Mary Landrieu confronts mission impossible

As Sen. Mary Landrieu soldiered through her re-election race this year with sinking poll numbers and the heavy drag of President Barack Obama, the refrain from her strategists and supporters was always the same: Don't count her out. She's a fighter. She will pull it off in the end.
But in the hours before a runoff election on Saturday, when the three-term Louisiana Democrat faces Republican Congressman Bill Cassidy, it is hard to find anyone predicting the kind of eleventh hour victory that Landrieu pulled off in 1996 and 2002 -- turning her into a political legend.
"Sen. Landrieu has been a fabulous closer," said Joshua Stockley, a political science pro