JPod – I’m not shocked at all by his rise in the ratings. And I agree with you entirely that his mad-as-hell schtick is a big part of the story. But so is the upcoming midterm election, right? I mean the Corner’s traffic has doubled in the last week (as I suspect is the case with lots of political blogs). This always happens before an election. Olbermann’s performance a year ago was a full year before the midterms. His performance now is, well, right now. I bet that after the election, his ratings will trend downward or at least not trend upward all that dramatically. Unless, something happens that causes lefty hardcore political junkies to keep tuning in.