Rachel Maddow is excellent-- and enjoying high ratings, I heard.

[ailsagirl]

I watched her program all the way through for the first time last night and I loved it. Damn, she's good!!

:kick:

[seabeyond]

1. told my repug hubby who has turned on his party about her a couple nights in a row

last night he had her show on and just LOVED her. kickin ass. he was amazed. he watched tweety, maddow, then olberman and just raving about how they are going at it

i love my repug hubbby

[ailsagirl]

8. That's great!! I watched those three shows as well and felt very

buoyed up afterwards. Glad your hubby watched and listened (not to mention enjoyed)-- so many won't.

:hi:

[asjr]

2. Rachel is one of the more intelligent

people on television. I am so impressed with her knowledge. And she knows how to pronounce nuclear.

[ailsagirl]

7. She sure does!!!!!!!!!! LOL

[Auggie]

3. Good article on Rachel here:

San Francisco Chronicle, 9-11-08:

Bay Area's Maddow is cable talk's newest star

It is a showdown made in cable talk heaven, and it will be a staple of "The Rachel Maddow Show," which premiered on MSNBC this week. Maddow, a 35-year-old lesbian and former San Francisco ACT-UP activist, squares off against 69-year-old Pat Buchanan, who in 1992 called for a Republican "cultural war" against gays.

When Maddow heard Buchanan's Republican National Convention speech as a 19-year-old, it left the Castro Valley native in tears and - along with her Bay Area upbringing - inspired her along a life path where she now gets paid to argue with Pat Buchanan. In between, she has unloaded trucks, worked in a jungle-themed espresso bar in San Francisco and served as a Rhodes Scholar. She is perhaps the only person to have worked with both the arch-conservative Buchanan and hip-hop star DJ Chuck D, her former partner on the liberal Air America radio network.

Armed with self-deprecating humor and a impressive intellect, Maddow is the newest marquee commentator on a network that finds itself in the middle of controversy about blurring the line between political commentary and straight reporting. MSNBC said this week that it was removing commentators Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as hosts of its election-night coverage and replacing them with veteran newsman David Gregory. The pair will continue to provide commentary on those broadcasts.

Maddow won't touch the turmoil, saying she doesn't follow media issues. She might be the only TV talk show host who doesn't own a television - she hasn't since she left her folks' house to attend Stanford University.

more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/11/MNJ012RR6S.DTL&hw=rachel+maddow&sn=001&sc=1000

[ailsagirl]

5. Thanks-- I just found out she's a California native-- go Rachel!!

:bounce:

[CreekDog]

10. She's from Castro Valley (The East Bay)

:applause:

[scorpiogirl]

11. My husband just found out that they were in high school together

She was two years ahead of him. So cool!

[ailsagirl]

13. Wow! Cliched but... small world!!

[libertypirate]

15. Is Castro Valley or small world, cliched?

[ailsagirl]

16. In small world... I've never been to Castro Valley but it's nearby

I'm in the North Bay...

[AldebTX]

4. I Loved How She Called Out the Repugs

for boycotting coming on her show. I think by listing the names she made a very strong point that they fear being challenged on their BS.

If they truly believed what they spout they would jump at the opportunity to try and put Rachel in her place.

[ailsagirl]

6. Rachel has the truth on her side-- a powerful weapon-- and she

doesn't hesitate one second to use it. But not in a vengeful way. She's really tops!!

[Winterblues]

9. I think Keith is a little put out by it too.

Or maybe I am just imagining it but last night's lead in to Rachel's show it seemed to get a little uncomfortable like Keith wasn't gunna leave and let her do her show. He has been top dog now for a while and it can't make him feel good that he is being surpassed by Rachel. I know he will suck it up but I do like Rachel a little better. I don't want to take anything away from Keith though. I still adore him for what he has accomplished.

[ailsagirl]

12. I do too-- only, isn't he going back to sports? That's what I heard.

Maybe it was just a rumor?

[malaise]

14. She's excellent

Rachel does her homework.

[ailsagirl]

17. I sent her an email saying she rocks... how refreshing to have her

[stewert]

18. Maddow.........

She is doing great now in the ratings because she has a lot to attack. And the ratings for all news shows are way up right now, a month ago O'Reilly was getting 2 million people a night, now he's getting 3.5 to 4 million a night, and Olbermann is up from 900,000 to 1.8 million.

The question is, how will she do after Obama wins and she does not have some much to attack in the Bush Government, and after the high ratings because of the election die down.

If she can stay close to what Olbermann does her show will probably survive, if she drops down to Scarborough numbers her show may not survive. Basically she is a female version of Olbermann, and another question is will MSNBC let her stay on the air.