Washington, DC — Whenever CNN’s John King fills in for Judy Woodruff on Inside Politics, as he did today, the show has more zip, more energy and is just more interesting.
Not to slam Judy Woodruff — she’s a superior, talented reporter, and has been for some time — but she seems bored with the show and with politics in general… same old, same old.
King, like AP’s Ron Fornier, benefits from having been AP’s chief national political 
correspondent, and enjoying access not just to the usual DC sources, but scores of other operatives and movers and shakers in states across America.
CNN execs should be thinking about creating a new IP format and set around King for the 2006 and 2008 elections. Woodruff should be assigned to weightier beats worthy of her gravitas — not sitting around shooting the breeze with Bay Buchanan and Donna Brazile.