The Mothership is FINALLY giving THE Chuck his own damn show

We'll let the New York Observer give you the details:

MSNBC Developing a Weekend Politics Show for NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd

Mark Lukasiewicz shows off the latest from politics.msnbc.com

The mind boggles as to why you have all these digital references to The Chuck and the plethora of mediums in which he can be found and yet, no mention of Viva Chuck Todd. You think they would've at least included the Chuck Todd e-cards on the Decision '08 Dashboard. We have it on an extremely reliable source that Mark Lukasiewicz is a fan of Viva Chuck Todd too; so where's the love?

The Chuck's new MSNBC Politics promo

The Chuck does more to restore our faith in government with this promo than a 12-hour West Wing marathon.

Chuckolytes storm Denver!

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.

The Chuck owns the airwaves on Super Tuesday

Chuckolytes the world over were treated to a special day Tuesday. Not only was The Chuck on Morning Joe. Not only was he on Hardball; but he also anchored the 3pm EST/12pm PST Super Tuesday slot on MSNBC.

At 12:02pm EST, The Chuck dove head first into a one-on-one with DNC Chairman Howard Dean. We're not going to suck up and say it went smooth as glass. But we're also not going to tell you that there appeared to be a bug up Chairman Dean's ass that made him a cranky and combative interview subject. Maybe it was the laughably fake backdrop with the nondescript books or the fact that he was being interviewed by the one cat who was not going to succumb to his bombast. Either way, The Chuck showed a wonderful combination of journalistic aggression and congeniality that served him well.

After Dean, The Chuck hit his stride and jockeyed between passing it off for news breaks and continuing his Super Tuesday coverage that included Mr. Personality, Grover Norquist and a threadbare segment about women voters; especially those over 65 who are still bitter over Hillary and leaning towards McCain (yawn).

But, a gold star needs to be put on the paper belonging to the individual responsible for having The Chuck interview Frank Newport, Editor-in-Chief of the Gallup Poll. Those that follow The Chuck are well aware of his oft repeated phrase "live by the daily Gallup tracking poll, die by the daily Gallup tracking poll". So the fact that the one guy who could communicate to The Chuck to cease the bad-mouthing of his daily tracking poll squandered the opportunity and morphed into The Chuck's prison bride and was submissive and complimentary throughout the whole interview. The Chuck's raw power shone as he requested a custom three and five day average tracking poll report, and Newport practically pulled out his laptop and made The Chuck one right there. The appropriate response would have been a sassy, "Kiss my tracking poll Todd! You'll take what we give you and like it!". But The Chuck now calls the shots and that's a sweet sight indeed.



The next segment was with Dan Balz of the Washinton Post, Dotty Lynch of the American University School of Communication and Mike Allen of Politico.com. Pretty standard fare in this segment and The Chuck was cruising comfortably on impulse power. But the most notable thing about this segment was not anything of particular profundity but strangely it came from Mike Allen's schizoid ensemble consisting of a dapper dark suit coat and tie paired oh so adventurously with light-colored casual pants and sensible black shoes that looked like orthotics. Hats off to the production person who assured Mikey that he'd just be shot from the waist up.


All in all The Chuck performed masterfully. Very quickly the hour became a confident presentation humming with The Chuck's personal energy and cool excitement. We're looking forward to seeing The Chuck manning the con more often. At the very least it'll give us a chance to dust off the Chuck Todd-y drinking game and make an early evening of it.

Top Ten Signs of Chuck Todd Withdrawlby Amy Martin

With primary season over, Chuckolytes are seeing a lot less of the Chuckster on the TeeVee these days. Therefore, fans of Chuckie T may find themselves experiencing symptoms of Chuck Todd Withdrawl.

How do you know if you’re experiencing Chuck Todd Withdrawl? Check to see if you are suffering from any of the symptoms below and if so, please set your web browser home page to Viva Chuck Todd immediately.

The Top Ten Signs of Chuck Todd Withdrawl are:

1. You find yourself staring wistfully at maps of the United States.
2. You find yourself signing documents with a big red dry-erase marker.
3. You find yourself thinking about growing a goatee (men) or wishing you could (women).
4. You start taking sick days from work so you can watch MSNBC from Morning Joe until Verdict, hoping for just the briefest glimpse of The Chuck.
5. You see Chuck Norris and yell “Chuck Todd!” and then say “Oh…wait…never mind…”
6. You set MSNBC’s “First Read” as your web browser’s default home page and refresh every ten seconds.
7. You find yourself missing Chris Matthews calling Chuck the Spock to his Kirk.
8. You find yourself saying “You got it” whenever your friends thank you for something.
9. You find yourself applying “delegate math” to everything (”My checkbook will balance once crucial counties around Philadelphia have reported.”)
10. And the Number One sign of Chuck Todd Withdrawl:
    You find yourself watching Pat Buchanan and thinking “You know, maybe this guy’s okay after all.”

More Amy Martin can be found at her own blog, The Aimster Blog

SUH-WEET! Viva Chuck Todd gets mentioned (twice!) on MSNBC's Morning Joe

While lying on the couch this morning trying to figure out how to get the day started, MSNBC's Morning Joe owned the TV. Morning Joe is always a good place for an early Chuck Todd sighting. And sure enough, the promo for Chuck Todd coming on next graced the screen. I sat awaiting The Chuck (as he will be called from here on in) with notepad in hand and ready to do the Lord's work in documenting whatever bon mot The Chuck had for our nation this fine Thursday morning. Next thing I know, man-boy Willie Geist introduces The Chuck as well as mentions Viva Chuck Todd! Not only mentions it, but shows a screenshot of the site! All which immediately led to panicked slapstick fumbling of the DVR remote and crazed running to the bedroom to wake the wife with the always soothing "get up! get up! get up! you have to see this!"

And there it was (while angels sang) the front page of Viva Chuck Todd on the TV screen for all to see. As if it couldn't get better, after the segment ran, Brzezinski, Geist and Barnacle said goodbye to The Chuck and the producers wisely chose to close the bit with another screenshot of Viva Chuck Todd!

I wept.

UPDATE: According to field correspondent, mitch.george we just received this report:

"Dude -- you've been asleep at the wheel. The Morning Joe crew (Mika and Willie) mentioned it even more extensively yesterday. Today was just a callback reference to the coverage you got yesterday...."

If anyone has this on video or even a description of this first sighting, send them our way. There's some Viva Chuck Todd swag in it for you.

(video of this morning's mention to be posted soon)