Wow, that really is the kind of thing that will make you question your mortality. I always admired how he came up from the rust belt, went to Cleveland Marshall School of Law and from there on to far bigger things. He'll be missed.
I saw him last fall "interviewing" Stephen Colbert at GW University. I really enjoyed watching him play it straight to Stephen's faux pundit. Always good when a journalist doesn't take himself too seriously.
Even knowing that he was a big guy, this is shocking. So full of life on MSNBC even a couple days ago. Meet the Press is a fixture of my week, and from within the journalism circles I walked in the last couple years, you'd never hear a bad thing about him.
Tim Russert loved his family, his career, his hometown and his home team. NBC's Washington Bureau has lost perhaps the best chief it ever had.
Having lost my father-in-law last year at a similar age and situation - that is collapse at work when appearing to be find the day before, the moment before, etc, and having his Father still be alive and well - this was shocking and saddening news to hear.
I too was a big fan of Mr. Russert and enjoyed his work on TV and his books immensely. I fondly recall the white board and dry erase marker tallies of the electoral votes in Presidential elections...
My thoughts and prays are with his family, colleagues and friends.
Tim was a great journalist, he'll be missed. I read that he just got back from Italy which always throws the possibility of a pulmonary embolism as the cause of death. We don't know much details, but if Tim suddenly collapsed as the first symptom of his problem, it was not a heart attack but sudden cardiac arrest, which is usually an arrythmia or PE. Nevertheless, it's a wake up call to not ignore or minimize symptoms if they occur (I'm not saying that's what happened here)...
I'll echo what has been said already: One of the best. He was always a joy to watch because he was always excited to talk politics and his interest was contagious. He was also as neutral as they come, able to grill right and left alike with great intensity but always with respect and always with decorum lacking in the more popular dog and pony shows on TV. His was an old-school style of journalism that will be sorely missed.
My favorite Tim Russert comment is that he considered himself the custodian of Meet the Press. Now the custodianship will pass to another.
I think that the latest measure of how highly regarded he was in political circles, was his statement after the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, that “it was all over”.
Out of all the pundits and pols saying that Obama had wrapped it up, Russert’s comment was the one to which the Clinton campaign reacted. Everyone knew he would not make such a statement without due consideration.
His doctor was on MSNBC and said he'd had an enlarged heart and a history of corony artery disease. My father has have 70-90 percent clots twice in his life and thank God they caught it in time in both situations. Russert was the same age he is...:frowning:
Tim Russert had just returned from a trip to Rome with his family, a graduation present for his son who'd just finished a degree at Boston College. Just heartbreaking.
And since no one yet has mentioned it, my favorite Tim Russert interview was the now famous one with David Duke back when he was running for governor of Louisiana. When Duke claimed that he was not ruining on race, but on the State’s economy, Russert just asked him to name the top three employers in the State.
Duke was not able to do so and was never again a serious contender.