Tonight's Debate

First of all, I think it's funny how the cable news networks hosting presidential debates market them in the same way the broadcast networks hype American Idol or Lost. When CNN hosted the last one, their website's front page was entirely devoted to slavering coverage of every moment of back-and-forth. You can't even find a peep regarding tonight's MSNBC debate on it now. Same deal with MSNBC; this 'rhetorical slugfest' (their words) covers a main page that didn't deem the CNN debate worthy of a few lines a while back.

I'm not linking to them on GP.

Clinton's histrionics about healthcare (16 full minutes) ended with a big ol' group hug by the end of the night, and Obama's calm and reasoned response was borne out as the right response by Clinton's gradual toning-down of her rhetoric. And her shrieking about being asked the first question complemented her poorly-placed sarcasm about the Obama SNL skit, asking him if he'd like another pillow.

At this point, Clinton has to be coming around to the unpleasant reality that nobody really wants to go back and fight the old battles of the 90s. He's not going to polarize the electorate the way Clinton will. The country has suffered enormously under the Bush administration in every conceivable way, and Obama is the only one,, in my opinion, who has the ability to heal the country while moving it forward in the right direction.

But they're both right when you look at their Cuddly Comments at the end of the debate. Both of them would be light-years better than McCain and their differences are minor at best, and both Clinton and Obama will put America back on track.

This is bound to get consumed by the spin cycle and analyzed until it's been bled white. Personally, I'm just looking forward to next Tuesday.