She’d already received visits from a reporter from The New York Observer and The Washington Post’s Howie Kurtz, putting the final touches on profiles in advance of her September 8 debut as host of her own MSNBC show.

Once upstairs, she sat with her MSNBC seniors at the anchors’ desk—the only other person who made it on-air upstairs, rather than from the first floor panel or the ground floor director’s chair “bullpen,” was President Carter.

Olbermann walked Maddow to the edge of the second floor, and raised her hand, like a prizefighter, above the screaming crowd. A chant broke out for a speech. But all the crowd got, when she returned to the panel’s level was a smile that verged on a embarrassedly bemused smirk.

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