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The Public Option ... OMG ... Holy crap. From now on we're doing it this way, no kidding...

Category: Health • Healthcare • Heatlh Care • Poetry • Politics • Republicans
Posted on: October 26, 2009 7:55 AM, by Greg Laden

You must watch this. You. Simply. Must. Watch. This.

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Comments

Rachel's pronunciation of "dachshund" ruins the near-rhyme!

Posted by: Anon | October 26, 2009 7:47 AM

(sound of snorted tea)

dachshund!

Posted by: Rob Jase | October 26, 2009 8:38 AM

Is it just me or does Maddow do a completely terrible job of channeling John Stewart?

Posted by: Oran Kelley | October 26, 2009 8:59 AM

Oran, Maddow does a wonderful job at being herself.

As for the pronunciation of the dog, I assume that is a local dialect thing ...

Posted by: Greg Laden | October 26, 2009 9:11 AM

Oran, Maddow does a wonderful job at being herself.

No, there's something pretty contrived about the presentation here--contrived in a specifically Stewartian way that really rings false with her.

It seems obvious to me that she doesn't see the kind of humor that Stewart sees and she ends up seeming kind of smug as she assumes this attitude of a satiric co-participant but utterly fails to add one iota to the humor of the video itself.

(Which, BTW, really isn't all that funny. Done with brio? Yes. Funny?)

She really ought to just let the people who do this sort of thing just do it. And laugh if she thinks it's funny. She isn't John Stewart and really ought to stop trying to be.

Posted by: Oran Kelley | October 26, 2009 9:55 AM

Oran, I think you have other issues you need to work out. Rachel is brilliant. Maybe she is just not your type.

Posted by: Elizabeth | October 26, 2009 12:03 PM

If not worshiping at the Church of Maddow is an issue to be worked out then, yes, I've got work ahead of me.

I like her--I liked her on the radio, and I like her most of the time on TV (admittedly I haven't seen her all that much--I don't have a TV, either), but she's really got to find her own comedic shtick if she's going to work that vein.

Posted by: Oran Kelley | October 26, 2009 2:20 PM

Or other people have to stop copying her.

Posted by: Elizabeth | October 26, 2009 2:25 PM

why do Americans have to mutilate a perfectly good German name like dachs hund, pronounced :"ducks hoond" = badger dog,
or "dackel" for short, pronounced "duckl".

If you guys can't pronounce the name properly - invent your own for the breed.

Posted by: peter | October 26, 2009 3:54 PM

OK, I'll dodge the brickbats & agree with Oran that that was my first (and continuing) impression of Maddow as well. (And listening to this clip, I found her voice a bit reminiscent of Diane Sawyer's. Aaack.) But then I'm really not much for vids; & greatly prefer the most subtle,understated irony over sit-com like breaks for applause lines..

But since most of America disagrees with me, Rachel seems to be doing a great job in the manner most popular. Not to mention the Billionaires for Healthcare! Been following them since the Bush administration (when they were for tax breaks, etc.). Considering the "showmen" on the right, I guess one has to fight fire with fire. (Not to mention facts, science, and other little details.)

Posted by: Diane G. | October 26, 2009 4:21 PM

A quick trip to Maddow's youtube videos will reveal the source of the opposition to her. Its extremely difficult to find a video of hers that does not contain the words "dyke", "bitch", or "cunt" multiple times in the comments. A lesbian who doesn't serve to titillate dudes causes a surprisingly strong negative reaction within dude nation.

Posted by: skeptifem | October 26, 2009 10:01 PM

Thanks, Skeptifem. This is the sense I had but I had not looked at that source. I think this probably occurs at several levels, not all as profane and as blatantly stupid as the remarks on uTube.

Posted by: Greg Laden | October 26, 2009 10:11 PM

Yeah, Oran, it's pretty obvious you haven't watched much of her. This is her. It's not her imitating Jon Stewart or anyone else -- it's just her. She's like that, all the time. If that's not your cup of tea, then whatever -- don't watch, don't "worship at her church".

Posted by: Jason Thibeault | October 26, 2009 11:08 PM

And she's been just like this since way before Jon Stewart was generally known of.

Posted by: Kate | October 26, 2009 11:21 PM

Because she's on TV, makes political commentary, and sometimes uses humor to make that commentary, she must be trying to emulate Jon Stewart, right? *eye roll*

I'm with skeptifem on this one.

Posted by: marilove | October 27, 2009 11:53 AM

And she's been just like this since way before Jon Stewart was generally known of.

Stewart's Daily Show debut: 1999. And Maddow's Air America producer came from . . . the Daily Show! Think of that!

Just because Maddow is a lesbian, doesn't mean she is a faultless paragon in every other aspect of her life and career, and the implication that she's a lesbian and therefore immune from all criticism is demeaning to her, frankly.

She's a broadcasting professional and as such she looks at other practitioners in the field (even before they are terrifically famous) and borrows & adapts where appropriate. Everyone does it, sorry to harsh your idol worship buzz.

What I'm saying is this doesn't work as well enough for her, and she'd do better NOT to do the snarky Stewartian cut-ins and the sardonic gaze into the camera bit.

And the REASON I make the suggestion is a like her and I think she can be a fair deal better and a lot bigger than she already is.

Posted by: Oran Kelley | November 1, 2009 2:38 PM