41.   Liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, American or Romanian, the image of political candidates as strapping athletes is too alluring for their handlers to pass up.

42.   Lou Piniella is among the leading candidates as Manager of the Year.

43.   McNamara sent the specimens to the Department of Agriculture Laboratory at Ames, Iowa, where scientists eliminated those candidates as the cause.

44.   McCorkle is a consultant who has work for such Democratic candidates as Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley.

45.   Not only will he participate in Democratic National Committee events, but also in fund-raisers for individual candidates as the election draws near.

46.   Now imagine this candidate as a woman.

47.   Now, political theater has evolved even further toward the illusion of nontheater, showing the candidate as rumpled, candid, cranky, real.

48.   Officials in both campaigns went out of their way to portray their candidates as not obsessed with every twist and turn.

49.   Normally, Quito and Guayaquil can each claim a finalist candidate as their own.

50.   One strong candidate as a possible successor to Sampson is Carlos Queiros, who was hired by the US Soccer Federation to evaluate the system.