Shortly after Tim Russert's death in June, I speculated on who NBC might pick to host Meet The Press. At the time, I figured that David Gregory was the best choice, given his pedigree as White House correspondent and the decent job he did subbing for Russert in the past. But over the summer and the heat of the election homestretch, I came to change my mind about that.

I saw Chuck Todd and His Goatee take a bigger and bigger role in the coverage, stepping into Russert's nightly role of presenting and analyzing the latest blizzard of polls to come out, and I thought he'd make an interesting choice for moderator. Then Tina Brown floated the idea of Rachel Maddow as moderator, and I was also intrigued, given her rise to punditry stardom and her surprising even-handed manner.

But, if a report from the Huffington Post is to be believed, Gregory will soon be named the moderator of the program. Which is too bad, because this gave NBC an opportunity to do something different.

Todd comes from a similar background as Russert: a political junkie who was hired by NBC in a non-broadcast role and came to prominence just by sheer will of his personality. He would have had a bit of a rough beginning, but would have been given plenty of room to grow on the job. Maddow, on the other hand, has proven in the short time she's hosted her MSNBC show that she can ask tough questions in a non-confrontational manner. Seeing her cajole politicians and other newsmakers into giving non-standard answers would be a refreshing departure from the "gotcha" interview style that Russert perfected over the years. Perhaps the two of them could have been paired in an "NBC News Stars of the Future" two-headed moderator arrangement.

Gregory, on the other hand, will just continue to do what's been done in the past, but without the adeptness and "Buffalo blue-collar guy" glimmer in his eye that Russert had. I can see him being confrontational for confrontational's sake, and that's not going to work very well on the Sunday morning shows.

Anyway, NBC and Gregory's reps are denying that he's the winner of the MTP sweepstakes, but, with only a week left in Tom Brokaw's interim period as moderator (he'll interview Barack Obama on his last show on Dec. 7), I'd imagine that's all just for show. As usual, NBC makes the solid if unspectacular choice. But, as with Brian Williams taking over for Brokaw and Meredith Vieira taking over for Katie Couric, they've ensured themselves an almost seamless transition. So they've got that going for them, which is nice.