• Pam’s been getting lots of mailings from the Obama campaign. She must be in some heavily-targeted demographic (married 40-something white women without kids????). Printing companies are having a heyday.
• An illuminating Time story about Troopergate and the ham-handedness of the Palin administration (and her husband’s out-sized role). Doesn’t inspire confidence.
• I greatly respect how John McCain has handled some of the loony comments being made in town-hall meetings about Obama. While his own campaign has shamefully spawned and encouraged some of these comments, McCain is very publicly denouncing comments from his own supporters. Interesting.
• Last week, Anderson Cooper (CNN) did a report detailing all of Obama’s interactions over the years with William Ayres. It was pretty extensive, far beyond what Obama admits. (Though I have trouble getting worked up about it.)
• I really enjoy “The Vote Blog,” from the Christian Science Monitor website. Balanced and witty.
• With all the attention on the presidential campaign, I’m not hearing anything about other important races, like Senate seats. Usually, these gets plenty of press.
• Watched Mike Huckabee’s new show on Fox, Saturday night at 8:00. Kinda interesting. Interviewed Chuck Norris–interesting, but not much substance. But loved the band number at the end (all band members being Fox employees, with Huck on the bass). They did “Mustang Sally” this week.
• General Petraeus talks about negotiating with your enemies and preconditions. Good stuff.
• Turns out the National Security Agency has been listening to calls from any US citizens calling from the Middle East–aid works, journalists, tourists, soldiers–“Americans who are not in any way, shape, or form associated with anything to do with terrorism….Calling home to the United States, talking to their spouses, sometimes their girlfriends.” NSA monitors would jokingly share recordings of pillow talk between US military officers and their spouses. Protecting the world for democracy and freedom, by violating civil and privacy rights.
• The general who led the Abu Ghraib investigation, Antonio Taguba, believes the Bush Administration should be charged with war crimes for the torture and mistreatment of prisoners. I agree. But it’ll never happen (unless the Europeans take the lead).
• So Sarah Palin will appear on Saturday Night Live this week. Smart move for her. Really. She’ll gain points. Says Palin of Tina Fey, “I love her, she’s a hoot and she’s so talented. It would be fun to meet her and keep on giving her new material.”

You must read the transcript of the Swampland live-blog of the debate, by reporters Karen Tumulty, Michael Grunwald, and James Poniewozik. It’s hysterical. They started a half hour before the debate started, and continued to the end, injecting snide little comments throughout. Here are snippets:

• Poniewozik: “Staffer who gave Obama the current price of gas in Nashville gets a little something extra in his paycheck this week.
• Tumulty: “It really is feeling like Short Attentin Span Theater.”
• Poniewozik: “What does Soledad O’Brien think about again being consigned to undecided-voter-panel hell in Columbus again?
• Tumulty: “What’s with the stools. Is this “Cheers”?
• Poniewozik: “There will be an acoustic guitar segment.”
• Grunwald: “It’s like they take turns delivering their stump speeches.”
• Poniewozik: “Somewhere, Bill Clinton is throwing things at the TV.”
• Tumulty: “I’m very distracted by McCain standing behind Obama and looking really, really mad.”
• Grunwald: “This format sucks. It’s just side-by-side stump speeches with human props.”
• Poniewozik: “Congratulations, Commission on Presidential Debates! You managed to take an encounter with real Americans and drain it of any possible human interest!”

The pundits are going gaga over Sarah Palin’s performance, as if she charmed the socks off of voters with her folksiness. I find this terribly condescending. The coastal pundits think we heartlanders are a bunch of shallow hicks who swoon over someone who drops betcha, doggone, and darn into speech. We fell for a down-home-talkin’ fellow in 2000. Give us credit for looking a tad deeper this time.

Here is the debate I saw:

• Sarah Palin held her own. She acquitted herself well, and redeemed her interviews with Couric and Gibson.
• She’s feisty and likable.
• Biden and Palin kept the debate civil and respectful. None of McCain’s demeanor from the first debate.
• I felt Palin was downright (there, a folksy term) rude. The way she ignored Gwen Ifill’s questions and talked about whatever she wanted to talk about.
• I found Biden much easier to understand. His answers were more nuanced, more complex–yet more comprehensible. Palin just rambled with talking points, and often, when she finished, I had no real idea what she said. And I’m not a dumb guy. But heck, she was just so doggone charmin’, weren’t she?
• I was impressed with Biden. Of course, I was before.
• Interesting how Biden didn’t correct her for naming the general “McLellan,” when his real name is McKiernan. He went out of his way not to attack her. He was walking a tightrope of sorts, and I’m sure it wasn’t comfortable for him.
• I appreciated Biden’s strong attack on the way Cheney has abused his VP powers, and Palin’s desire to increase VP powers sent chills up my spine.
• I didn’t care for the way Biden kept repeating the same lines. Hey, I got it the first time.
• Liked his comeback about McCain being a maverick on some things, but not on issues that really mattered. Though he has, indeed, gone against the administration on issues I consider important (like Iraq, torture, and climate change).
• I’m comforted that both candidates believe global warming is for real, and want to do something about it.
• Palin sounded like Mark McGwire, saying he wasn’t there to talk about the past. That worked well for McGwire.
• At one point, they seemed in a contest to see who could say “middle class” the most.
• Palin kept talking about “victory” and “winning” in Iraq. This isn’t the type of war you “win.” I found her use of such words very naive.
• Can’t she learn to say “nuclear” right (instead of adopting Bush’s pronunciation of nucular)?
• I thought she did great on the questions surrounding gay rights and the traditional family. She and Biden held the same view. Yes, it’s possible for a conservative Christian to believe that homosexuality is sin, while at the same time, as a citizen of a pluralistic secular country, favoring full civil rights for gay couples. But I don’t suppose James Dobson was too happy about it.
• If, at the beginning, Biden had told her “No, you can’t call me Joe. It’s Senator Biden,” then she couldn’t have used her “Say it ain’t so, Joe” lines. Clever that she got permission ahead of time.
• Biden, to my memory, never attempted any gimmicky lines.
• Both came across as plain-folks types, the kind you would enjoy having over for dinner.
• It’s pretty clear: Biden knows the issues inside and out.
• Regarding that question about what campaign promises they would need to forgo in light of the budget crisis (the same question Jim Lehrer asked in vain): Biden answered it well, while Palin seemed to insist that there wasn’t anything they would cut. Hmmmm.

While the pundits seem to be giving Palin a win, polls of average Joes show a preference for Biden. People are looking much deeper than the Elite Joes think they are. From the post-debate polls, looks like more undecideds broke for Obama than for McCain.

But yet, Palin definitely helped herself and the campaign with her debate performance. Expectations were so low that, as long as she didn’t collapse in tears, she would be declared the winner.

I got up at 6:00 this morning to see what Joe Scarborough (on MSNBC) had to say about the financial crisis. Glad I did. He was basically in rant mode, flinging blame in all directions. Incensed with the breakdown of government.

• He blamed the President for not explaining the crisis well. Leadership is largely about communication.
• He blamed Nancy Pilosi for her stupid partisan speech at a totally inappropriate time.
• He blamed John McCain for his theatrical parachute drop last week.
• He blamed House leaders on both sides for their inability to deliver votes.
• He blamed the Treasury Secretary for his initial proposal.

It was fun to watch. But eventually, I decided I had to go to work.

I listened, some, to Olberman and Maddow last night on MSNBC. They were both blaming Republicans for basically everything wrong in world history, including the Crusades, the sinking of the Titanic, and New Coke. Meanwhile, on FOX News, the Democrats got blamed for everything. Only CNN, in my view, offered any balance. Maybe that’s because their programming focuses more on news than on punditry. Lou Dobbs, who I normally dislike, was taking a broad view.

Interesting time.