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Last week I noted how NBC's "Meet the Press" has been dropping like a rock relative to its Sunday competitors ever since David Gregory took over as the program's full-time moderator. Now comes word that NBC News is going to even greater lengths to groom the man who someday (and not necessarily so long in the future) might replace Gregory.

According to multiple network sources, MSNBC is in the process of developing a weekend political show to be moderated by Chuck Todd, the network's political director and chief White House correspondent.

Last year, in the wake of Tim Russert's death, network executives seriously considered Mr. Todd to take over the moderating duties on Meet the Press.

Ultimately, however, Mr. Todd lost out to David Gregory, a more seasoned TV newsman, who had significantly more experience than Mr. Todd sitting in the anchor's seat and doing one-on-one interviews with top newsmakers in Washington.

NBC News has already tapped Chuck Todd to replace Gregory once -- as White House correspondent, a position seen as a stepping stone for even bigger things to come -- so it wouldn't be out of the question to see the goateed guru follow in Gregory's footsteps again in the future. And, remember, prior to Tim Russert, who spent seventeen years moderating "Meet the Press," NBC shuffled a number of reporters in and out of the chair -- Garrick Utley, Chris Wallace, Marvin Kalb, Roger Mudd -- for two or three years apiece, at most, so that future point may not be too distant. Todd will still have to prove himself, no doubt, but this definitely looks like news that augurs quite a bit for the direction in which NBC News is moving and will be moving in the years to come.

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Cross-posted from The Wayward Episcopalian.

Last Sunday, NBC News officially announced that chief White House correspondent and host of MSNBC's "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" David Gregory would take over "Meet the Press" from temporary host Tom Brokaw, who's been filling in for the late Tim Russert. Yesterday, it was announced that David Shuster will take over 1600. I'm unenthusiastically neutral about the former choice, but downright disappointed in the latter.

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NBC News has been rolling out excerpts of its interview with John McCain and Sarah Palin. From what I've seen, it's yet another undistinguished performance from the pair but what's rather dramatic is the way it's being framed by the NBC News folks.

On Rachel Maddow today, this is how Brian Williams introduced an extended clip of the interview:

So here you've got a campaign 10 down in our poll of last night. 55% of respondents now saying Sarah Palin is not qualified to be president...And then, after, quite candidly, we have waited a very patient 55 days as the number 1 network evening newscast for our chance to sit down and spend some time with the VP nominee of the GOP.

But who's counting?

And, hilariously, when Rachel asked Brian if the fact that there was no major gaffe on Palin's part in that clip means that the story out of this interview is that she has matured as a candidate, Brian Williams replied:

As we say in television, there's much more of the interview.

Apparently, Brian actually had 8 minutes alone with Palin, which has yet to be rolled out. You remember how disastrous the CBS interview roll out was for Palin. This could get good.

But an even better commentary on the interview came from Chuck Todd during Hardball when he talked about how struck he was by the "negative intensity" and utter lack of chemistry there was between McCain and Palin as they sat next to each other on the stage for that interview. He even said that watching them made him wonder whether they were blaming each other for the fact that they are losing. I agree with Josh Marshall, the candidness of Todd, whose analysis usually resides in the electoral map and polling realm, is fairly dramatic stuff.

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Today on Morning Joe, Chuck Todd said Barack Obama has a "small but significant lead" in Florida and that "Florida has really slipped away from John McCain," calling the situation "a head-scratcher." This is interesting to hear since it still looks like a tenuous lead to me (Pollster has Obama up by 2.8% and 538 projects an Obama win by just 2.6%) with two out of the last three polls showing McCain slightly ahead.

But one area where John McCain is undoubtedly behind, which may actually be worth a couple points, is in organization. Joe Scarborough, a former Rep. from Florida then frustratedly jumped in to amplify Todd's remarks about Florida:

Yesterday I was on the phone with state party leaders in the state of Florida. There is no ground game...As you and I both know, the ground game is actually what drives numbers up even beyond what you're reporting this morning.

The impact that the superior Obama ground game is going to have on turnout on Nov 4th is one of the many unknowns about this election, but luckily it's not something we have to wait two weeks to entirely gauge. Chuck Todd transitioned to a discussion of the remarkable advantage Democrats have had in early votes in the states that are reporting the partisan makeup of the ballots being requested. He specifically mentioned Nevada where Democrats are doubling the advantage the Bush-Cheney campaign had in 2004 and the Republicans just had their worst day. More from First Read:

Jon Ralston on the early voting in the state: "Third day exceeds second. Turnout will hit double-digits Tuesday. Democrats still have huge lead -- 40,625 -17,509. That's 59 percent to 25 percent. (Monday it was 13,099-6,419.) In CD3, it's 2-to-1 Democratic voter lead. Senate 5 (Heck) just under 2-to-1 Democrats; Senate 6 (Beers) about 2-to-1, too. The Democrats essentially are doubling the GOP turnout -- or more -- every day. Can they possibly keep this up?"

Todd concluded about the McCain campaign:

The ground game it is just absent If they don't have a ground game, Missouri's going to slip away from them.

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