Howie Kurtz may think it's too early to start gaming the process, but that's not stopping a lot of people from speculating on who is in the running to replace Tim Russert on Meet the Press. FishbowlDC has a fairly extensive round-up beginning with the more obvious choices like Chris Matthews (PROS: He's got the claws. He wants the gig. He's put in his time at NBC. He's a household name. CONS: For "Meet," Matthews would need to be more focused, more disciplined and less enamored with himself.) and concluding with the much less obvious likes of Slate's Jack Shafer (PROS: He always says it better than you ever could CONS: Homeboy would probably find the gig boring).

As far as women in the running, regular guest and PBS host Gwen Ifill and NBC's Andrea Mitchell are currently the most mentioned.