And Then There Were Six

Yesterday, oh man, just a bittersweet day I guess. On the bright side, John Wayne McCain can kinda just take a nap until the Democrats figure out their situation. But, ahh, Rudy! I could go on for a while about how I felt after Florida, but I think Opera Man could sum it up best for me if he were to update his Concert for New York classic, 2008 style. Something felt lacking during the debate last night, and it would have been a nice touch if they hung up a picture of Giuliani behind the desk. Like you would do in your living room for a recently deceased relative.

As for John Edwards dropping out before Fight Night, well, he'll definitely be doing this evening's CNN's ratings a favor. If he stayed in, tonight would have been tantamount to Butterbean hanging out inside the ring during Ali vs. Frazier. I think the over/under for the first attack on Bill Clinton remark or that the next president should be ready "on Day One" is about two and a half minutes. But let's hope the newest chapter of Hilbama is a little more original.

This morning I heard on Fox News that some political rating agency lists Senator Obama as having the most liberal Senate voting record in 2007, with Clinton coming in at around sixteen or so. What struck me about this is that you will probably hear neither brag about such a statistic, while if any of the Republicans were rated the most conservative in his job, it would be his newest campaign slogan. And you know what? The impact on this race would have been ZILCH. The Republicans are under the baffling assumption that the eventual nominee must be whoever appeals the most to the party's "conservative base." If that were actually true, then Fred Thompson would be sitting very pretty right now. I don't claim to know actual statistics on this, but the proportion of true conservatives to all of those who actually vote in primaries is probably no more significant than any other group, and surely, there must be many "lefty" Republicans like me that don't believe in supply-side economics or burning gays.

Before I go, one comment about my news habits since some of you actually believe that Fox News is the Republican Al-Jazeera. From a pure news standpoint, Fox has no political bias. I just happen to think that Brit Hume and Shepherd Smith are much more tolerable than Wolf Blitzer. This bias assumption likely stems from the fact that FNC's highest rated programs lean right. Take Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity out of the equation (not to mention Hannity's liberal co-host Alan Colmes) and FNC is actually fair and balanced, with no conservative bias. Just like without Andersoon Cooper and Larry King, CNN would have no homoerotic or decrepitly incompetent bias.