Last night I went to a special live broadcast of Rachel Maddow’s Air America show at the State Theater, and it was grand. It was relaxing, just like listening to the radio, except we were treated to all the artless and fascinating gestures one never gets to see, like Maddow slipping her giant headphones on and off, or dancing to the cheesy interval music, or leaning back in her chair and clasping her hands behind her head as she listened to a radio host from Alaska reminisce about Sarah Palin’s days as his intern (when Maddow asked, with tension in her voice, if he thought she was smart, the answer was “I would say she was nice.”)

Of course, it was the liberal love-fest you might expect. She was just reading the news, but with people shouting responses and bursting into cacophonous applause every thirty seconds, it felt more like a rally. Maddow, a native of my own dear Gay Area, recently became the first out lesbian to host a primetime news show. According to the San Francisco Chronicle (local girl makes good!), Maddow treats her guests, even those with whom she disagrees, with respect, a refreshing break from typical talk show fare, where an opponent is brought on to demonstrate the host’s “open-mindedness” and then abused without relief until “that’s all we have time for.” Maddow is everything a pundit should be—saucy, well-informed, smart-as-a-whip. I used to catch her regular appearances on Keith Olbermann’s “The Countdown.” Olbermann’s Special Comments (direct, searing indictments of the administration and its media lackeys) have sustained me in this dark political winter, and I was saddened and amused to learn that MSNBC has replaced him as the host of this year’s election night coverage. According to the New York Times, the decision came down after a comment Olbermann made when the network aired the 9-11 tribute video shown at the Republican National Convention, calling it exploitation and apologizing to viewers for the content.

Maddow focused on the debate over Senator Obama’s campaign strategy—should he break out the trebuchet and start slinging mud or stay true to his message?—bringing up a rather sensitive point. While apparently 47 percent (as Gallup has it) of Americans are okay with Senator McCain’s notorious rage-aholism, they might not be able to handle an aggressive, outraged Obama. As reluctant as white America might be to vote for a black candidate, they’re really not gonna vote for an “angry black man,” and the last thing we need is McCain trying to paint Obama as some kind of embittered, fist-pumping reactionary, especially as the campaign wanes and the consequences lessen.

Maddow also touched on Governor Palin’s interview with Charlie Gibson. I think that at this point I would vote for anyone who couldn’t possibly die and leave that politically naïve, fanatically religious, backwards, book-banning hausfrau in charge. It was enough for me that she fired the Wasilla public librarian after a “rhetorical” conversation about book-banning, but it’s obvious that Palin has zero grasp of international relations. Every answer was an evasion. Gibson caught her out in total ignorance of NATO’s workings when she suggested that Ukraine and Georgia be allowed to join the organization. When Gibson pointed out that, under the terms of the treaty, we might be forced to go to war with Russia should it invade either country, she answered perkily, “perhaps so!”

I found myself cramming my knuckles into my mouth as I listened to some of the quotes Maddow played—Palin in her nice, hockey mom voice, admitting she’s hardly been out of the country and never met a foreign head of state, or trying to bullshit her way past the fact that she doesn’t know what the Bush doctrine is. I thought I could detect a vaguely embarrassed, patronizing note in Gibson’s voice as he tried to lead Palin through the question, like a math tutor in an after-school program with a kid who just doesn’t get it. It hurt way more than Misty-Eyed-Gate, or any of the political cartoons depicting Hillary with a big ass. If the McCain/Palin ticket wins this election, could it damage every future female candidate for the office? Perhaps so.