I heart Rachel Maddow

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Seriously, as long as Rachel Maddow is on television, I may have a reason to turn it on now and again. I love this encounter with National Review guy David Frum, who decides, for some reason, to try to ambush Maddow on her own show. Maddow, obviously not one to be cowed, performs some admirable televisual ju-jitsu on Frum, easily deflecting his attack, turning it back on him and making him look like a complete idiot. Frum, after eight years of ramming his obscene neo-conservative agenda without the slightest question from the media, now warns that the media must clean up its act and stop all this bad feeling — now that he’s losing, he means.


This clip also, coincidentally, segues nicely into the next (hopefully last) part of my thing about why I’m voting for Obama, specifically regarding the national media’s part in distorting our political picture.

UPDATE:
For those interested in pursuing a more ongoing love affair with Ms. Maddow (televisually, anyway) MSNBC posts the best bits from her show every night right here.

Comments

19 Responses to “I heart Rachel Maddow”
  1. pirateman says:

    That’s awesome! She’s coming on our show (Conan) on the 30th, and I can’t wait!

  2. yesdrizella says:

    If I can’t grow up to be her, I want a girlfriend just like her. I <3 Rachel!

  3. stainedecho says:

    That was epic. I love Rachel Maddow.

  4. I was glad when I heard her say on Countdown with Olbermann that she was getting her own show. We’ve seen her fill in for Keith Olbermann so many times, and she rocks. In fact, at least sometimes she pulled in righer ratings than Keith! I don’t know if it was always the case, but I know it was at least part of the time.

  5. e_ticket says:

    She’s incredible.

  6. urbaniak says:

    Waaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!

    Paw widdle David. All the kids make fun of him. It hurts!

    • Todd says:

      Re: Waaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!

      God, what a crybaby. Frum apparently has a long-standing misunderstanding of what “comedy” is. Which I guess is understandable, now that he’s losing.

  7. Anonymous says:

    She handled that beautifully. One of the impressive things about her show is that she actually lets people speak, not just in full sentences but in full paragraphs, even when she disagrees with them completely. Then she calmly demands the same respect from them. It’s a shame that’s such a rare event on television.
    –Ed.

  8. greyaenigma says:

    That was amazing. I’ve always hated Frum, but now I love Maddow. The world needs more people standing up to that kind of nonsense.

    I was just at a talk by Professor Laurence Krauss this evening, and while it seemed a little political for the topic, it was still dead on, we need to be demanding more trtuh from our public figures.

  9. noskilz says:

    So if one googles for “concern troll”, is Frum the “I feel lucky” result?

  10. Frum is the very reason for why we need birth control. We can’t keep letting mistakes like that happen.

    Great video, I wasn’t familiar with Maddow until this.

  11. gazblow says:

    It seems to me that this clip is beside the point. Don’t get me wrong. I love me some Rachel Maddow and David Frum sucks the meat. And she makes an excellent point about equivalences. But I think we can all agree with Frum’s core point that too much of our political process is fraught with distractions, appeals to racism/prejudice, and outright lies. So it didn’t feel like such a slam dunk to me.

    A slam dunk would be to watch Frum being waterboarded and placed in “stress positions” on a 24-Hour “Neocon Irony Channel”. But I’m partisan like that.

    One reason why conservatives are jumping off McCain’s ship is that they realize their Republican Party is out of ideas. Obama’s calm presentation of his vision of the presidency terrifies them because they don’t have an answer for it. So they try the old tactics: He’s a tax and spender, He’s the most liberal member of Congress, He consorts with terrorists etc. But most Americans aren’t buying it this time around. Republicans have nothing to offer the country that hasn’t already failed miserably. So you get the likes of Frum speaking to their concern that attempts to “rally the base” unleashes the racist fury at the heart of that constituency (and which has worked for the GOP in elections past) and turns off the exact voters they need in order to win. And he’s right. But he doesn’t really care about civility and intelligence in the discourse or he would have been talking about that instead of questioning Obama/Democrats’ patriotism (http://frum.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2U5NWYwMjUxZmUyMDZmY2JjZjllOTU4ZjMxMjMyZGU=). But there is truth in some of what he’s saying. That it took the complete meltdown of the GOP for him to make these assertions exposes him as an ideologue, a partisan and a hypocrite.

  12. mitejen says:

    My irony meter imploded when I heard him, former speech-writer to Bush, mention that politics needed to be ‘more grown-up.’

    I did like how he went into retreat, tossing Gandhi quotes behind him.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Personally, I can’t get past my amazement at Maddow’s incredible resemblance, visually and aurally, to Olbermann. It’s like they plucked her from some alternate reality where Georgina Bush and her husband Larry have spent the last eight years in the White House, and Bernice Obama is beating Joan McCain in the Presidential race.

    As much as I agree with its political stance, I’ve been a bit dismayed in recent months at seeing MSNBC turn into the liberal Fox News, using the same kind of carefully phrased language and overt bias. But you know what? After seeing Maddow’s respectful treatment of Frum, and Frum’s total whining jackassery there — I agree with his fundamental point, but I think he’s making it disingenuously — I feel a lot less upset with MSNBC.

    — N.A.

  14. sailortweek says:

    I feel bad for Tracey Schmitt. She is the pooper-scooper behind Palin.

    Playfull sacasism versus “BOMB OBAMA”. Sarcasism takes wit. A lynch mob takes ignorance and fear!

    Frum clearly wasn’t prepared for this segment! And Madden handled it with a grace that is severely lacking in other shows like this one.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Nothing “more grown up” than the rebuttal tactic, “I know you are, but what am I?”

    This clip is my 1st encounter w/ Ms. Maddow & I must say I’m impressed. Her calm & objective resolve are qualities sorely lacking in news programs these days.
    Hopefully O’Reilly, Hannity, Olbermann & Matthews are taking notes.