Tim Russert: Decision 2008

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Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert admits he might not have been born with a nose for news, but he developed one before long.

“I was the editor of my seventh-grade school newspaper back in Buffalo, N.Y.,” he recalls. “Sister Mary Lucille, in her words, ‘needed to find an alternative vehicle to channel my excessive energy.’ So she started a newspaper and made me the editor.”

On Russert’s watch, the paper published a “special edition” in 1963 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

“It was mimeographed, stapled, three pages,” he says. “We sent a copy to President Johnson, Jacqueline Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and we got responses from all of them.” Not surprisingly, Russert held on to those responses over the years. “I still have them. It was the first time I understood the influence the press can have. A tiny little school newspaper in Buffalo, being sent to Washington and acknowledged—it was a big event in the life of a 12-year-old boy.”

Since joining NBC News in 1984, Russert, now 57, has been witness to more big events than he can easily recall. At the helm of Meet the Press since 1991, he’s made the headlines come alive each week by interviewing the people behind some of the world’s most significant news stories.

In the past few months, he’s become immersed in a Very Big Event: the 2008 Presidential election. Russert—who’s also Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News, an on-air political analyst for NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams and the Today show, plus other NBC and MSNBC programs, and host of The Tim Russert Show, another weekly interview program, on MSNBC—was chosen to moderate several nationally televised live debates between the candidates, and he’s interviewed all the major contenders on Meet the Press.

He knows he’s got a great vantage point from which to watch the race, which is shaping up to be unique in several ways.

“It’s extraordinary,” he says. “I have a front-row seat. And I’m watching one of the most exciting political campaigns in the history of our nation. We’ve got open contests in both political parties, truly open. Normally you have an incumbent president, or a vice-president seeking the nomination of one of the parties—not here. This is the first time in 80 years that hasn’t happened, and that’s added to the uncertainty, the excitement and the intensity of this election.

“As we speak, the Democratic party is going to nominate either the first woman or the first African-American as their nominee. That’s hugely historic; there’s no other way to describe it. And if it’s between John McCain and Barack Obama, it will be the largest age disparity between two candidates in history; McCain’s 71, Obama’s 46. That’ll also be historic.”

Russert’s role on Meet the Press during this heated election year, he says, is to use the format of the longest-running program in the history of television (see sidebar) to explore the various sides of each candidate and issue.

“I don’t think you can make tough decisions unless you can answer tough questions,” he says. “And so I think there’s an expectation when you come on Meet the Press that you’re going to be asked tough questions. They’ll be fair questions, but they’ll be tough. It’s not enough to say, ‘I’m gonna cut taxes, preserve Social Security and bring peace to the world.’ That’s a nice way to start, but let’s go through each of these, specifically: How will you preserve Social Security, when the number of retirees has doubled? It’s important that people not be able to come on and rehash their poll-driven responses or give infomercials of bromides.

“Meet the Press is a chance to peel all that away and ask, ‘Who are you, what do you stand for and what are your specific plans for the country?’”

The American public is hungry, he believes, for that kind of insight from the candidates who are vying for our country’s top office.

“No one expects a candidate to have a magic wand,” he says. “But we do deserve the benefit of their thinking and their analysis. People are really engaged in this election. If the intensity of voters so far is replicated in November, the turnout is going to be very significant.”

When he’s not busy in front of the cameras, Russert enjoys his downtime with wife Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine, at their home in Washington, D.C. Their only child, son Luke, is a grownup at 22, but he and Russert remain close.

“I’ve had conversations with him every day for 22 years, and it’s not gonna stop,” Russert says. “I tried to do an awful lot of stuff with NBC, but raising our son has always been my top priority.”

Luke even loaded Russert’s iPod with the music he knew his dad liked. “Springsteen, Fogerty, Van Morrison, James Taylor,” says Russert wth a chuckle. “He used to call it ‘geezer rock,’ but now I think he’s much more appreciative of the eclectic tastes I have in music.”

One of Russert’s favorite songs is Louis Armstrong’s sweet, optimistic ballad “What a Wonderful World.”

“That song really does represent my view of life,” he says. “It is a wonderful world—America is an extraordinary country. I’ve traveled endlessly, and there’s a goodness in this country that’s beyond anything I’ve seen anywhere. Day in, day out, the courtesies, the civilities that people show each other are not always reflected in our politics…and I think people would like to see that changed.”

60 Years of Meet The Press

Tim Russert has moderated Meet the Press for a respectable 16 years. But as far as the show is concerned, he’s still a new kid on the block. The Sunday-morning institution has been on the air since 1947, making it the longest-running program in the history of television.

An estimated 5 million viewers join the program every week to see interviews with U.S. and world leaders and review the week’s key events.

Every man who has ever occupied the Oval Office has appeared on the program during his career, as have hundreds of other world leaders, American politicians and newsmakers from all walks of political life.

In its long history, the mission of Meet the Press hasn’t changed, says Russert. “I met with Lawrence Spivak, who founded it, when I became the moderator 16 years ago,” he says. “He told me, ‘Learn as much as you can about a guest and his or her position, and take the other side. Be persistent, but always be civil.’ I think that’s a pretty good description of what I try to do every Sunday.”

Watch Meet the Press Sunday mornings on NBC. Check local listings.