Remembering Tim Russert

It is the year anniversary of Russert's death.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

David Gregory New Meet the Press Moderator?

David Gregory may (I say may because NBC hasn't confirmed) take over for Tom Brokaw who has been filling in for the late great Tim Russert. This Sunday, Obama will be on MTP with Brokaw.

HP: David Gregory will take the reins as moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press," the Huffington Post has learned. Gregory has been a leading contender for the permanent spot since Tom Brokaw stepped in as interim moderator following Tim Russert's death in June.

Cartoonists Tribute to Tim Russert

I love the weeping peacock.
Luke Russert shares memories of his dad (video):

“It was truly remarkable,” Luke told TODAY’s Matt Lauer in a wide-ranging interview that ran at length without interruption. “My dad would rather drink beer with my college friends than have a steak dinner. My friends loved him just as much as I did. Boy, did he love to eat at those tailgates.”

Luke spoke for 15 minutes about his dad with remarkable poise. He never lost his composure, not even when he was talking about being on the set of “Meet the Press” on Sunday and touching his dad’s empty chair — a moment captured in a moving photograph by The Associated Press.

“I’m going to keep that chair forever,” Luke told Lauer. “That’s my chair now.”

Tim Russert was my favorite TV journalist.

Special Edition of Meet the Press Sunday

this is really sad.
tomorrow will be a special edition celebrating his life. i'd kind of just like to see a rerun of him hosting his show.

Sunday Morning Political Fest

i get up early on sundays just for meet the press. i call it my political fest. i make coffee and get ready to blog as my favorite tv journalist tim russert gets going. i'll miss him. he was way too young. i find myself surprisingly very sad. what a reminder that life can be over just like that, so you better make it a good one.
tim russert moments
npr's story
nyt
tim's tablet evolution
interviewing like tim russert
russert's 2005 commencement at american university
tim russert's facebook
cjr 1992 profile of russert
journalists on russert
russert's legacy by howard fineman

Reflections on Russert
David Broder - Washington Post
Mike Allen - The Politico
Bill Kristol - Weekly Standard
David Remnick - The New Yorker
Dan Balz - Washington Post

The Race Is Really Really Really Over in Two Weeks

in 2 weeks, it's over. it's so over, over, over.
tim russert of nbc says they'll basically split the remaining 80 or so delegates and obama will need 40 supers.
why does hillary stay in? career? ego? supporters? who knows.
more why she stays in stories:
What is Clinton's Argument Now? - Roger Simon, The Politico
Clinton's Claim - Nicholas Wapshott, New York Sun
Can Obama Do Anything to Get Clinton Out? - John Dickerson, Slate
Is Clinton Still Running For President - Or Something Else? -
Big Win For Clinton; Says She Is Staying In - Louisville C-J
Clinton Sees Many Reasons to Stay In - New York
Desperate Clinton is Danger to Dems - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post

what's next: Upcoming primary and caucus schedule

Uncounted In Polls: Obama or Clinton?

here's some of "meet the press" this morning.
meet the press, by the way, is one of the better political shows. host tim russert asks good questions and all sides (even the ones you loathe) weigh in.

i flipped over to preposterous george stephanopolos and there was a roundtable of news folks debating the debate! they were trying to defend abc, saying that obama supporters attacked the messengers. well, yeah. the messengers in the debate asked really stupid things.

on meet the press: geoff garin, hillary's new chief strategist (who replaced the fired mark penn) and david axelrod, obama's chief strategist.

russert: will she bring the changes necessary?
axelrod: no. she says she can work the system. we want to change the system.

russert: will clinton stay til the end?
garin: that will be dictated by events. her commitment now is to let the process play through.

let me just say axelrod is clearly the better debater. garin's face shows his frustration and i kind of feel bad for him. at one point, he wasn't able to defend hillary's foreign policy. he says he's just her adviser, not her foreign policy adviser. at one point, he pleads, i've only been here for 2 weeks now.

both axelrod and garin claim to be good friends.

note that garnishing wages is part of hillary's healthcare plan. garin more or less conceded that one.

garin insists hillary is and was opposed to nafta. what she has said is that it needs to be changed.

axelrod: all of her public statements suggest she was in favor of nafta.

tim russert mentioned that the republicans will string all the distractions together to attack obama-- how will he beat that.

axelrod: that's what they're going to do. but he says once they get to know obama they'll know better.

i think we need to hear more from obama on his strategy to beat mccain.

russert: he brings up moveon (hillary dissed them, they support obama) and puts up two audio clips. hillary slammed them in one clip and in another clip, she panders to moveon, when she's trying to get their endorsement.

garin said he didn't see a contradiction in her statements.

in the second segment of the show, david brooks, an obama hater, who wrote this week, how obama fell to earth, was on saying how obama is no longer inspiring. well, that shows how in the dark he is. brooks thinks obama should have given a religion speech and a class speech, that he should go around speeching. brooks is really bitter.

russert: clinton's lead shrunk to 5 points. for fun, russert breaks out the poll data. among hunters, gun owners and bowlers, clinton is ahead.

among beer drinkers, obama tied with clinton. apparently, there are more hunters than beer drinkers in pennsylvania.

to me, this was one of the key points during the show.
michelle norris of npr brings up the fact that in pennsylvania, there are loads of people not being counted in polls: 150,000 new registrants and 150,000 who switched registrations. who did they sign up for? we may be surprised in the result.

russert: if clinton gets a net gain of 8 delegates in pennsylvania, how does she make her case to the supers?

michelle norris: it's a very difficult argument for her to make.

brooks makes a funny: the baggage candidate (hillary) vs. the no-baggage candidate (obama).