Maddow gets it right twice: The analysts have permission to wake us when Maddow gets it right. For that reason, they’ve pried up the lid on our barium chamber twice in the past two weeks!

It happened last Tuesday, September 8. Rachel was chatting with Mark McKinnon, one of the slipperiest critters in the whole Bush zoo. (He’s “on our side” now—more below.) McKinnon said many people on the right actually believed that Obama would try to indoctrinate the children through his back-to-school speech. And Rachel replied with some pure Howler Think! So the analysts rushed in and woke us:

MADDOW (9/8/09): It’s not just that they don’t believe it and they’re pandering to it. You think they really believe it?

MCKINNON: Yes, unfortunately. I mean, you know, I got the “Chairman Obama” e-mails from a lot of my friends. So, you know, God forbid if the president goes out there and proposes a speech to the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America!

MADDOW: Yes. Well, I am— I am much happier believing craven than I am believing dumb. But—or gullible. Because I don’t like to think of my fellow Americans as dumb and gullible. I prefer to think of us as being taken advantage of by—you know, by unsavory characters from time to time. And at least those people we can make fun of. Your analysis is much darker, Mark.

Say what? Maddow doesn’t like to think of her fellow Americans as dumb and gullible? She prefers to think of them as being taken advantage of by unsavory leaders—the kind of people we can make fun of? When did that regime begin, the analysts asked as they woke us.

We understood their confusion. Until recently, Rachel mainly liked to think of her fellow Americans as being tea-baggers! She shamelessly “made fun of” (ridiculed) them night after night after night. (The regular people—not the leaders.) But that was then—and this was now! When Maddow emitted this pure Howler Think, the analysts raced to our chamber.

And the same thing happened this Tuesday! Is Obama being slimed due to race? Maddow did a good job reviewing the historical precedents, in which a long string of white Democratic presidents got slimed in similar ways (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 9/16/09). She even noted that some of the leaders sliming Obama slimed Bill Clinton in the past decade. When she omitted Betsy McCaughey, the best example, we had to grade her down to A-minus. But the analysts rushed in and woke us again. Our Daily Howler keeps getting results, they incomparably cried.

(Down side: The analysts groaned when Jonathan Alter responded to Maddow’s review by citing Dowd-on-race. Good God! Career liberals are even willing to treat Dowd as a serious person? But Massah Alter was fair in his overall judgments. “It`s very important to say that many, maybe most people who oppose Obama do not do so on the basis of race,” he told Rachel. Maybe most, Ole Massah allowed. Alter is a very nice guy. But he’s becoming an occasional clown now.)

Final question: Why must progressives be insulted with regular appearances by the likes of McKinnon?

Who is Mark McKinnon? One of the biggest hustlers in modern politics (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 4/4/07). He was a major Democratic consultant in Texas—until Republicans took control of the state. In 1996, he announced he was quitting politics, saying the game had gotten too dirty. (“The time came when politics got too partisan, too mean, and too all-consuming—even for me,” he wrote, boo-hooing.) But wouldn’t you know it? Just fifteen months later, he miraculously turned up inside the camp of Governor George W. Bush!

Despite all the previous crying and whining, he was back in the high life again!

Earlier wet tears notwithstanding, McKinnon ran media for both of Bush’s White House campaigns. In this interview from 2005, you can see him boasting to Frontline about it. People! Those Swift Boat ads were the best!

But uh-oh! Eventually, people noticed that Bush had destroyed the known world. So McKinnon had to slither off that ship too! Now, he routinely turns up on the Maddow Show (and in other venues), making mild complaints about Republicans, thus rehabilitating himself for corporate consulting work. And progressives are supposed to respect him!

(Presumably, this is supposed to show the wider world how fair and bipartisan Maddow can be. In the modern world, it’s all about building up brands!)

Our question: Is there anyone the Maddow Show won’t feature? Progressives are now asked to sit through lectures from the guy who wrote Powell’s UN speech (Lawrence Wilkerson) and from the guy who scripted both Bush campaigns!

Naomi Klein has disappeared. McKinnon is forever.

Dumped: We had planned to do Matthews-on-race today. We didn’t like how it turned out.