Eugene Robinson

Eugene Robinson is my second favorite person on MSNBC (after Rachel Maddow!). There is always a gleam in his eye when he's talking and you can tell that he really loves this stuff. His new article "So Much for St. John" is fantastic.

Excerpt, but read the whole thing:

The McCain campaign's excursion into popular culture has been so aggressive that the Obama campaign felt obliged to promptly denounce a new song by Ludacris that criticizes both McCain and Hillary Clinton in crude terms. Never mind that the rapper has no association with Obama's candidacy, and never mind that McCain is probably not intimately familiar with the Ludacris oeuvre. All this gnashing and flailing would be laughable if it weren't so purposeful. The aim is to cast an aura of doubt around Obama -- to portray him as handsome and popular but insubstantial, as a "celebrity" who's not really up to the job. Oh, and not that we would ever mention such a thing, but did you notice that Obama had the audacity to mention that he's African American?

Luke Russert

So, he's joining MSNBC. He's only qualification are a prematurely deceased father and a radio show he co-hosted with James Carville for a year. I'm not jealous at all that he gets to talk to Rachel Maddow on a regular basis. Honest.