Cultural Cuisinart

In very exciting news today, it has just been announced that Rachel Maddow has just gotten her own show on MSNBC. The Carpetbagger Report has a good article up discussing why this such a good thing, but really, I think you can look at this quote from a Nation profile and get this idea pretty quickly (emphasis mine):

What's remarkable about Maddow's ascension is not its velocity--Hurricane Katrina made Anderson Cooper in less than a week--but the shifts in media it may demarcate. Maddow is one of the few left-liberal women to bust open the world of TV punditry, which has made icons of right-wing commentators like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin. Unlike her beautiful, bilious conservative female counterparts or the cocksure boys-on-the-bus analysts, however, Maddow didn't get here by bluster and bravado but with a combination of crisp thinking and galumphing good cheer. Remarkably, this season's discovery isn't a glossy matinee idol or a smooth-talking partisan hack but a PhD Rhodes scholar lesbian policy wonk who started as a prison AIDS activist.

For those of you who watch the Keith Olbermann show on MSNBC, you may have seen Rachel subbing as host for him while he was on vacation a month ago or so. I thought she did a great job filling in. She comes across as very informed, plus she has a natural way about her that I really like - she doesn't feel like your typical smarmy TV host.

Anyway, congratulations to Rachel. I'm looking forward to enjoying the super news block of Keith Olbermann/Rachel Maddow. She starts in the 9pm slot on Sept 8th. I'm kind of bummed she won't be starting in time to discuss the upcoming Democratic and Republican conventions, but hopefully we'll see her popping up over on Olbermann's show to provide commentary.


UPDATE: Here's video of Rachel discussing her new show with Keith Olbermann