It was eight and a half years ago that I wrote a Roll Call column saying goodbye to “Inside Politics ,” the five-days-a-week CNN program that not only helped launch my career as a political analyst and handicapper, but, more importantly, constituted the gold standard for in-depth political coverage on weekday TV.  

I believed then, and still believe now, that the decision to kill that show, made by Jonathan Klein, then the president of CNN/U.S., was stupid. There was a considerable appetite for a news and analysis program like “Inside Politics” back then, and that appetite has only grown.  

I hope that John King, who knows politics, succeeds with the new “IP.” But a half-hour program early Sunday morning will have a hard time rebuilding the brand or matching the importance that the daily program had under the helm of Bernie Shaw and Judy Woodruff.  

You can read my 2005 column bidding farewell to Inside Politics here .