Countdown Wednesday: Bowing Out
Posted: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 8:59 PM by Countdown
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Blogging the Countdown
Rudy, Edwards Bid Farewell: How both candidates arrived at the end of the their respective campaigns could not have been more different: The Republican, Rudy Giuliani, completing a free-fall that saw him tumble from hero to zero...The Democrat, John Edwards, ending a race in which he consistently ran third -- once, even second -- in every contest... setting the agenda for the field... yet failing to break through. But, in our fifth story on the Countdown, the finish line the same: they're both out -- but what Senator Edwards does next could have a big impact on the long, slow march to the Democratic Presidential nomination.
Super Structure: With somewhere between 10 to 20 percent of Democrats now officially without a candidate for Super Tuesday... And a third of them utterly undecided on a new one... Our fourth story on the Countdown, how will the momentum now swing on Super Tuesday?
ODDBALL: Marijuana vending machines and a chicken that lays green eggs.
Tortured Debate: I miss Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. At least each time he defied the Constitution and the Congress, he always said the same thing. In our third story tonight: Michael Mukasey has today given his **fourth** distinct answer about water-boarding.
Tabby Time! Tonight's brief look at celebrity and entertainment includes the fine arts while still retaining the glorious patina of pop culture..
WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: the City of Davie, Florida, Dick Morris, and Rush Limbaugh vie for tonight's top honors.
Tested, Not Ready, Never: It was Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett who popularized it. The so-called "Mendoza Line" -- the guy with the lowest batting average who **still** got his name on the list published in the Sunday newspapers -- named for Mario Mendoza, a shortstop who, in his one season as a full-fledged regular, batted exactly .198. It's still the unofficial cut-off point -- the exact spot in which you have more than nothing but not enough to be more than mediocre. Our number one story on the Countdown: the Mendoza Line of presidential politics would have to be... winning exactly one delegate. First achieved by John Connally in his bid for the Republican nomination in 1980 -- at a cost of eleven million dollars. Tonight replicated by Rudy Giuliani, who has indeed dropped out of the race... but his one supporter cost him about 50 million.
