet The PressSomebody get Judy Woodruff a Mimosa STAT!

This morning's Meet The Press was pretty standard fare for all of us political junkies who are adrift in these Horse Latitudes of the election season; no Veep pick, conventions are off in the distance, the candidates are about a hair's breadth from T.P.-ing each other's house, etc.

So you try to pull together a group to talk about something until the Olympics get here. The Chuck worked with what he had. Mike Murphy let loose the most unfortunate of Freudian slips replacing Chappaquiddick for Chappaqua. The Chuck hit him with a rock while he swung in the wind by saying, "You Republicans are programmed (unitelligible)." We believe we heard The Chuck say, "You Republicans are programmed with that story as children to make you fear getting in cars with Senators and/or strangers."

But somewhere in all this snooziness Judy Woodruff was not buying what The Chuck was selling. We here at the Viva Chuck Todd offices challenge anyone out there to review the broadcast and let us know if Woodruff looked at The Chuck more than two times. We believe that lady doesn't like The Chuck. She tried to undermine The Chuck's historical argument of citing the 1988 general election where Lloyd Bentsen outclassed Dukakis and Dan Quayle kept asking Bush Sr. if he could go pee-pee. Illustrating that a VP choice can seriously affect perception if gravitas or experience levels are seriously out-of-whack. Woodruff debated that point by saying even though Bentsen "cleaned Dan Quayle's clock" it made no difference. She also referenced Spiro Agnew as another bad choice that didn't effect the general election. She almost had us until she torpedoed her own argument by referencing LBJ bringing in Texas for JFK. The Chuck piled on by referencing Al Gore bringing Tennessee for Clinton.

We believe The Chuck was making the argument in the context of 2008, where the Vice Presidency has been elevated to a much more powerful and high profile office where the candidates are now more than appendages and funeral goers. Obama is, well, Obama so that needs a whole new vetting matrix and McCain needs to cast for understudies like a Broadway producer in 1996 who has a show with George Burns headlining.

With that said, the Viva Judy Woodruff domain is now for sale if anyone wants it.

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.

The Chuck brings a gun to a knife fight

Allen, Cowan, Gregory, Mitchell and O'Donnell. The whole lot of them brought opinions to the Meet The Press table this morning. The Chuck, he brought numbers.

Check it:

“This is Barack Obama’s party now.”by Viva Chuck Todd Field Correspondent -Amy Martin

If it’s Barack Obama’s party, then I vote Chuck Todd for Keymaster. You remember the Keymaster, right? Next to the host, the Keymaster is the most important person at the party because he/she is the person who collects everyone’s keys when they arrive and then gets to decide who’s too drunk to get their keys back when they try to leave. The host may set the party up and keep it going, but the Keymaster controls who leaves the party and how.

Even without his big red marker and fifty-state map, Chuck Todd still managed to be responsible for the most exciting moments of MSNBC’s coverage of the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting (because anything with the word “committee” in the title is guaranteed to be a snooze-fest). Not only did he damn near single-handedly bring the committee back from the World’s Longest Lunch (I mean, how awesome was it that he was in the middle of reporting intel that he was receiving about the Michigan and Florida deals and then, suddenly, the committee starts filing back into the room as if he conjured them up), but then he later pronounced emphatically “This is Barack Obama’s party now.”



Did everyone hear that? The Keymaster has spoken, and if he deems you sober enough to leave, it’s time for you to go home. And if you’re too drunk, he’ll find you a ride. Give the man a red marker and a dry erase board, and he’ll organize the whole thing. Harold Ickes? No way you’re getting your keys back, Dude—somebody obviously spiked your Haterade during that twelve-hour lunch because you seem a little cranky. Anyone want to give Harold a ride? Anyone? How about one of you Clinton supporters? Wait…bad idea, because most of you seem like you’ve had a little too much as well. Norah O’Donnell—wanna give these folks a ride? You’re obviously sober, being about fifteen months pregnant and all (and, seriously, I want to know what kind of deal Norah O’Donnell has with the devil that even at 9:30 in the morning and pregnant she still gets to look like she just stepped off the set of Sex and the City. Not. fair.). Andrea Mitchell—you get to take everyone who won’t fit in Norah’s car. Sorry, but that’s what you get for that jab about protecting The Chuck from the screaming Clinton supporters.

The Chuck does not need your protection.

The Chuck is The Keymaster.

Hope your car has a big back seat.

More writings of VivaCuckTodd.tv field correspondent Amy Martin
can be found at her own blog, The Aimster Blog