Mr. Dallas, a devoted Meet the Press follower, weighs in on Tim Russert's possible successors.
The stunning news of host Tim Russert's death Friday leaves a big, empty, important chair on the Sunday morning staple Meet the Press. Some very early handicapping of who might take his place:
Even money: David Gregory, veteran White House correspondent, Today show stand-in and host of his own election show on MSNBC. Angular, charming, not as avuncular as Mr. Russert, but definitely a high Q-factor guy.
2-to-1: Andrea Mitchell: The NBC foreign affairs reporter has been tracking the 2008 presidential race, with principal emphasis on the suspended Clinton campaign. She'd be breaking a glass ceiling by putting one of the major Sunday morning news fests into the hands of a woman (not forgetting Cokie Roberts' co-hosting days on ABC's This Week). As with Mr. Gregory, an easy-as-Sunday-morning personality with just slighty more edge.
5-1: Chris Matthews, the volcanic host of MSNBC's Hardball, would certainly wake up the show. Mr. Matthews clearly adores Mr. Russert (and maybe wanted to be him). But he's a much more partisan figure who's ruffled a lot of feathers among pols and is an easy target for conservative media critics.
Mr. Dallas
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