What’s next for Lou Dobbs?

Until his abrupt exit Wednesday night, Lou Dobbs had been with CNN since its inception in 1980, save for a two-year stint at the Internet start-up Space.com. Dobbs says he’s now exploring several options, and that political and media figures have encouraged him to “go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving.” (Watch his parting words.) What does Dobbs have in mind for his next act?

Fox Business is the logical next stop: “Fox denies having talked to Dobbs,” says Allahpundit in Hot Air, but that has to be what this sudden departure is about. After all, Dobbs and Fox News chief Roger Ailes “had a confab over dinner in September,” and Ailes is on a roll, picking up “big name stars like [Don] Imus and John Stossel” to “boost Fox Business’s profile.”

“Lou Dobbs quits CNN”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Fox doesn’t need another righty pundit: Everyone’s talking about Fox News, says Dolores Bernal in News Junkie Post, but I’m skeptical. “There are already too many other crazies at Fox News who have all the racist, extremist, and lunatic angles covered.” But Dobbs reportedly made $10 million a year at CNN -- if he’s been a “good saver,” he can do whatever he wants.

“What’s next for Lou Dobbs?”

President Lou Dobbs? If not Fox, “let’s explore some of the other possibilities,” says Elizabeth Chan in AOL’s Inside TV. “He could be penning a CNN tell-all,” or returning to “his Web-savvy roots.” But perhaps the most likely non-Fox career change, if you look at the clues in his CNN goodbye speech, is a run for political office. “Is the nation ready for Dobbs 2012?”

“Lou Dobbs leaves CNN, joins news anchor merry-go-round—but why?”

Best scenario? He vanishes: I don’t care what he does next, says Pejman Yousefzadeh in the New Ledger, so long as its not “another job in anything that might cause me to catch a glimpse of his face, or hear the sound of his voice. Ever.” I guess “as an Iranian-American Jew, who favors free trade and more immigration,” I’m not Lou Dobbs' target audience, but the only thing better than his exit would be if “I could have fired him” myself.

“On Lou Dobbs”

...............................................

SEE MORE OF THE WEEK'S COVERAGE OF LOU DOBBS:

• Will Lou Dobbs' exit save CNN?