The Dancing Fool: Warner won't waltz into end zone

With six dancers left, we move into the part of the competition where voters can make nearly - nearly - as much of a difference as the judges. On "Dancing With the Stars," advantage will always go to the judges, but a big voter turnout can keep a (relatively) weaker dancer such as Bristol Palin in the hunt, while a (relatively) stronger one gets the eject button. That's apparently what happened to Audrina Patridge last week. Without a voter base, the only way she could have stayed was to score perfect 10s; she got a trio of 8s, instead, and even that wasn't enough.

Obvious arithmetic aside, that certainly fooled me - but enough fooling around. Someone has to go tomorrow, and that someone is . . . Kurt Warner and Anna Trebunskaya. He scored poorly last week, and unless Monday night (tango and cha-cha) is a huge winner, I doubt he has the viewer votes to compensate for the judge demerits.

The remaining field is strong, and - all things being equal - if Palin gets exactly the same judge scores as Warner, she stays. So that's where it stands. Ex-quarterback Warner needs a very good night, or tomorrow will be a very not-good night.