Daily News Roundup, 1/23/08: From Lazy to a Dropout

And then there were five. Out of all of yesterday's election news, the biggest would have to be Fred Thompson's dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination.

Thompson's withdrawal from the Republican primary nomination race leaves five contenders for the nomination, which makes for a messy field. The picture isn't likely to get any better any time soon, either — out of the bottom three candidates in the polls, Huckabee's going to assume that most of Thompson's votes are going to him, Paul's probably got a bit of hubris from the beaucoup money he's raised, and Giuliani obviously won't be dropping until at least after Florida, but may point to national numbers in an attempt to stay afloat after his imminent loss.

Of course, you never know — Huckabee's also been hurting for cash, so we may see him going sooner rather than later. Campaign staffers "voluntarily" passing up paychecks has long been a death knell of underfunded campaigns. And I don't know where he plans to raise more money if he's no longer schlepping around the press corps which give Huckabee the free earned media that would keep a poor candidate in the spotlight long enough for him to snag some bigger donors. If he hasn't been able to capitalize on appearances on Leno and Letterman, and is still being outraised by Ron Paul, there's not much hope for that guy.

And, as the bit of surrealism for the day, Giuliani spent yesterday selling his consistent message of, um, fiscal conservatism. The cow has officially jumped over the moon.

On the Democratic side of the race, the spat between Clinton and Obama continued after Monday's debate, as the two frontrunners sought to characterize the debate on their own terms. Clinton said that Obama was "very frustrated" at the success she's been having, and that he had clearly changed his strategy and came to the debate "looking for a fight." Obama countered that Clinton was "fudg[ing] the truth." The winner of all this? Well, of course, one can always count on a V being tallied for The American People, but John Edwards sure did end up looking clean after all this. I don't know, however, if he ended up looking mature or snarky after saying, "I was proud to represent the grown-up wing of the Democratic Party last night." Guess it depends on how you look at it.

And there was an unusual report from eyewitnesses at the debate that came out yesterday that noted that Clinton and Edwards met after Monday's debate for a little chat. A twenty-minute little chat, mind you. What would they be talking about for twenty minutes? Edwards spokesman Eric Schultz said something about them "catching up." Yeah.

And finally today, just for a chuckle, you should check out Mitt Romney emberrassing himself on the campaign trail with his rendition of a '90s classic, or his trying to (as my best guess) prove his hip-hop cred. That may mark the first time a presidential candidate says "bling-bling" on the trail. History is made every day, folks. You just have to look for it.