Wednesday, August 27, 2008

I've got a gurl-crush on Rachel Maddow

Rachel says what she thinks, which is not all that unusual for political journalists on TV, on the radio. But what makes her special is that she is smart! She's got the vocab (post-rational - lol), and the insistent rapidity of a canny debater to steam roll a guy like Pat Buchanan without breaking a sweat or blushing. She's not blonde, not a beauty pageant queen turned info-babe (as Rush degradingly calls them). She's tough, talented, and a self-proclaimed liberal.

Her portfolio of activities prior to journalism shows a consistent idealism backed with self-sacrificing action. Even if you don't like her politics, it's hard to dismiss her on the grounds of "not caring, just wanting the lime light." This is a woman who commits and acts.

The WaPo took the time to feature her background as she prepares for her own MSNBC show that launches in two weeks. I heart her. Love her dark hair, her un-lipsticked mouth, her sassy rejoinders and her opinions. What's not to love?

This is a great article if you haven't read it.
"I know I don't look like everybody else on television," MSNBC's newest host says at a Mexican restaurant here. "I'm not that pretty. Women on television are over-the-top, beauty-pageant gorgeous. That's not the grounds on which I am competing. There's a basic threshold you have to cross: not looking like you're insulting. You ought to wear makeup, comb your hair." And if she tried for a makeover, she says, "I would fail, and I would look dumb doing it."

6 comments:

Steve said...

Julie:

Listened to Obama tonight. Wish I could have your enthusiasm.

As for Rachel, I found this at Wickipeida: Maddow lives in Manhattan and West Cummington, Massachusetts, with her partner, artist and accountant Susan Mikula. The couple met in 1999, when Mikula hired Maddow, who was then working on her doctoral dissertation, as a "yard boy" for her country house. They moved in together a year and a half later. Ahem.

You know I am not a homophobe, but I wish Air America could not hire someone who is so easy for the right to go after. It might be nicer if she was a blond mother from the suburbs, who had rational critic of things Republican.

Unknown said...

ow! Why should the left hire someone to "go after the right" who looks like a rightwing person? The right certainly doesn't do that to attack the left!

Rachel is a lesbian! That's who she is. She's a progressive, unapologetically. And for those who aren't, they will not like her any more than progressives can stomach Rush Limbaugh.

Unknown said...

As far as Obama goes, well my blog will address his speech. I thought he was brilliant. But you knew I'd think that.

Hmmm, may also have to do a blog on what homophobia really is. I wonder what your definition is.

Steve said...

Good points, Julie. Sorry I lost it there for a bit, but Air America is as offensive to me as Rush. I cannot tolerate either.

I still like you. You tolerate me even when I say crazy stuff that sounds like Milan.

I cannot, at this point, see my way clear to have the kind of faith you do in Obama.

While I am not at all thrilled with McCain, I pragmatically think that he is the kind of person that can better lead and, with his maverick nature, will keep us interested. He is simply NOT Bush revisited; that is too shallow.

I am wondering about the critique you will have on Sarah Palin. I for one, am fairly impressed. Having visited Alaska a couple years ago for work, it is like no other place on earth, and neither are the people!

Unknown said...

You know, McCain represents the Republican party. He is wanting to draw into the fold the evangelical, very conservative vote. He's now got Palins to reassure those voters who were afraid he was not conservative enough.

Jon's parents lived in AK for years and Jon's worked there several times. Yes, unlike any other place. Also about as out of touch as any other place when it comes to the rest of the world.

McCain may not be Bush, but he did vote with Bush 90% of the time.

I'm no longer Republican.

Obama speaks for me.

David Blakeslee said...

I have to challenge the notion that McCain has better leadership skills than Barack Obama. McCain's version of leadership is an attempt to deflate the hope, enthusiasm and positive energy that have drawn so many people to support Obama and his call for change. He appeals to cynicism, fear and fosters division - though the people he DOES speak to directly don't seem to see that. McCain has as much of a chance of being a strong leader for the nation as Bush does of becoming a "uniter, not a divider."

Furthermore, McCain's supposed "maverick nature," at this point in his life, has revealed itself to be little more than crass opportunism and following the marching orders of his shadow advisors. It's quite obvious to me that he would much rather have had someone he knows better and who can actually give serious input on a wide range of issues as his running mate, yet he comes out on stage and tries to convince us that Sarah Palin is "exactly" who this country needs as VP at this time. As if her whole career has been building toward this appointment! What blatant manipulation and pandering. I am so sick of being talked down to by politicians who apparently hold their constituency in such contempt as to believe that we are so easily persuaded.

McCain is not Bush revisited, he'd be worse, and the country would be more cynically divided than it has been over the course of these past eight years. I don't hold anything against Ms. Palin - she's been thrust into a very remarkable situation, and as a good party loyalist she's doing what's asked of her. But it's very difficult for me to accept the trivialization of our political process that her nomination represents. I still expect better things from the people who aspire to lead our nation.