Ed Rollins: “[Obama] is not going to win by telling voters McCain is too old and doesn’t know how to use the Internet. Many of McCain’s supporters are old and could care less about the Internet.”

At the Y, a long bank of TVs hang on the wall to help fitnessnics while away the time on the treadmills, bikes, and arc trainers. My arm-bound Radio Shack tuner lets me dial into the various channels.

So I’m treadmilling last night, switching back and forth between MSNBC and FOXNews. And getting very frustrated. Lots of very serious analysis of lipstick comments. Olberman is bashing McCain and giving Democrats highly articulate wet kisses. Meanwhile, O’Reilly is pretending to be fair and balanced while belittling all things Democrat.

Olberman is now officially a joke (there, Mom, I said it), his own Worst Person in the World. (O’Reilly has been one for some time.) His Alpha Dog power trip downed Tucker Carlson and Dan Abrams, and he’s working on banishing Tom Brokaw, who told him on air that he was being unfair.

Their shows end. On comes newcomer Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, and Hannity and Colmes on Fox. Maddow is Olberman’s spunky little sister. Hannity loves superlatives and exaggerations, like last night when he said of McCain, “He had every bone in his body broken in a Hanoi prison.” Colmes is allowed to speak occasionally.

I just want to watch some objective news. A couple nights ago, Olberman interviewed Obama, with questions akin to this: “You’ve seen the latest McCain ad. It was stupid, right?” I think even Obama was embarrassed by it, and may have thought Olberman was hitting on him, it was so suck-uppity chummy.

I went home and turned on CNN. Anderson Cooper was actually dealing with issues–comparisons of the candidates’ tax plans, their abortion views, other stuff. It was enlightening. What a concept.

I miss having Headline News at night, when you could actually turn on the TV and get the day’s news. Now, Headline News has Shallow Glen and Shamelessly Exploitive Nancy…and better ratings, evidently. So sad.

Regrettably, I fell asleep halfway through McCain’s speech last night. When I woke up, he had just finished. Time for balloons. Poor Andrea Mitchell, drowned in balloons. She was trying to come up with something clever, like when John Chancellor said while being carried off by security at the 1964 convention, “This is John Chancellor, somewhere in custody.” Andrea said she was somewhere on the convention floor, and I’m sure she had Chancellor in mind, but she just couldn’t think of something clever.

So, my long bout of sleeplessness will come to an end.

• Two weeks of Olympics.
• A week of the Democratic convention.
• Then the Republican convention.

Now, finally, there’s no reason to stay awake past 10:00.

I guess McCain knew I needed the sleep, so he let me get started early.

Sarah Palin rocked. Her family rocked. Excellent pick, Mr. McCain. The news this morning, various channels, replayed her best lines–and there were a lot of them. When she was selected, the conventional wisdom was that McCain had just forfeited his greatest argument against Obama–that he was inexperienced. But Palin’s executive experience–though minimal–only accentuates Obama’s pervasive novice-ness.

A few other notes:

• Rudy was superb. He killed Obama on the experience issue. Gave me extensive pause.
• Did you know that John McCain was a POW? Someone pointed that out last night.
• I watched the first 45 minutes of Morning Joe this a.m. A ravefest for Palin.
• I remain concerned that the McCain campaign is headed toward the contemptible “divide the country so we can win the election” tactics of George Bush.
• The constant “USA!” chanting really gets on my nerves.
• Mitt Romney: boring! He said something about Republicans not being the party of Big Brother. ‘Scuse me, but–warrantless wire-tapping of American citizens? Curbing of civil rights?
• I didn’t like the campaign people constantly portraying Palin as a victim of the press. As if she was sequestered in a hotel room, barely holding back tears, muttering, “Everyone’s picking on me. Please tell them to s-t-o-o-o-o-o-p.” She’s a tough gal. I can’t imagine she enjoys being depicted as a victim.

I like Sarah Palin. A lot. She’ll come under fire for lack of experience and gravitas (could she go toe-to-toe with Putin?), but I think she’ll do fine. She’s good people, and pretty spunky from the sounds of it.

Four good candidates. For me, it’s a win-win election. I have definite views about what the country needs right now and where we need to go. For that, I lean rather strongly toward Obama. I have concerns about him, but more concerns about McCain and areas in which his views don’t represent where I feel we need to go. If we hadn’t just undergone eight years of George Bush’s wrecking ball, with debris scattered everywhere, I would easily vote for McCain.

But they’re both good men. To me, there’s no need to demonize any of the four candidates, and I hope (with little real hope) that this campaign can stay civil. They’re all good people, and I’ll probably be happy whichever way it goes. (Cindy McCain would make the best First Lady.)

Two months to go. Lots could happen. One of the biggest McCain negatives, for me, is that he’s using a Karl Rove disciple to run his campaign, and we’re seeing Rovish tactics. This turns my stomach, and I hate seeing McCain diminish himself this way. If Obama bows to similar tactics, I’ll be similarly disappointed.

But right now, I want to, for the most part, rejoice knowing that whoever wins, the country will be better off.