Countdown Wednesday: Battlground Bounce
Posted: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 8:59 PM by Countdown
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Blogging the Countdown
Battleground Bounce:
In this campaign that Tim Russert loved covering so much... it is a detail that would have absolutely delighted him. Here this morning, the two men vying to become the next president of the United States... sitting next to each other at Tim Russert's funeral... at his family's request. Ahead this hour, we will pay tribute to our departed friend and colleague with a look at the moving memorial service that followed the funeral this afternoon at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and perhaps, more moving still, a seemingly small gesture from Tim Russert's son Luke that will tell you in short-hand just what this family is all about. But in our fifth story on the Countdown -- because Tim Russert would be screaming "you skipped the lead" -- we begin with the latest in the run for the White House.
Hit on Mrs.:
It's not an unreasonable request. To ask that personal attacks against the wife of a candidate, as part of a misguided strategy to torpedo a political campaign, be off limits. Having heard his fill of falsehoods about Michelle Obama, candidate and husband Barack Obama has drawn a line in the sand. In our fourth story on the Countdown, expressing disdain for what has clearly become "open season" on spouses, Obama made his case in an interview last night. ODDBALL: A mutton race and pie fight.
The Energy of McCain: John McCain is famous for saying he does not know much about the economy... and for parading around those advisors of his who... he says...do know something about the economy. Our third story tonight... a Countdown Special Report on the price of gas... and how McCain's chief economic advisor, among others... helped create and defend pivotal legislation that unleashed speculators to run up gas prices. It is, in essence, a legalized form of insider trading... de-regulation that let speculators overwhelm trading in oil futures... those complicated contracts that let commercial users of oil hedge their bets about future price and supply fluctuations... by agreeing to prices and delivery dates ahead of time. Since this legislation passed... gasoline prices have more than doubled... and commodity traders have made tens of millions of dollars... devastating thousands of small companies that deal in oil... and creating the risk of a speculative bubble... popping. How does McCain fit in? The road connecting him to four-dollar gas begins... with Enron.
Worsties...see below.
WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: Comedian Rush Limbaugh, the County Board of Education serving Roseville, California and William Kristol of The New York Times
Tim Russert 1950-2008: "He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, going, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion: he hath indeed bettered expectation, than you must expect of me to tell you how." The epitaph, fitting, of course, and inscribed on the program for the Memorial Service given here today for Tim Russert. At least a thousand people celebrating his life... First in the private family ceremony this morning, featuring the presidential candidates, side by side. Then, this afternoon, at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Our number one story on the Countdown: our final goodbye to Tim Russert. Highlights of the eulogies, every word of them filled with heart and love, and producing tears and laughs... And afterwards, one story of an extraordinarily generous act today, from Tim's son Luke. And a symbol to carry alongside our memories of Tim.
