Arianna Hosts The Rachel Maddow Show with Guests Bill Maher, Lawrence O'Donnell, Nate Silver, Cory Booker and Google's Eric Schmidt

Monday night, Arianna sat in for Rachel on the Rachel Maddow show.

She asked Google CEO Eric Schmidt about whether Obama will be America's first Internet president and how he can use the Internet to promote a more open and transparent government that will lead to a more engaged electorate. Scroll down for more interviews from the show.

Bill Maher, comedian and host of Real Time with Bill Maher

Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight.com

Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC political analyst and HuffPost blogger

Cory Booker, mayor of Newark

Comments

[Aravir]

O'Donnell's analysis of the Lieberman situation is nonsensical. The 2010 Senate races are skewed to disproportionately benefit Democratic chances to remain in power. T he Democrats have fewer seats to defend, and fewer of the seats they have to defends are vulnerable. It would take a huge shift in electoral psychology in the next two years for Lieberman's one vote in the caucus to be meaningful in a negative way. And, frankly, if it did somehow become so close that Lieberman's vote mattered, who is to say he wouldn't switch parties anyway?

[bilbo8]

Great Show!!!

For wahtever it's worth...you've got my vote for your own show.

[GeorgeKaplan]

What else could I say? WONDERFUL!

[longmoo]

LOVE her!

[tigerakabj]

Great job Arianna. Maybe MSNBC will let you sub more often.

[helloworld2008]

Cory Booker is great. One of the up-and-coming young Dems.

[proudloudlib]

Yeah, I was very impressed with him. Definitely going to keep him on my radar.

[ulrich27]

Good show Arianna,
except the Lawrence O'Donnell segment with regards to the Lieberman fiasco.
When he replied to your question with regards to job performance I was insulted.
Everybody in this Country who works and has to keep his job is judged by his or her job performance, except the Senators???? What kind of an unacceptable answer was that. You should have butchered him down on that and not let him off so easy.
Joe Lieberman has to go, he is a trader, a Trojan horse always has and always will be, it is in his nature.
The Democrats have to stop being such cowards and so naive. When you are in charge of a country you have to grow up!

[CeciliaBertrand]

O'Donnell was right, it is difficult for us to realize/admit we have allowed the Washington fiasco to develop to the extraordinary corruption it has--lobbyist are only PART of the problem. Good Luck to Obama in cleaning the messes up!!

[MoeB]

Terrific job, Arianna! And you also had GREAT guests...Silver, Schmidt, my man B.Maher, and of course, Mayor Cory Booker. Dare I say he is the next "big thing"??? The future is looking VERY bright for democrats!

[spartanmom]

Great job Arianna! You know what it means to be a patriot.

Thank you, also for having Cory Booker on. With Obama in Washington all we need now is a dozen big and medium city mayors like him and we'll be on the right track in no time

[tdbach]

Arianna, you're getting a lot of love here, from your devoted fans. That's understandable. If we measure your show on substance alone, then you were mostly successful, I think. You are certainly an intelligent and knowledgable "voice" in the media (including the Internet), and that comes through. But this is television, and television - at least outside of Channel 1 - is about entertainment. Succeeding in this medium takes more than brains (or more accurately, something other than brains), more even than having a nice personality. It takes a sort of fluidity and projecting personality to succeed at hosting a show, being the center and foundation of a show to hold an audience - at least an audience that isn't already devoted to you. Arianna, for all your charms, you don't have it. You make a respectable pundit, you make a great blog master, but you're not cut out for hosting. Rachel, on the other hand has "got it."

Congratulations on pulling together a respectable show while subbing for Ms. Maddow. Now get back to doing what you do best: running the cream of the news-and-opinion blog crop, and occasionally adding your two-cents worth into cable news discussions.

[Janel]

Well stated. Like you, I always enjoy Arianna as a guest pundit. She seemed out of her element as a host.

[proudloudlib]

In all fairness, it was written in Rachel's voice. I was a little distracted by being able to "hear" Rachel saying every line, because her style is so distinctive. I think Arianna did a great job under those conditions.

[mmgpsych]

Agreed. Being a host of a show takes a good deal of 'acting' ability; you have to read lines off a teleprompter and make them sound spontaneous. Maddow is a master of it. Arianna has a long way to go until her 'reading' is as vital as her genuinely extemporaneous comments. Still, Kudos for taking the risk.

[dexxjones]

fantastic show. i already like rachel of course, but i have to say arianna was fantastic. if this is how she would run her own show, it would be a serious hit (just like this site) because every segment was compelling.
it was almost like bill maher's show in terms of quality discourse. this authenticity trend on msnbc is gratifying and arianna was absolutely authentic. real information was disclosed.

[AngFL]

What a gentle sweet soul, you are (even if it sounds corny). The comparison of watching you as a guest on the other news outlets, where you seem to have to raise your voice in order to combat the talking points, it appears moderating the discussion is the perfect match for you Arianna.

[Georgia1992]

Excellent job Arianna! Love the guests.

[mocha59]

Excellent show, Arianna! Great guest choices and interviews too!

[mocha59]

Great job, Arianna and excellent guest choices!!!!!!!