StarTribune.com
She zags, she zigs, but she can't dance
By NEAL JUSTIN, Star Tribune
September 17, 2008
Rachel Maddow can't dance. The shortcoming was revealed during coverage of the Democratic National Convention. As Stevie Wonder revved up the Denver crowd with "Signed, Sealed Delivered," Maddow's MSNBC colleagues boogied gracefully in their chairs, while Maddow busted a move that she must have stolen from a misfit in a John Hughes movie. "I'm a dork," she said, re-creating the awkward moment at a downtown St. Paul Starbucks earlier this month during one of the few hours of the day she wasn't covering the Republican National Convention.
Her willingness to embrace her nerdiness and a goofball sense of humor are key reasons why MSNBC has given the 35-year-old Rhodes scholar her own nightly program, "The Rachel Maddow Show," the news network's attempt to give left-wing punditry a kindler, gentler face. "When everyone else is zagging, I naturally zig," said Maddow, who sports a pair of glasses from the Ira Glass collection when off-screen. "But in this business, the ratio of words to facts is very large. We're all scrambling after the same golden morsels." Maddow, who also hosts a nightly program on Air America radio, said she tries to distinguish herself by isolating herself from others' analyses, a strategy aided by the fact that she doesn't own a television set.
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A typical weekday starts at 8 a.m. when she wakes up in her cozy New York apartment ("It's about the size of a van") that she shares with her partner, artist Susan Miklua, and works on her upcoming book on military issues. By 11 a.m., she's at Air America's studios, where she dedicates six hours to reading and downloading stories on the Internet for her two shows, both of which are almost entirely scripted. "I'm not an ad-libber," she said. "When you say something, you'd better have something to say or you're wasting a lot of people's time." By prime time, it's a string of commentary on David Gregory's "Race for the White House," her radio program and the new TV show. No wonder she's a hobbyist bartender.
(snip)
When asked if the pundit circuit feels anything like a freak circus, Maddow launched into an impromptu bit about how all of them are animals desperate to get out of their cages. She carried on about how she's going to cater to her deaf aunt who was flying in -- uninvited -- to the first episode of her MSNBC show. But Maddow's wit doesn't overshadow how seriously she takes the importance of political debate, and her dedication to gritty give-and-take discussion has made her a favorite of conservative voices like Tucker Carlson and Pat Buchanan. "This is part of citizenship," she said. "This country needs a vibrant, rollicking, fun, ongoing argument."
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http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/tv/28510194.html
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