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To some extent, the roads Lou Dobbs has chosen to walk in his extensive television career have been defined by their unpredictability. It should come as no surprise that he would end it, at least temporarily, with a bang. Dobbs announced to his audience last night that he would no longer host his long-running program on CNN, citing a desire to seek new opportunities to help enact the changes that he proposed in his career as CNN’s top political commentator. It will not be the first time he departs (remember Space.com?), but the tenor of his statements makes it hard to not consider this a definitive break.

Watch Lou’s announcement that he is leaving CNN here.

In typical form, he gave clues as to what he would pursue in the future, but managed to make those clues cryptic enough to render them useless to the average viewer. At no point during his announcement on CNN did Dobbs indicate that the choice to leave was anything other than his own. On the contrary, he appeared relieved to be announcing the choice and closing that chapter of his life. He hinted that he would take his policies outside of the realm of the theoretical: “some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond my role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem-solving.” On his radio program her at WOR, however, he thanked his listeners and supporters for words of “encouragement.” A man who makes a choice that will lead him to a greater position in his career hardly needs words of encouragement, but a man who just lost his job would surely appreciate them. This could only mean two diametrically opposed possibilities for Dobbs. Either those urging him to go “beyond his role” are the detractors that have been calling for his expulsion from the channel since he evolved from his economy analyst position to that of a populist right-wing demagogue, or Dobbs is threatening that he has enough supporters to run for public office.

Dobbs’ future had been in speculation for some time before the announcement, although it appeared that no one in news media sensed that the end of Dobbs’ run on the network was so near. Rumors flew last year in Dobbs’ home state of New Jersey that the host was considering a run for governor. With Democrat Jon Corzine wreaking havoc on the state’s economy, it proved to be a rumor strengthened more by wishful thinking than fact. That door has since been closed by the rise of Republican Governor-Elect Christopher Christie, who enters the position with a clear record and a mandate to enact significant reforms that would undo much of the damage of the Corzine Administration. A year before the New Jersey rumors, the Wall Street Journal was already speculating that Dobbs would make a run for the presidency in 2008. Despite being as opinionated as many of his peers on other networks, no one laughed at the possibility of Dobbs assuming a legitimate public position. As for his career aspirations, rumors of a professional courtship between Dobbs and Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes were vibrant as recently as a month ago, and over the weekend The Jersey Journal ran a story speculating that Dobbs may be planning a run against Senator Robert Menendez in 2012.

Dobbs has been careful to invite but not indulge any speculation, leaving the world of media to focus on rumors and the reality of the future of CNN’s 7PM spot. CNN announced this morning that they will cover the hour with “State of the Nation” host John King. The appointment of King, a newsman with old-school journalistic sensibilities and some high-tech gadgets under his belt, is not only a clear message on, but a direct defiance of, Dobbs’ behavior on the network since he became passionate about political issues. Dobbs had become an ideological thorn in CNN’s side for some time, not because of his appeal to conservatives, but because he dared expose personal biases on the air at all. Would he have defined his program on a belief in socialism and open borders, he would have equally jeopardized what CNN officials define as integrity. In King, CNN hopes it has found a trustworthy objective voice that will not be courted to the dark side by either his personal opinions or the rising tide political commentary that has threatened to swallow up news as the 20th century knew it for some time.

CNN is banking on King because the mainstream public—who have for all intents and purposes abandoned CNN to feed the rising wave of polarized commentators on both the left (MSNBC) and the right (Fox News)—views him as a pet kitty CNN keeps distracted from the serious issues with shiny baubles like magic maps and holographic Will.I.Ams (alas, he did not get to inaugurate this toy). While he has contributed solid journalism to the network on his program, during the election season and standing in for Anderson Cooper when necessary, to the passing viewer his persona is a hollow shell. This sounds harsh on paper; if the goal is objective news as CNN understands it, it is a compliment.

Viewers have little prejudices towards King—they have no reason to harbor them. They view him as a media player devoid of prejudices, as well. He comes into a very sullied (in the eyes of snooty CNN higher-ups) position with a clean slate. He has the resume to demand respect, but unlike most people that live their careers out on television, at the expense of personality he has no memorable gaffes to his name. For the sake of entertainment (and CNN’s ratings), we can only hope his promotion will give him the adequate space to make some. While the channel’s heart might be in the right place, it has lost the only interesting voice on its network—the only person with the name and pedigree to not care about his boss’s opinion if it defies what he thinks is right. Between the younger King, Campbell Brown’s spitball attack on the behemoth that is “The O’Reilly Factor,” and the delicate interview techniques of Larry King, CNN has not crafted a voice—it has rendered itself mute.

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