NBC did the “safe” thing ending speculation and preserving their Meet the Press £60 million dollar political franchise by dusting off 68-year old former Nightly News anchor, now special correspondent Tom Brokaw to fill-in for Tim Russert through the 2008 general election in November. He joins the other Washington senior statesman Bob Schieffer, 71 at CBS who hosts their signature Face the Nation program.

It was a move necessary to hold on to potential market losses the devastating loss of Tim Russert dealt to a franchise looking over its shoulder at hard-charging ABC and Fox programs hosted by former Clinton aide George Stephanopolous, 47 and Chris Wallace, 59, son of media legend Mike of 60 Minutes fame. The Sunday morning political ratings war is one of the bloodiest yet most profitable.

Safe though may not really be. Handicapping the future race, the field at NBC is quite deep, strong and varied. The problem is all of the main expected contenders in the NBC family come with baggage that might change the tone and direction of Tim’s signature non-confrontational yet tough style.

Andrea Mitchell would, it seems, have an inside track. Her marriage to former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan would give her the “access” street cred but she can come across as shrill in many circles.

Chris Matthews over at “Hardball” would certainly be able to go toe-to-toe with politicians, but he does not suffer fools lightly and has a dismissive manner/tone towards those with whom he disagrees.

Keith Olbermann of Countdown is brilliant but eclectic and Meet the Press is straight down the middle and rigid. That would drive him crazy in the long run. No one is neutral about Keith, he gets ratings and results and tends to get very emotional which could hurt him in that venue.

David Gregory, Dan Abrams and Joe  Scarborough are solid but relatively untested. They are good in their respective roles but seem to lack the weight and respect Tim brought.

There is one regular guest commentator on all of these news shows that is a dark horse candidate  and one to watch. The courageous and bold choice by then end of the political campaign season, would be the quietly strong and sound Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and Air America. While the prospect would initially terrify her, as moderator of Meet the Press, she above all would be an ideal replacement for Tim because of their similar work(woman)like approach to research and getting it right. She also is someone who gets both very tough and wry without ever becoming disagreeable, a Tim Russert hallmark and symbol for long-term success in that role.

So come November you can say you saw it here first, 22nd June, on The Vadimus Post, Rachel Maddow to permanently moderate Meet the Press or by then it will be long enough gone that no one will remember or care what we said/predicted.

Genius prognosticator or dummy… there’s nothing in between here.

Mama didn’t raise no dummy…