Bill,

I occasionally watch your show for amusement, and see how you stack the audience with admirers, stack the guest list with liberal democrats and brassy know-nothing celebrities, then smile smugly when your jokes go over big. Whatever led you to believe you have an IQ gap on anyone? You're a moderately clever comedian with a niche, much like Keith Olbermann. I think you are a more talented comedian than Al Franken.

Obama is an affirmative action candidate. With some shrewd dirty tricks, he managed to get into the state senate, and, with the aid of some media friends, he fomented a scandal that enabled him to run essentially unopposed for senate. Since arriving in the senate, a crown prince on the basis of one speech and his affirmative action career at Harvard (where they pass black med students even if they can't pass the standard tests everyone else passes), Obama has done little but preen and write his memoirs.

Obama is not particularly quick on his feet mentally, as his debate performance demonstrated. So perhaps YOU think Obama is "really smart," but then again you probably thought Jimmy Carter was really smart too. Try hanging around some really smart people.

The point is, Bill, you (and Al Franken and Rush Limbaugh, etc.) are preaching to the converted. Meanwhile, McCain and Palin are appealing to independent voters and walking off with the election. So by all means, keep up the personal attacks!

And, by the way, Bill, Obama IS an elitist. Haven't you noticed his smarmy, patronizing, cringingly obvious falling back on that kind of jokesly black conversational rhythym when talking to black folks, while on Bill O'Reilly, he's all grave and "white." Behind closed doors, (i.e., in San Francisco), he detests all the poor fools who believe in him, probably including you.

Are you getting a sinking feeling, Bill? How can you call the REPUBLICANS stupid when the Democrats are about to lose their third straight "unlosesable" election?

Glenn,

Palin is running for vice president, and you're venting your spleen in minor-league Salon, preaching to the converted with the same tired rhetoric.

I have news for you. Palin would chew you up and spit you out if you were ever so lucky to confront her.

You're just another silly little lib-boy with a rich fantasy life.

I watched the debate on CNN HD and read countless comments here and elsewhere. Some random thoughts:

a. McCain did look peevish, almost agitated. Hardly the aura of calm self-confidence a debater is taught to project. I think he was tired and wired.

b. Commenters on McCain's failure to look at Obama may have forgotten some things. (a) McCain's body is very damaged. Turning his neck may have been painful. Not a great time to have a neck spasm (b) He may have been trained to keep a particular camera angle, to minimize the intrusion of the bony protuberance on the left side of his face.

c. CNN's "scorekeepers" were laughably biased. Let's see, 5 Democrats, 2 Republicans, 1 Independent? Begala and Brazille on top? Ditto with the focus group. CNN tried to project the notion that their focus group was unbiased (1/3 R, 1/3 D, 1/3 I), but then admitted that 70% were leaning toward Obama. How is that unbiased when the country as a whole is split down the middle?

d. Obama reminds me of some overachieving graduate students I've known. Smooth, polished, articulate, but is there really a CPU there? Corner him without his teleprompter, and he burbles and waffles endlessly -- not impressive at all to a Ph.D. used to interacting with high IQ people. Thoughts of the negative impact of affirmative action on intellectual standards at places like Harvard intervene every time I watch him. I like him, but how smart is he, really?

e. The topic of the debate was, allegedly, foreign policy, McCain's strongest area. Perhaps predictably, the first half of the debate was switched without warning to economic policy, benefitting Obama immensely by helping him overcome any starting jitters. Had the roles been reversed, would Democrats be complaining about "dirty tricks"?

f. As someone who is genuinely undecided, but collossally annoyed at the extraordinary liberal bias in the media, I feel that Obama won by achieving his most important goal. You have to wonder whether McCain is (a) too genuine not to show his disdain for the utterly inexperienced Obama or (b) arrogantly uncoachable in his self-presentation skills.