Tim Russert: May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008

Mr. Russert has died of an apparent heart attack in NBC’s Washington Bureau according to NBC News. He was 58 years old. Mr. Russert was NBC’s Washington Bureau Chief and had been the moderator of Meet The Press since 1991. He had received 48 honorary doctorates and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine in their most recent list. He was a New York Times Best-Selling Author for books such as his tribute to his father Big Russ and Me. He was a very familiar face to anyone who watched NBC Nightly News, MSNBC’s election coverage, Hardball, Countdown, and of course Meet The Press. He is survived by his father ‘Big Russ’, wife Maureen Orth and his son Luke Russert.

A part of why the timing is so tragic is that Russert was palpably excited by this landmark election and you could see that he was overjoyed that he was covering what could be the election of the first Black President of the United States.

His final episode of Meet The Press featured Mr. Russert and a panel of NBC News’ political reporters examining why Hillary suspended her campaign, whether or not the Clintons underestimated Obama, whether or not Bill Clinton can help Obama, a dissection of the Obama-McCain electoral map, and a look back at Robert Kennedy.

Rest In Peace Tim.