No To Todd

Kos has endorsed Chuck Todd to replace Tim Russert on Meet The Press.

Todd, who's a fine numbers-cruncher, would be a good choice if (a) he ever interviewed any political figure ever, and (b) he had any inkling of an interest beyond horse-race politics. On that he's quite good, but Meet The Press is not solely a horse-race poltics show, or at least it's not supposed to be. It airs all year round, even in non-election years, and sometimes it actually devotes itself to covering an issue or two. And there's no indication that Chuck Todd would be able to ask any kind of non horse-race related question.

We need LESS pundits concerned only with the horse race, not more.

I approve of Kevin Drum's suggestion of returning to its roots, with a panel of experts asking the questions instead of one moderator with idiosyncratic beliefs. That's actually how Russert got the gig, by performing well on the panel in the Garrick Utley days. At the very least, it would signal an end of the interminable "bunch of journalists talking to themselves" shows.