Notes on watching a debate

For me, for the first time there was a clear winner to one of this year’s presidential debates. Barack Obama blew John McCain out of the water. McCain promised to “whip” Obama’s “you-know-what” tonight, but I don’t think he did. And I’m feeling marginally better about what might happen in November.

But watching CNN, a panel of undecided voters in the Ohio, 10 people actually thought McCain won. I spend most of my life not seeing things the way everyone else does, and I guess I missed the boat on this one.

The debate was the only interesting one of the three we’ve had this year. But now it’s over, and the first pundit is a Republican saying McCain was great tonight. Even the Democrat is saying McCain was strong. Did we watch the same debate? I was annoyed at him earlier than 30 minutes. My first comment was that he was smirking! The pundits keep calling Obama “professorial” like that’s a bad thing. I think I’m taking umbrage. What’s wrong with being a professor? I swear, it isn’t easy being a professor in this society, but that’s a soapbox for another time.

This time, I don’t really have anything solid and thematic to say tonight—no unified essay with a thesis statement like I’m always pounding my students for. So I’m just going to share some of my thoughts with you. Don’t worry. I’ve edited them. I actually wrote a lot more than you’ll see!

So without further ado, notes on watching a debate:

9:02, watching CNN

Mc Cain is smirking. I am so sick of smirking.

I’m sitting here, listening to McCain, and I can tell he’s twisting words. And “class warfare”? What’s that about? He’s taking things out of context. And he’s not looking good in this matching.

Candidates are “ignoring reality”. Good point, Mr. Schieffer. Obama won on that one. McCain is being inarticulate. I like how Schieffer is getting in there and asking “which programs are you going to cut?” McCain’s just repeating his “I’m gonna fight pork barrel spending”. He’s repeating himself from earlier debates.

Just realized that CNN has a delay on the debate. Watching it on the internet is a few beats ahead.

Oh, Obama is laughing at him. And there’s a good reason for that. Things the CNN fact checkers said are false at the last debate McCain is repeating again.

Oh good! He just got called on it with Obama making a funny aside about FOX.

Oh, I love this man, Obama. He’s so smart. He’s so sharp. I love intelligence. Senator McCain is looking terrible. He is so losing this debate.

OH! Mudslinging is being brought up! I LOVE Schieffer! First person with gonads to be moderator. OH YOU ARE A LIAR! You will run a truthful campaign my arse. [Later note: guess who I was talking to?]

I don’t like the fact that neither one of them are apologizing, if not to one another, to the American public. Both sides are doing slinging mud.

I AM SO ANGRY! How can that man sit there smirking when Obama is talking about people threatening to kill him at Palin rallies? Such an inappropriate response. Military Wives for McCain, veterans for McCain. Hey Mister! You are clouding the issue with emotionalism.  Do you think Americans are that dumb? [Of course, too many are, so these ploys work.]

He doesn’t get it. He just doesn’t get it. OK, I’m obviously prejudiced, but I think Obama is just so much more presidential in his aspect. I’m loving his laugh. I’m loving his smile. McCain is so obviously grasping at straws. And he’s ignoring facts. He’s beating a dead horse, and he’s making his campaign and himself look stupid.

That’s what I was watching for, to see if they’d pay attention to the elephant in the room. They did, or were forced to, and I’m sorry McCain, you just did not come across like a president. You came across as a petulant child.

What I like about Schieffer is that he asks specific questions. I like that because I want to hear the answers, too. But I also like that because McCain does a lousy job of answering them. OK, so Obama’s not doing so well on this, either. He’s repeating things he’s said before and I’m tired of hearing the of the same thing over and over. But I do like the points he made about NAFTA.

So my mind is starting to wander. I’m watching the debate on line because my TV was starting to black out. There’s an ad on the site that says “Obama’s IQ is 130! Are you smarter than Barack?” How do they know that’s his IQ? I don’t think I like that ad. I know my IQ is higher than his. Not by much, but I certainly don’t feel smarter. Where’d those points get me? He’s running for president of the US. I’m sitting in my living room blogging about it to an audience of what, 40 or 50 if I’m really lucky? I’m a part time teacher.  So IQ is certainly no measurement, eh?

Oh, there’s that Hoover reference again! A student reminded me of Hoovervilles. I’d forgotten that subtext.

Health insurance. That’s something that I care about. Here’s an e-mail I wrote to my mother last week: “just went and double-checked what insurance would cost me.  The cheapest I could get that covered doctors was an HMO plan at $887.85 PER MONTH.

“That’s a grand total of $10,654.20 a year.

“There was a hospital plan for about 127/month, but that ONLY covered hospitalization, so what’s the point?    Can you believe it?  PER MONTH!  If I could afford that, I could afford medical care.  I could put it in a savings account each month and STILL come out ahead each year.”

McCain’s not saying anything that’s going to impress me. And as you can see above, $5000 isn’t helping me.  I can’t afford the premiums even if they were $5000 less.  So, no health care for me yet.

Spread the wealth could also mean that Joe is getting some of the money that the really wealthy companies, though of course, I’m pretty sick of Joe Plumber.  Is he the cleaned up Joe Sixpack?

How can McCain put cosmetic surgery and transplants in the same sentence? I’m sorry, that is just plain upsetting. I have a good friend who had a transplant. I had a dear cousin die because she didn’t have a transplant. Oh, you are getting me mad.  Face lifts and transplants are fru fru?

THANK YOU! Someone is finally saying something about preventing unwanted pregnancy. No one is pro-abortion. Health of the mother, so that’s just a loophole for women who want abortions? I’m starting to broil.

Education—you’re singing my song. I want to hear the words parental responsibility. I want to hear the words higher pay. I did. I don’t hear responsibility. I like the community service. PARENTS. I LOVE THIS MAN. YES, YES, YES!!!

Equal access my arse. I spend my summers teaching AOP students. Bright kids, wonderful kids, kids I love who did not have equal access. My students at BMCC did not all have equal access.  Come talk to my kids about equal access.  They will hoot you down in a New York minute!  And I love them, too.

Don’t tell me he just said NO certification for teachers? I will have to check the transcript.  We need higher standards for teachers.  Believe me, I teach future teachers.  They need standardized exams!

We don’t have a TRADITION of schools being local. We have a Constitutional requirement to that end. According the 10^th Amendment to the Constitution, anything not specifically addressed as the federal government’s responsibility is a responsibility that belongs to the state. The Federal government should be less involved in education. No Child Left Behind was unconstitutional. It should not be reauthorized.

Dragging out the autistic children as the puppies to get people to “open their wallets” is just sickening.

Invoking a “long line of McCain’s” oh Lordy! I liked Obama’s closing statements. And the boys made nice and shook hands and McCain went out of his way to make nice with Michelle Obama.

I am happy.

So that’s it.  Not my best piece of writing, I admit, but lately I am speechless.

McCain and Palin’s Tacit Sedition

Yesterday I wrote about the possibility of real violence thanks to this year’s level of mudslinging.  And the more I think of it, the more I realize that Senator McCain and Governor Palin are guilty of sedition: incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.  As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama is not a lawful authority yet.  But as Senator Barack Obama of Illinois he is a member of one of the highest governing bodies of this land.  Encouraging people to kill a senator is sedition in my book.

While McCain and Palin have not openly called for assassination, they have given their tacit approval to the direction of their campaign.

John Cory, a Vietnam veteran like McCain, summed up McCain’s culpability quite brilliant in his essay on Truthout.org. I urge you to read it in its entirety.  It’s one of those brilliant essays that manages to crystalize everything one is thinking into concise prose.  I’m left thinking, “I wish I had written that!”

This is Cory on McCain’s “defense” of Obama this past week:

This is not a moment for you to be proud of in this campaign. Garnering credit for coming to the defense of Senator Obama is like an arsonist claiming heroism for saving lives after having set fire to the building in the first place.

I already have great fears about these two winning the election.  I used to fear McCain winning, but now I see that Palin is the worse threat.  McCain had the grace to look upset over the results of his campaign’s direction.  Perhaps there is some honor left in the man.  I used to respect both McCain and Palin.  I didn’t agree with their politics, but I thought they were honorable people.  Not any longer.

Sedition is a serious crime.  In many ways, it’s worse than treason because you’re whipping up the mob with sedition.  And the mob right now could turn very ugly.

If it’s not sedition, just the fact that they are not vehemently jumping to Senator Obama’s defense is reprehensible.   Just watching footage of McCain and Palin’s response to the hate they are whipping up is nauseating.  They smile, smirk is more like it, and wave and “don’t hear” what’s being said around them.  Calling for someone’s death is a scary thing.

I think I’ve just worked myself up into a passion.  Usually writing calms me down and lets me order my thinking, but not today.  I am now off to write to my senators and congressmen to tell them what I think about McCain and Palin’s sedition.  Watch, I’ll be the one who gets into trouble!

Palin for Alaskan Independence? Tell me more!

As the election comes closer, the dirt gets nastier and nastier.  Palin has accused Senator Obama of being a friend of terrorists because someone he knows casually was a member of the group The Weather Underground back when the senator was a child of eight.  Oh my!  Of course, this is something that Hillary Clinton brought up back during the primaries.  It was laid to rest then, so why should Palin bring it back up?

Does the phrase “desperate times call for desparate measures” come to mind for any one else?

The Washington Post has a great fact checking section on the Obama-Weatherman connection, finding it specious.  Just another time waster, to distract us from the real issues.

But someone just called my attention to a blog by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr that was originally on the Huffington Post but is now on Truthout.org.  It is political dynamite, and I’m trying to spread the word as best I can.

In a nutshell, Todd Palin was a member of the Alaskan Indepence Party from 1995 – 2002.  OK, husband and wives don’t have to agree.  But, Sarah Palin attended the party’s 1994 convention, its 2000 convention, gave a keynote speech at its 2006 convention and sent a taped greeting  to the 2008 convention.

I can understand the desire for succession.  I can understand exploring the option.  But, let me quote Kennedy here:

AIP’s charter commits the party “to the ultimate independence of Alaska,” from the United States which it refers to as “the colonial bureaucracy in Washington.” It proclaims Alaska’s 1959 induction as a state “as illegal and in violation of the United Nations charter and international law.”

AIP’s creation was inspired by the rabidly violent anti-Americanism of its founding father Joe Vogler, “I’m an Alaskan, not an American,” reads a favorite Vogler quote on AIP’s current website, “I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.” According to Vogler AIP’s central purpose was to drive Alaska’s secession from the United States. Alaska, says current Chairwoman Lynette Clark, “should be an independent nation.”

Vogler was murdered in 1993 during an illegal sale of plastic explosives that went bad. The prior year, he had renounced his allegiance to the United States explaining that, “The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government.” He cursed the stars and stripes, promising, “I won’t be buried under their damned flag…when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home.” Palin has never denounced Vogler or his detestable anti-Americanism.

As Kennedy goes on to say, ” this is not something that happened when she was eight”

According to posters on both blogs, this is “old news” to many people.  I consider myself relatively aware, and I didn’t hear about it till now.

On the one hand, I realize that this is just more mud slinging.  But on the other hand, this is a matter of Constitutional issues.  I already have concerns about Palin’s ability to uphold the Constitution.  Didn’t we fight a Civil War on the issue of succession once before?  Isn’t that considered one of the darkest periods of our history?  A woman one heart beat away from the presidency who is willing to ignore the Constitution scares me more than the economic crisis.  Economies can be fixed with work and sacrifice.  So can democracies, but in most cases, the sacrifice to fix them includes lives.

Sorry, Sarah, You Can’t Have it Both Ways

I really should be going to bed right now, but my sister just popped in with the news that a decision has been reached on the Sarah Palin investigation in Alaska.  The panel has found that Palin abused power in the trooper case involving her former brother-in-law.  I immediately logged on to CNN.com and had to laugh out loud after reading this:

A spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign responded by calling the investigation “a partisan-led inquiry” run by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, but hailing its finding that Monegan’s firing broke no law.

“Gov. Palin was cleared of the allegation of an improper firing, which is what this investigation was approved to look into,” campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said.

She said the Legislature exceeded its mandate in finding an ethics violation. “Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact,” she said.

Rep. John Coghill, a Republican who criticized the handling of the investigation, said it was “well-done professionally.” (CNNreport)

Is it just me or does it look like the campaign is trying to have it both ways?  She was cleared on one charge but found guilty of another matter, yet the decision was “a partisan-led inquiry”.  How does that work?  If one decision of the panel is tainted by partisanship, would all decisions be as tainted?   And wasn’t it a bipartisan panel?  Maybe that’s why there was a split decision.  The Dems voted one way, the Republicans another.

I don’t really want to see anyone publically humiliated, but neither would I like to see someone who feels she can blithely rewrite the Constitution sitting in the Executive Office.  We already have someone in there who does that.  I’m sure we’ve all heard the unsubstantiated but unfortunately believable story that President George W. Bush called the Constitution “just a god-damned piece of paper”.  I kinda like that piece of paper.  We don’t always follow it, but for someone who has taken an oath to uphold that Constitution, that’s scary talk.  And Vice President Cheney has an interesting reading of it, as well.

I think most middle school kids know about that checks and balances thing.  They learn it practically effortlessly thanks to School House Rock’s “Three Ringed Circus,” and I know my teachers stressed it in social studies.  It’s shameful that our vice president doesn’t grasp that whole separation of powers concept.

Yet in the debate, Palin did see some wiggle room in the separation.  And now she’s been found to have abused her powers as governor.  According to the report in the New York Times,

The report says she knowingly “permitted Todd Palin to use the governor’s office and the resources of the governor’s office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired.”

Further, it says, she “knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda.”

In 2005, Trooper Wooten and the governor’s sister, Molly McCann, were locked in a harsh divorce and child-custody battle that further turned the Palin family against him. The couple divorced in January 2006. (See the whole story here)

I can actually empathize with wanting to crush and destroy someone who is hurting a sibling.  I’ve wanted to hurt people who have hurt my sister and brother.  Still do.  But I don’t, and I think that’s because I’m an intelligent person–oh, and a grown up.  I could do it.  I have the power to hurt people, but I choose not to because it would be petty and childish.  And I’d probably get arrested since my idea of power is driving a BIG truck over someone’s head.  But seriously, I could cause problems that don’t include grievous bodily harm, and I choose not to.  But if I did give in to temptation, I wouldn’t be breaking the people’s trust.    Sarah Palin did.  And she allowed her husband to abuse her office.  That’s a scary thought.

I have no problem with any government official asking a spouse for advice, talking things out with a spouse or trusting a spouse.  Isn’t that the purpose of having one?   But that’s as far as it goes.

I can hear people chanting “Bill and Hill,” and there were times when that pairing raised my eyebrows, too.  I voted for Bill, and then for the next eight years wrote him letters letting him know I wasn’t pleased with his actions at times.

But right now I’m enjoying my moment of gloat.  Most of the spin doctors haven’t started spinning too much yet, and I think I’d better go to bed before they do.

Get yourself registered!

Today is the last day to register to vote in the elections if you live in NYS.  If you live in other states, you still might have time, but get out there!

I had a young man in class today tell me that he wasn’t going to vote since it doesn’t make any difference.  I told him that’s just what those who would manipulate our democracy would have him think.  They don’t want him voting, and he’s playing in their hands.

Who are they?  The power elite.  If all the possible voters got out there and registered and then voted, there would be a groundswell that could turn into a flood.  My students are mostly people of color, almost uniformly working class people.  They are exactly who the power elite wants disenfranchised.  Don’t let them win that easily.

Get yourself registered and then vote.  I don’t care who you vote for.  Vote Democrat, Republican, Green, Independent, Socialist.  Just vote.

I am not your friend–I don’t even like you!

Tonight was debate number two, and five minutes in, I was already annoyed.  Was anyone else yelling “answer the question” at the TV?

I’m a teacher.  I ask questions for a living.  Before that I was a reporter.  I asked questions then, too.  If someone I ask doesn’t answer what I ask, I ask again, usually in different words, but substantially the same question.  The American people got to ask the questions this time, at a “town hall” type debate.  And they were asking the same questions Jim Lehrer asked at the first debate, because frankly, we never really got any solid answers that first time out.  But we did get plenty of campaign rhetoric.

Frankly, I was ready to give up and leave after 30 minutes, but I stayed the course just in case something interesting was said.  I took notes with a 64 box of Crayolas I bought for my nieces when they visit, and the best thing about the debate is the rainbow colors I’m left with.  But I notice that as the debate went on, I took more notes in red.  According to an art therapist I once knew, when children draw with a lot of red, it’s a sign of anger.  I’m thinking that holds true of note taking debate listeners, as well.

First off, Senator McCain, I am not your friend.  No one in that audience was your friend, and I don’t like you calling everyone “my friend”.  It makes you sound like a snake oil salesman.  And I’m sorry, but I’m seeing you through a different lens this week.  During the last debate, I still admired you on some levels, and I think that my blog of that week reflects that.  But in the interim, I found an article by Tim Dickinson writing for Rolling Stone.  The article is called “Make Believe Maverick” and its subheading is “A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty.”  If it’s a truthful account, and I assume it is, it’s devastating to your campaign.  It made much of what you said tonight a lie.  And when you said that the country needs a cool hand, all I could think was that was a pretty ironic statement for a known hot head.  The article in Rolling Stone delves further and reveals not only a hot head, but a spoiled kid who got very far on Grandpa’s name and Dad’s influence.  Couldn’t really match Obama’s American dream story.

Senator Obama, I would have liked a little more straight talk, but frankly, I thought you came across well and did “win,” if winner there is.  You made some good hits about Senator McCain’s much vaunted record, and he was visibly angered.  You, on the other hand, kept your cool.  I didn’t like that you invoked 9/11–using a national tragedy for political purposes is just not right.  But I did like your discussion of the teacher making 35K being told to tighten her belt.  Where is she supposed to tighten?

I make a little more than that hypothetical teacher, but I also live in one of the most expensive cities in America.  After paying my rent, I’d be left with less than $8000 a year.  And that’s before taxes.  It’s not that bad, but I’m still making a small salary.  My family has cut and cut and cut.   My dad died in 1972, and if I convert my salary to 1972 dollars, I’m making a third of what my dad made.  That wouldn’t be bad, but in context, my dad was a blue collar worker, a high school dropout.  I’m a doctor–a PhD.  What is wrong with this picture?  Lots, and yes, I should have gone to law school instead of becoming a professor, and perhaps I seem to digress, but I’m scared sometimes.  I’m scared that I can’t afford full health coverage, that I’m skimping on my life insurance, that I am not putting enough away for my retirement, that I can’t afford the educational training my son wants, needs and should really have, that I’m living one paycheck and a mother away from financial ruin.

The financial problems in the US are part of my problem, but teachers being treated poorly in this country, the root of my problem, is the topic for a different blog entry or, even better, a book.  But I think these problems added to the frustration I was building during the debate.  People were asking: how are you, as president, going to help people like us, and no one was answering.  Both candidates answered in general terms, but how is cutting government spending, cutting pork, getting energy independence, yadda yadda yadda, going to help me make my electric bill and gas payments this winter?

This is interesting.  Watching the debate, I was getting angry.  Now sitting here writing this, I’m getting angry again.  McCain likening Obama to Herbert Hoover (a Republican president, by the way) annoyed me.  All most people know of Hoover is the dam named after him.  That’s supposed to be a relevant reference?  Then he referred to the “wonderful Ronald Reagan,” which may have won him some votes somewhere, but it just set my teeth on edge.  And you say it’s “not hard to fix Social Security,” but you never mentioned HOW.  You did say you’d set up a commission.  Right.  That will work.  Name me one commission that ever fixed something.  Quickly.  You’d form a commission to discuss what to do then bring its decisions to, who?  The Senate?  To discuss what to do.  Talking, talking, talking.  We’ve been talking about Social Security for years and years and years.

Obama got me less angry, I admit, but I still would have liked something more solid from him.  I would have liked something fresh–not a rehash of what I sat and listened through two weeks ago.  Is that too much to ask?

I have my comp students reading an essay by Paul Roberts called “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words”.  Roberts is trying to help students do the opposite, but it sounded tonight like the politicians up on stage took Roberts at his word.  Had they only said 500 words it would have been tolerable.  Unfortunately, they said thousands.  Each.

Biden vs Palin: Now That’s More Like It!

Just finished watching the VP debate, and I must say, I am impressed.  It was livelier than the presidential debate, and I actually felt like the candidates were engaging with one another and with the moderator.  Once in a while.

And it needs must be said.  Sarah Palin impressed me.  She barely flubbed a line.  She spoke in full sentences.  She gave good soundbites.  She was obviously coached, but she’s one quick study, I give her that.  She mostly looked poised and confident, and there were times when she looked downright relaxed.

From what I’ve been reading and seeing about Palin for the past five weeks, she’s good at touching people where they are easily touched.  Just today in class, discussing this evening’s planned debates, we discussed the aspects of rhetoric: ethos, pathos and logos.  We knew going in that Palin was strong on pathos–the ability to sway an audience’s emotions.  And she was.  She also knows how to use her on-camera experience as a sports reporter to excellent advantage.  She looked straight into that camera and spoke to Mr. and Mrs. and Ms America.  At one point she even referred to “Joe Six Pack,” a term I learned in journalism class. 

What struck me as odd, though, was that I was taught that Joe Six Pack is the slightly condescending term we use for the people who were going to read our stories–the average American who just wants to go home after work, drink that six pack and watch some news, maybe read a paper.  Palin managed to sound like she was including herself in the Joe Six Pack stereotype.  But that nuance is probably not going to be picked up by the people she was addressing.  She knew going in that people like me were already dismissing her. 

There were times I found myself agreeing with her, which is not too strange, as I’m not a strict party member.  I’m a Democrat by default, but I am more Libertarian in my views than anything else, and in some ways I think Palin is of more of an independent mind than many Republicans.  How many times did she call herself a maverick tonight?

But I don’t think she won.  I thought Biden was very good, as well, and indeed, his experience showed.  He must have read the pundits’ advice that he not call her Sarah, but Governor Palin lest he appear sexist and condescending.  She asked to call him Joe and did so.  He called McCain “John,” Obama “Barack,” but spent the evening calling her “Governor Palin”.  As she was calling him Joe, the continual “Governor Palin” did come across as a little stiff, but that filter between his brain and his mouth was firmly in place.  There was no embarrassing sound bite that will haunt him in years to come.  There was a perfect catch in his voice when he was discussing the loss of his wife and daughter and the terrible injuries suffered by his sons, which rang true and felt unscripted.  Every parent in the listening audience empathized with him at that moment. 

He touched more emotional notes in his brilliant closing statement.  (You can find the transcript of the entire debate here.)  He used pathos to great effect in his closing and left all of us listening in my house with lumps in our throats.  He roused us to action and to change by reminding us of what we’re capable of doing as a nation.

Palin hit some good notes in her answers, as well.  Although I thought she horribly overworked the energy angle, her shout outs to teachers were very much appreciated by the three teachers in my house.  Sometimes I do feel like I will get my reward in heaven, ’cause I sure ain’t getting it here, at least not a monetary one.   And when she spoke of parents at their kids’ soccer games, of people sitting at their kitchen tables, worrying, she was painting images that millions could see themselves in.  She wasn’t always answering the question, but she was certainly catching people’s attention.

Her closing statement was disappointing.  I expected better rhetoric.  The one part of the debate that could be totally scripted, and she didn’t blow me away.  Oh, she  trotted out the words I expected to hear–freedom, fighting, change–but the delivery was stiff and stilted, probably because it was the one part of the debate that had been totally scripted.

Overall, though, I never got bored by this debate as I did with the presidential debate.  Perhaps because it’s the first time I’ve really listened to either candidate, it was less old hat than the presidential debate.  I very much enjoyed watching these two spar, and I think they enjoyed it on some level as well.  They seemed to like each other, or at least respect one another.  Both do have records of being able to cross party lines to get things done, and I think they are sincere in their desire to put America first. 

Too bad there’s only one vice presidential debate.  But let’s hope that the next presidential debate will prove as lively as this did.  This wasn’t a perfect debate, but at least I felt like the two debaters were actually in the same room together this time.

Working link

The link I posted yesterday doesn’t seem to be working. You can find the video “Money as Debt” here.

I’m getting ready for tonight’s VP debates.  They promise to be grand entertainment, though it kills me to call a political debate “entertainment”.  Mr. Missing Filter vs Ms. Meaningless Chatter.  Who will come out on top?  More tomorrow, I’m sure.