Nielson ratings

With a baseball playoff game, the viewership is down -- probably near 50 million.

Assume bias towards over-reporting watching, so true viewership at 40 million.

Drop off because this was boring, around 25-30 million.

Begala and Carville

MSNBC is bringing up the ACORN and Ayers thing.

It's irrelevant. To directly quote the man I wanted to be when I was 7 (seriously), James Carville*:

IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!

See my earlier post on why the election is over. Nothing changed tonight. There wasn't much of an opportunity for it to. If there'd been more of an economic focus it might have, but so far the dominate issue is still the economy and the frame and perception hasn't changed.

Though I find myself, on MSNBC, agreeing with Mike Murphy. Obama was more defensive. Joe the Plumber won. All of this avoided the economy and Walnuts failed.

*Seriously, since I was a tiny child I wanted to be a strategist, not President. Since roughly seven or eight years of age I have known who James Carville is.

Dear Obama

Stop agreeing with McCain.

Additionally, I may have liked you during primary season if you had specifics. Granted, your specifics still aren't wonky enough for me, but at least they now exist.

And so it begins...

I love Bob Schieffer. There is something about Texans, seeing as how I identify as one, that I love. I subscribe to the Face the Nation podcast and still make a point to switch over to his final comments (and lately, most of his show). There's something about Texans. Just look at the dominate figures in US government in the past half-century. Rayburn, LBJ, Speaker Wright, Tom "The Hammer" DeLay, and even Rove and Dubya. Texans dominate the political processes. We are badasses.

I do hope Schieffer acts like a good Texan tonight. And by that I mean brash, blunt, and brazen. I hope he calls both candidates out for not answering questions. I hope he asks real questions and not just segues for talking points. I hope he forces the two to interact with one another and address the real issues.

I hope he makes it interesting, for lack of a better expression. I'm hoping that this Texan doesn't disappoint me and manages to bring a more intellectual dimension to this.

And so it begins now... I'm on MSNBC.

Important decisions

Oh, and I also forgot. I finally made an important decision about what to drink for the debate tonight. My goal is to get through some Dogfish Head in honor of Biden's home state, and later move on to a California Cabernet Sauvignon. I would go with one of the two French wines I bought at a cooperative food market in the People's Republic of Carrboro, but I can't figure out what vintage is on one of them and the other I have found out post-purchase is a Merlot.