“Maddow Begs Clinton To Come On Show, Promises Not To Interrupt.” That was the Huffington Post headline from the MSNBC star’s Monday night program. If Hillary Clinton won’t appear on MSNBC shows, she’s really not going to appear anywhere.
MADDOW: I`m hoping for the chance to interview was many of the 2016 hopefuls as I can this year. On the Democratic side, that means Bernie Sanders, check. Linc Chafee, that`s tomorrow. Martin O`Malley, I have high hopes for getting him on the show sometime soon.
As for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I once saw her in Washington and said hello, literally that`s all I said. Hello. But other than that, I`ve never spoken to any Clinton, Bill, Hillary, or Chelsea -- or Socks or Buddy or any of the other pets, but I live in hope. I think this could be the year.
I live and hope that we`ll be able to get all the Democratic candidates on the show during this campaign this year. You`re all welcome. I'm notorious for not being interrupt-y unless you really deserve it. Please, come on. Come one, come all. Happy to have you.
Maddow’s interviewed Sanders – and the HuffPost understates it when she says Maddow’s “become something of a Sanders booster.” That’s not going to help her chances with Hillary. In fact, Maddow added hype to whatever phenomenon you might call the Socialism for President campaign:
MADDOW: One more point though, on the Democratic side at the ledger, and it concerns Bernie Sanders, specifically the relationship between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. This was the scene in Keene, New Hampshire, on Saturday, where a crowd of almost a thousand people crammed into a tiny local rec hall to see -- to hear Bernie Sanders speak.
The local newspaper, The Sentinel said the crowd was loud and large and enthusiastic, with every seat filled, a folks standing in the aisle, thousand people turned out in Keene. This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened with Bernie Sanders.
Over the past couple of weeks, Senator Sanders has attracted sold-out crowds in Vermont when he announced and in New Hampshire, and in Iowa, and in Minnesota, and with all of the positive press, those sold-out crowds are earning Senator Sanders, Hillary Clinton`s campaign is now showcasing its own enthusiastic crowds...And yes, she's running basically all alone in the national polls. She's so far out ahead. She’s the prohibitive favorite to win the nomination on the Democratic side.
But what`s going on with Bernie Sanders is also a real thing. I mean, there is Bernie Sanders at that packed event in Keene, New Hampshire, this weekend, telling the crowd that -- he told the crowd, I've got a secret. That secret is that we're going win New Hampshire. He is saying that I am going to win the New Hampshire primary.
There's a headline out of this weekend and saying that Clinton ekes out a win in Wisconsin Democrats poll. Ekes out a win, what? Two hundred and fifty-two votes. What does that mean? Hillary Clinton 49 percent, Bernie Sanders, 41 percent, in the straw poll this weekend. Democratic Party delegates in Wisconsin.
Listen, honestly, in the national polls, she's ahead by dozens of points. Right? I`m sure the Clinton campaign still not at all worried about securing the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
But Senator Bernie Sanders' role in the race is clearly going to be a lot more fun this year, than if he were just some peanut gallery candidate confined to the margins, right? He's making the race on the Democratic side more fun than we thought it would be and less predictable than anybody thought it would be. And that frankly is good for everyone in the process, including Hillary Clinton, but particularly liberals in the Democratic Party.
A few of us remember that this is the same Rachel Anne Maddow who proclaimed in 2011, "Nobody’s going to vote for Rick Santorum, come on. But the idea of a Newt Gingrich surge is almost as absurd as people – uh, you know, Googling Rick Santorum and saying, 'I like what I found here, I'm going to vote for this guy.'"
