So Rachel Maddow plans to exit MSNBC primetime next year and, as I reported this week, Nicolle Wallace is the most likely candidate to assume her mantle and become the new face of the network. From first blush, of course, it seems like a strange decision. After all, Wallace was working for the Dubya administration when Maddow was a rising star on Air America. But media realities can scramble political realignments. Wallace is now the face of a sober, Never Trump brand of practical centrism that could open up MSNBC’s primetime aperture. Just as importantly, she’s “producible” and Maddow likes her, presumably suggesting that the star would signal her followers to give her successor a chance. There’s no fear of a Leno–Conan situation.