A Liberal Pundit Soars To A Prominent Perch

A Liberal Pundit Soars To A Prominent Perch

by Sasha Issenberg


ST. PAUL - When Rachel Maddow arrived at a local café one morning last week on behalf of the Air America affiliate that broadcasts her three-hour drive-time show in the Twin Cities, she was dressed for radio, with a loose-fitting V-neck T-shirt and thick-rimmed black glasses.


Rachel Maddow (second from right) in an MSNBC broadcast from St. Paul last week with Norah O'Donnell, Chris Matthews, and Pat Buchanan. (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

One of the hundreds of listeners who patiently waited in line to meet Maddow came with an offering: a "Give Peace a Chance" lapel pin that she hoped Maddow would sport on her MSNBC television show. "I won't wear jewelry" on the air, Maddow said, apologetically affixing the pin to a corner of her shirt, near her waist. "I don't want to start a cascade of things I can't control."

It may be too late to stop the gush. Maddow was part of the original lineup on Air America, founded in 2004 to counter conservative dominance of talk radio under the market-friendly promise that liberals, too, could be entertaining. More than anyone else, Maddow fulfilled that pledge, with an affable and erudite approach to the day's news and the rhetorical combat that inevitably surrounds it.

Tonight, "The Rachel Maddow Show" debuts on MSNBC, leaving her on the cusp of full-blown stardom in the mainstream media that her most devoted fans see as an enemy.

Maddow, 35, was an accidental radio personality. She got her start on Holyoke's WRNX-FM only after winning a tryout to be a morning-show sidekick; Maddow had moved to the Pioneer Valley after college to pursue a career in AIDS policy, and still spends every weekend there, prizing the Massachusetts fishing license that allows her to catch trout near her Northampton-area home.

She brings a studied ambivalence about her newfound TV fame, which has come thanks to steady appearances as an MSNBC pundit. (The glasses usually are left behind.) Maddow has not owned a television since leaving home at 17, and she spends more time describing how she will defend her new program from the medium than taking advantage of its possibilities.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/08-2

Matthews isn't really my cup of tea. I'm sure her ratings will be very good.

A beautiful woman with a functioning brain..........