The Stew

Substantively, the first McCain-Obama debate was a wash. Anti-intellectual conservatives can bitch and moan about how Obama sounded like he was full of “book learnin’” while McCain had experience — but that’s only going to fly for the faithful. Similarly, Obama just hasn’t been to the places or had the experiences McCain has had. Even if you feel McCain has drawn the wrong conclusion from those experiences, he still had them. Only partisans won’t admit that.

The faithful remained faithful after the debate. I saw some polling that Republicans thought McCain won by 90%-10%, while Democrats thought Obama won by 93%-7%.

It’s the undecideds — or the “willfully ignorant,” as I’ve heard them called — who will decide this thing. They looked at the unsubstantial stuff — the body language, the temperament, etc. They broke something like 1.5-1 or 2-1 thinking that Obama won, depending on which news outlet’s polls you’re looking at. Obama definitely came across as presidential, seemed to know generally what he was talking about, and didn’t make a major gaffe or take a major punch. Considering that he was ahead going into this thing, a tie does McCain no good — especially since the topic of the debate, foreign policy, was supposed to be his strongest area.

You can read stuff like that on any of a few thousand blogs. Here’s something that people aren’t talking much about, but I guarantee you will become big by the time the Sunday shows come on: Where was Sarah Palin?

Joe Biden was on every network (save ABC, who wouldn’t have him on because they couldn’t find Palin), talking about how well his candidate did and how badly the other candidate did. You’d expect Palin would have been the counterpoint, but she was conspicuous in her absence. Extremely conspicuous.

Some CNN viewers, so conditioned by the GOP to see media bias under every rock and behind every tree, emailed Wolf Blitzer to ask him why they talked to Biden but didn’t talk to Palin. He basically answered that he had yelled “Olly olly oxen free,” but she hadn’t shown up yet.

If you don’t trust that your number 2 can go on the air and say nice things about you, what else don’t you trust her with?

The John McCain “suspend your campaign in order to win” strategy is going on right as this is being typed, so there are plenty of theories as to what’s really going on.

My initial thought was that he’s trying to duck the debate. It was supposed to be about foreign policy, but it’s inevitable that the economic crisis would take some or all of the debate time.

That’s not a very satisfying reason, though. He’s a war hero, fer crissake — he can’t be afraid of a little debate, can he?

Well, his campaign just released a statement that offers a much more reasonable theory. He wants to delay this week’s debate to October 2 — which just so happens to be the date of the Vice Presidential debate. He’s proposing that the Presidential debate overtake the venue for the Vice Presidential one, with that debate being delayed until later.

Delayed, my ass. All of this has been a ruse to get Palin out of debating.

Check out the first headline under the “Also on MSN” header to the right. I won’t belabor the same point I made a few months ago about the media’s inability to handle any of the serious matters that concern the country in this election year.

I’ve got to really stretch my imagination to picture what the pitch meeting for that story looked like. And I wonder, if the reporter didn’t have anything to do with the idea, whether he or she died a little bit inside while writing it. I know I would have.

It also makes one wonder about the stories that didn’t make the cut that day:

• Use biorhythms to pick your living room color
• How a divining rod can help your choose your next career
• Plan your next meal psychically
• Nostradamus has prophesied your next boyfriend

We’re going to have a hard time explaining this to future generations.

I know, I know — wrong Palin. I wish this were the one running for vice president, but that wouldn’t be legal.

I’ve got a theory about the choice of Sarah Palin to be John McCain’s vice president. I haven’t seen this theory blogged about elsewhere, so I know I have to be off my rocker.

I think they’re trying to lose.

Seriously, at this point, I think John McCain is making a sacrifice bunt. He knows he’s not going to be elected president, so he’s helping the GOP set up for next time by shoring up the conservative base of the party with a pick who’s pro-life, pro-gun (never figured out how those two fit together), pro-creationism, and all-around radical. He’s making a future play for women, by taking the “historic” step of doing what the other party did 24 years ago.

My theory has the benefit of being the only one that makes any kind of sense. Whether you like the woman or not, whether you feel for her Jerry-Springer family situation or not, I think we can all come together on the idea that Palin isn’t exactly ready to be commander and chief on day one. And when you’re vice president to a 72-year-old guy with a history of cancer, you never know when you might get called to the big leagues.

We may have to wait until the vice presidential debate to find out just how serious McCain was about this pick. If she totally miffs it, remember folks — I came up with this theory first.