joe biden was terrific. he was on it. a legendary night for the guy. could be one of the best national debate performances ever. he was a little choppy and wonky at times, but wow was he ready.

on the flip side, palin was worse than i ever could have imagined. /i think she's getting a pass on it for now, but give it some time. drip, drip, drip. that's flop sweat. ask yourself: what did she accomplish tonight? what did she do? she didn't substantively take obama down. didn't prop mccain up much. i am at a loss to understand the gop strategy going into this. i expected her to come in with the buzzsaw whirling and just chew the scenery. she didn't even do that. all the winking and buckerooisms, "shout outs" and joe-sixpack crap? that's it???? it's nothing. total nothingness. at times i feared palin had entered a fugue state: total emotional and rational detachment. identity abandonment. she was nothing. i was mesmerized. she nearly became art. then: her visceral coldness to biden when he choked up... on stage later with her family, how she patted her baby's back. i snapped out of it. she was cyborgesque. and grotesque. my radio does not pick up her frequency.

at one point sarah said, during an unrelated discussion: "i want to talk about energy!" i might make that a bumbersticker for my car in the morning.

I want to talk about energy!

looking at this woman makes you realize why bush used to script all his townhall rallies. Nobody like that ever got near a microphone.

mccain should have said, point-blank: "folks, barack obama is not arab. and even if he were, what's the f@#@ing difference???" by assuaging the crowd's fears that obama isn't an arab, mccain seems to only codify them -almost like everybody can go "whew! ok, then, he ain't one of them arabs!" all of this has been so mishandled by the mccain campaign it is staggering. it would be tremendous if somebody from the obama camp would really call them on the mat for this racist garbage, but that's unlikely. mccain's flop sweat is forming saddle-bags and may start pooling at his feet -i suppose there's no need to turn on the hose on him.

debate #3. my call:

mccain will be credited with landing a haymaker, even if it's a phantom punch. i have no idea what the line will be, or the issue. but mccain's got something up his sleeve. no way he's going down this easy. no way.

the stories have already been written, the headlines approved and the content pre-scrubbed for anything that strays from the narrative. the op-ed pieces endlessly wordsmithed. -"The Straight Talk Express is in the passing lane!"..etc. Mccain will have "McMentum," or some nonsense like that. The polls will narrow. they have to. obama has no where to go but down, and the media did not pre-approve a 12 point win. this race far from over.

*i have to admit that part of me is enjoying the mccain trainwreck. am i the only one? it's by far the best comedy on TV today -great cast, compelling storylines, funny jokes. it all works for me. and the actor playing the out-of-touch grandpa who doesn't know what day it is is good -very good.

what a dud. author is correct that there was a time-warpish feel to this debate. i hope this is the last of these kinds of debates. we are not served by them. all three of them. the formats are stale and from a different era. did the mccain campaign insist the moderator be older than their candidate? this was an air sandwich. i am at a loss to understand how the republic is served by nights like this. obama wins by not winning. mccain wins by not winning. i'm lost.

but we are another day closer to nov. 4th. hopefully, that's enough. because i've had enough.

oh, did i mention that mccain is a douchebag? (air quote "douchebag" for effect)

i haven't a clue if obama can win ohio. i think it's a steep climb for him, especially in the so-called xurbs. gop can really turn that vote out. (read: sweatpants and bibles) but i am encouraged by one thing: my wife's been "dialing for obama" for weeks now -calling states and talking to voters. more than once she's called ohio, and while on the phone with a voter -at that very moment -somebody else from the campaign has knocked on that person's front door. if you can get that kind of grass-roots volunteerism, united, triangulating if you will, scouring for every vote possible, then an obama win in ohio is not out of the question. winning ohio would be a tipping point. not just in the electoral college, but would signify a seismic political shift -a new kind of mandate to govern. obama will have captured their queen.

i went to bed last night with a bad feeling, though. that this election is headed for the courts. lawsuits, etc. if the election is close and the margins in the battleground states razor thin, somebody's gonna sue. mark my words. acorn, voter fraud, purging of the rolls, faulty voting machines, long lines...etc. it could get real ugly.

does joe the plumber still get his record deal?