Many throughout the blogosphere are speculating on who'll be the new host of Meet the Press, replacing the late Tim Russert. My impression is that most folks are expecting it to be David Gregory and wishing it would be Chuck Todd. Jonah Goldberg endorses Todd but also has this to throw into the discussion…
All of that said, I think the show should return to a panel, at least for the time being. What's wrong with bringing three or four hard-hitting journalists to ask questions the way they used to?
Well, for one thing, a lot of politicians today think they can have very successful careers as long as they never sit down opposite three or four hard-hitting journalists. How often have you see the kind of folks who should be interrogated that way put themselves in that position? One of the things Mr. Russert brought to the job was that he had a lot of good will in Washington and newsmakers weren't that afraid of facing him. Take a look at all the leaked memos and such where folks in the Bush administration suggested Meet the Press as a great place to get their message out. Once in a while, Russert did manage to hold someone's feet to the flames but those instances were the rare exceptions…and they probably surprised the heck out of the person who got nailed.
By the time this election is over, Barack Obama will have gone on Fox News just often enough to say he wasn't afraid to do so…and John McCain probably won't venture within six blocks of Keith Olbermann. I think it would be great to have a show where a group of take-no-prisoners reporters asked the hard questions. I just don't think there'd be anyone there to answer them.