The Observer checks in with rapidly rising MSNBC star Rachel Maddow, the academic AIDS activist who has improbably ended up with a television show following Keith Olbermann's. She's in Denver, hanging out, getting excited about Joe Biden. Basically everyone still loves her. Our video department put together this compilation of her being, you know, cool. And here are some fun facts about Rachel Maddow from the story!

  • She owns "five or six" dark pantsuits.
  • She met her longtime girlfriend "when Ms. Maddow showed up to her house on a landscaping gig"!
  • MSNBC was staying at the same hotel as the white supremacists who wanted to kill Barack Obama.
  • She is awesome: "'I'll be upstairs, peering out the window, looking for any open bar within walking distance,' she said by way of good night."

But will her show be good? Sure, why not. This sounds funny:

Mr. Wolff suggested a segment called “Just enough,” or maybe “Rachel Ray.” As in, “Rachel: Re.” “It’s a homonym,” said Ms. Maddow.

Rachel Ray! Hah!