Tim Russert

Russert was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Elizabeth "Betty" (née Seeley; January 9, 1929 – August 14, 2005), a homemaker, and Timothy Joseph "Big Russ" Russert (November 29, 1923 – September 24, 2009), a sanitation worker.

Timothy John Russert (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008) was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's Meet the Press.

He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Washington bureau chief and also hosted an eponymous CNBC/MSNBC weekend interview program.

He was a frequent correspondent and guest on NBC's The Today Show and Hardball.

He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1972 from John Carroll University and a Juris Doctor with honors from the Cleveland State University College of Law in 1976.

Russert commented on Meet the Press that he went to Woodstock "in a Buffalo Bills jersey with a case of beer."

While in law school, an official from his alma mater, John Carroll University, called Russert to ask if he could book some concerts for the school as he had done while a student.

He agreed, but said he would need to be paid because he was running out of money to pay for law school.

One concert that Russert booked was headlined by a then-unknown singer, Bruce Springsteen, who charged $2,500 for the concert appearance.

Elizabeth and Joseph were married for 30 years, before separating in 1976.

Russert was the only son and the second of four children; his sisters are Betty Ann (B.A.), Kathleen (Kathy) and Patricia (Trish).

His parents were Catholics, and he had German and Irish ancestry.

He received a Jesuit education from Canisius High School in Buffalo.

John Chancellor, Russert's NBC colleague, is credited with using red and blue to represent the states on a US map for the 1976 presidential election, but at that time Republican states were blue, and Democratic states were red.

In 1983, he became a top aide to New York Governor Mario Cuomo, also a Democrat.

He was hired by NBC News' Washington bureau in 1984 and became bureau chief by 1989.

(How the colors got reversed is not entirely clear.) During the 1984 presidential election, between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale, ABC News used a map which showed Republican states as red and Democratic states as blue.

According to David Brinkley, that was because Red = R = Reagan.

Russert became host of the Sunday morning program Meet the Press in 1991, and was the longest-serving host of the program.

Its name was changed to Meet the Press with Tim Russert, and, at his suggestion, expanded to an hour in 1992.

The show also shifted to a greater focus on in-depth interviews with high-profile guests, where Russert was known for extensive preparatory research and cross-examining style.

One approach he developed was to find old quotes or video clips that were inconsistent with guests' more recent statements, present them on-air to his guests and then ask them to clarify their positions.

With Russert as host the audience grew to more than four million viewers per week, and it was recognized as one of the most important sources of political news.

During NBC's coverage of the 2000 presidential election, Russert calculated possible Electoral College outcomes using a whiteboard (now in the Smithsonian Institution) on the air and memorably summed up the outcome as dependent upon "Florida, Florida, Florida." TV Guide described the scene as "one of the 100 greatest moments in TV history."

Mainstream political discussion following the 2000 presidential election used red state/blue state more frequently.

In the Plame affair, Scooter Libby, convicted chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that Russert told him of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame (who is married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson).

Russert testified previously, and again in United States v. I. Lewis Libby, that he would neither testify whether he spoke with Libby nor would he describe the conversation.

Russert again accurately predicted the final battleground of the presidential election of 2004: "Ohio, Ohio, Ohio."

In the course of the debate leading up to that election, Russert used February 2004 interviews with the two candidates to home in on the paradoxical fact (and the possible consequences for democracy) of their both apparently having been members of Yale University's Skull and Bones secret society.

Russert told this story to Jay Leno when he was a guest on The Tonight Show on NBC on June 6, 2006.

John Carroll University has since named its Department of Communication and Theatre Arts in Russert's honor.

Prior to becoming host of Meet the Press, Russert ran one of U.S. Senator Daniel Moynihan's five major offices, based in Buffalo, New York.

He later served as special counsel and as chief of staff to Moynihan, a Democrat from Hell's Kitchen, New York.

Russert covered several presidential elections, and he presented the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey on the NBC Nightly News during the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

Time magazine included Russert in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2008.

Russert was posthumously revealed as a 30-year source for syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

Time magazine named Russert one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2008, and Russert often moderated political campaign debates.

On the MSNBC show Tucker, Russert predicted the battleground states of the 2008 presidential election would be New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada, saying, "If Democrats can win three of those four, they can lose Ohio and Florida, and win the presidency."

According to The Washington Post, the phrases red states and blue states were coined by Tim Russert, although in that same article Russert states that he wasn't the first to use the terminology.

This term refers to those states of the United States of America whose residents predominantly vote for the Republican Party (red) or Democratic Party (blue) presidential candidates, respectively.