Soundbite: ‘Depth Of Her Wit Is What Makes Rachel Maddow Special’

Rachel Maddow’s continuing emergence as the educated grown-up at the cable news talking head dinner table is not going unnoticed. Over at the Daily News today, critic Stanley Crouch is commending (in fairly strong terms, actually) both Maddow’s wit and her intelligence:

Her statements almost always come from the same place – somewhere between the respectable left and those who intellectually live on the left side of the moon, but the depth of her wit is what makes Maddow special. It can slide from the intelligent dig to the devastating sendup.

Having grown up during the civil rights movement and become used to the inevitable presence at marches and demonstrations of Stalinists, Trotskyites and the other regular menagerie members of the left, I never met anyone like Maddow. Those old-time leftists were inevitably humorless and were always trying to gain influence among the leaders and the troops of the most impressive nonviolent revolution in the history of the species.

What makes Maddow unique is that while she surely seeks influence, she prefers it on terms that are her own, deeply informed and saturated with a sense of fun.

That is some pretty high praise indeed. Now just imagine how great she’d be as the host of Meet the Press. Just saying.

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