LESLEY: You have doubled the ratings for MSNBC at nine o'clock. So my question is, how much fun are you having? I hope my bosses don't see this, but the truth is, I love what I do in news so much, that I would pay them, and you look as though you're having that kind of fun.
RACHEL: I am having that kind of fun, I can honestly say. I've had about 300 different jobs in my life and I sort of feel like I've been a chit in the job lottery and my ticket just came up. Like I won the best job in the world, and I don't really have a total grasp of how I got it - and I don't know how long it'll last. But as long as I have it I'm going to play it for all it's worth.
LESLEY: Well, you're doing great. But I have some questions, first off, about demeanor, because one would have thought that the ticket to cable heaven or something like that is a temper tantrum: The anchor shouts and the audiences come. But you are congenial. I've never seen you get angry and yet you're drawing a crowd. So we have Obama; we have Rachel Maddow, lowering the temperature, cooling the hostility. What's going on? Do you think that there's been a real change in the public's appetite?
RACHEL: Well, I don't know. I guess that will become evident if this becomes a bigger trend than the trend that you've just identified. But, the way that I see it strategically, is that those in talk radio - which is sort of where I come from - and television, you're trying to get people to connect with you; you're trying to draw people in. And one way to do that is to express anger and vituperation and indignation. That draws people in. It is something that is very compelling, just in human terms. But another way to draw people in and to have people feel like they're invested in you and they care about what you're going to say next, is if they relate to you. I think that's more the direction that I'm going. I think I have the same amount of anger as everybody else. I just don't think it's my best side and so I don't try to show it very much in public.