In 2008, CNN and Fox News were boasting about their Super Turbo Election News-tainment Electronic Doodads that could do all this amazing analytical stuff, their sets looking like the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek VIII. But on Super Tuesday, neither of them could tell you whether Clinton or Obama won the night. With all that information potential, they just flat out punted on the question everyone wanted to know. Too many close races, too many different rules for how delegates were won - it was just too confusing. No one could tell you.
But Chuck Todd on MSNBC added some figures on a Telestrator and estimated that Clinton would have about a two delegate advantage on the night. His estimate proved to be very close to correct. He was the only one who could make an actual call, mostly because he intimately understood the esoteric process of how primary delegates were won. He became the new star of Cable News, just because he happened to know what the fuck he was talking about.
Todd has largely squandered that stardom by becoming immensely successful. In the end, he just became the same kind of unremarkable notetaker correspondent that all the other stringers are. But for some reason, he keeps getting kicked upstairs to higher visibility jobs and being less impressive at every stop. The thing that put him on the map in the first place - understanding something no one else understood - is pretty much gone. I see no reason to think he'll be any better at Meet the Press than David Gregory was.
Anyway, Steve Kornacki seems ready to take his place as the Resident Election Wonk on MSNBC this year. Just watched him give a very good electoral map analysis of a couple of the midterms elections for next week. Hopefully he will be able to turn a star performance, and then parlay that into something more substantial.
MSNBC seems to have cast their lot with wonks - Chris Hayes, Ezra Klein, Ari Melber, Steve Kornacki, and the Queen Wonk of them all, Rachel Maddow. Not a one of them has a conventional TV news style, and it might be why they don't do terribly well in the ratings. But they're doing news far better than their competitors.
We all know what a disaster most television news is. Jon Stewart makes a healthy living pointing it out to us. Just go with the wonks. They do this news thing pretty well.