...Friday night, and as best I can tell, no one noticed! I've watched the episode twice now, reviewed CityLightsLover's excellent-as-usual Countdown diary, and waited all weekend for someone else to post on it, and I can find no reference to what I think is a pretty phenomenal milestone. (Seriously, I've looked. So if I've just missed it, please take pity on me and let me know.)
The funny thing is, it was clear what was coming right from the start.
"BAH-NUH! BAH-nuh! Bah-NUH! Which of these 5 stories will you be talking about tomorrow?"
Maybe I was distracted by hearing a woman's voice, to which I went, "Dammit, Keith's off!" only to have that be immediately followed by the realization "Oh yay, it's Rachel!" because Rachel Maddow is awesomeness personified and totally makes me wish I was a lesbian.
Whatever the reason, I didn't notice it from Rachel's voiceover... I didn't notice it from the collage of photos that accompanies it... In fact, I wonder if I would have noticed it at all except that at exactly 16 minutes minutes in, my friend turns to me and says:
"Have you noticed that it's been 15 minutes and no one has even mentioned Hillary Clinton yet?"
Um, holy shit, but no I had not! And you know what? They never did. Not once. An entire episode of Countdown and the words "Hillary Clinton" were never mentioned.
They warned us right from the start and still I didn't see it: that Hillary Clinton would NOT be one of the top 5 stories we'd be talking about tomorrow!
There is not much more to diary here. I will leave it to you fellow Kossacks to determine whether you see the significance here that I do, or whether I am making much of nothing.
But in politics, as well as in most things: irrelevance is truly the unkindest cut. Clinton has been the biggest boogeyman on Countdown since Keith's awesome Special Report, but now an entire episode during the primary season doesn't even mention her? Clinton can argue all she wants that this race isn't over, but if you move goalposts in an empty stadium, does it make a sound?
Here's the show opener for you to enjoy in all its Clinton-free glory:
No matter what happens tomorrow, in my mind the symbolism of this is just teh suck for the Clinton campaign.
*************************
Three additional thoughts:
- I have considered that the absence of Clinton might have occurred because of a guest host's particular worldview, but I would think that whether Keith is there or not, the producers would also drive the topics, so I've rejected that as a possibility. If you know differently, please share, as this diary would then be moot.
- Off-topic, but the always luscious and brilliant Richard Wolffe missed the mark a bit when he said that Obama was effective lecturing McBush on the war "Not because he's special, but because he doesn't have the baggage of having been for the war." Um, he's special in part because he wasn't for the war- the two are connected.
- Geraldine Ferraro can kiss my black, feminist ass.