Odd couple: Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan

[DeepModem Mom]

Newsday/AP: Odd couple: Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan; MSNBC happy with ratings improvement
By DAVID BAUDER | AP Television Writer
October 5, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) _ At 19, Rachel Maddow shared a house with friends in Philadelphia and wasn't paying much attention to the 1992 Republican National Convention on television until Pat Buchanan took to the podium. She was transfixed. Buchanan's combative conservative speech, which denounced gay rights, was a milestone for people on two sides of a political divide. Either a call to arms or intolerant, depending on your point of view, it couldn't be ignored.

"Pat's culture war speech at the Republican convention hit me right between the eyes," said Maddow, MSNBC's new star and a lesbian. "He was, without euphemism, declaring that my own country was at war with me. I get it intellectually and strategically now, but at 19, I only got it emotionally."

So there's a certain irony that Maddow and Buchanan have a prime-time date many nights now on television. "It's Pat" is a semi-regular feature on "The Rachel Maddow Show," a program that has surprised even the people who put it on with its success after only a month on the air....

***

(Keith) Olbermann's "Countdown" is well-written and meticulous, but he relies on guests who rarely disagree with him. Maddow frequently brings on guests to argue with her, none more so than Buchanan. He can exasperate her, and vice versa. To date, it hasn't become nasty.

To a certain extent, Maddow credits Buchanan with giving her television career a push. A few years ago when Buchanan hosted a show at MSNBC, he remembered her and sought her out for work. "I like debating things with Pat," Maddow said. "He's funny and quick and intellectually coherent, even when his views are totally toxic."...

(MSNBC chief executive Phil) Griffin said he liked how Maddow and Buchanan played off each other during MSNBC's primary coverage in the spring. "They're 180 degrees apart but they like each other," he said....

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/wire/sns-ap-ap-on-tv-rachel-maddow,0,1703198,full.story

[BlooInBloo]

1. They play off of each other well.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. I enjoy watching them -- and never thought I'd say that about Pat Buchanan! nt

[BlooInBloo]

5. Yah - as far as "the business of show" is concerned, they're good together.

[annabanana]

2. She makes him suffer in comparison...

and she does it with a smile on her face (and his, amusingly enough)

[jwirr]

4. I cannot stand him so I fast forward when she has him on. Love her, nt

[Hekate]

6. I loved her first night when she called Pat Buchanan "my fake uncle Pat". That set the tone...

That night Rachel thanked him for coming on, and he growled (a bit uncomfortably?) that we'd see about that when he was done.

Since then I have watched Rachel Maddow dance rings around this man, rather like an enthusiastic and very bright puppy. Sometimes he looks bemused, like he can barely keep from smiling, and other times he kind of clams up and makes this low growly sound. It cracks me up.

I have never liked Pat Buchanan; I think he's a type of Neanderthal; but the two of them together are actually quite good. It's all Rachel.

During the Dem Convention when they were both part of the comment panel, the moderator asked them what they were all thinking during some portion. Rachel said, "I don't know if this makes me a bad person, but I was thinking of you, Pat," and she told that story about being only 19 years old and realizing that he wanted her dead. I thought that was so brave, and he looked taken aback. He took it well, but I think to a certain degree it must have pierced him to the heart; I doubt that anyone ever told him that what he said could hurt a young person so deeply. I hope so anyway.

Hekate

[Bluenorthwest]

7. I love Rachel

but her use of Pat makes me ill. Pat's a bad and evil man, not a fake uncle. He's been harming my country all of my life.

[swimmernsecretsea]

8. I wish it irked me that they play off so well against each other,

and that they both do it with grace and composure, but in fact, I love watching the two of them. Buchanan has angered me in the past, and I thought I wouldn't be able to watch him on her show or in other exchanges with her, but it makes for not just great television, but interesting and informative viewing.

Great television in the past has been defined as a one of those horrible moments as the one where Geraldo Rivera gets his nose broken with a flung chair, or when Ann Coulter vomits some foul comment that causes people to flee. That whole mindset of "When Pundits Attack" should be discarded in favor of the sharp but smart political banter that happens on Countdown and Maddow's shows.


I truly believe that Maddow is the lion tamer here. Perhaps Buchanan deserves a measure of that, for his ability to spar with her and keep the discussion on a high level, but until she came along, I found him extremely difficult to view without wincing. I think it's a measure of her talent, intellect and ability to converse intelligently that has raised the bar here, and I salute her.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. I second everything you say -- thanks, swimmernsecretsea! nt

[swimmernsecretsea]

10. Thanks!

Wow. I'm doing well recently. Someone compared a posting I wrote to Molly Ivins. Some kind of love current is going on here, and I like it.

[pam4water]

11. It's Pat?

You know, for a while I really thought Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough were going to have an epiphany and realize that, they were wrong and come over to the sane side of the fence. Scarborough even more than Buchanan seem to really see the damage that Bush was doing to the country. And Pat wrote the How the Right Went Wrong book or whatever the title was. But in the past year they seem to have gone full over to their hard right views again. Do you think MSNBC won't let them stay on the air unless they parrot the right-wing talking points?

I don't much like Pat and sister scares the heck out of me, but I don't think they should keep his segments it's Pat, it's little too disrespectful to the old codger. It's it, a reference to the old Saturday night live skit about the androgynous Pat.