GOING INTO TONIGHT's 3rd and final presidential debate at Hofstra University, I'll admit that John McCain has surprised me to the upside in his two previous encounters with Barry Obama...
...But this debate is devoted exclusively to economics in terms of subject matter, hardly McCain's strong suit...
...Of course these are not really debates in the strictest sense of the word, more like dueling verbal press releases, so there really can't be a winner in something where no one is judging or keeping score...
...One thing not in dispute is the viciousness of David Letterman's attacks on McCain since the senator canceled his appearance a few weeks ago...
...Last night's show was no exception: "But John McCain is an optimist who sees the glass as half full -- of his dentures"...
...At 72 McCain is 3 years older than Ronnie Raygun when he was elected in 1980, and like a lot of you I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now...
...Then again one man's stream of consciousness is another man's dementia...
...Speaking of which, Ned Ehrbar made a hostile reference to Hofstra U. in today's metro, a free daily here in NYC: "Tonight, John McCain and Barack OBama are following in the footsteps of countless young Long Island women whose grades suffered because of too many Zima benders: They're going to Hofstra University"...
...Not a bad line, but why single out women...
...After all, I am writing from the perspective of someone who attended that very same institution of higher learning, at least for one glorious year before moving on, so if I can't quite call Hofstra University my Alma Mater, let's say it was at least my Quarter Mater based on my completing two semesters out of a potential eight while residing in Dormitory Tower E and enduring one brutal season getting my butt kicked on a daily basis by Zelik Zegilbaum (real name) and others ahead of me on the depth chart in wrestling practice as a freshman trying to make the varsity team...
...The Hofstra teams were called the Flying Dutchmen back then, had a real cool logo of a ship, before the PC police drained the fun out of sports names...
...Now they're called the Hofstra Pride! Ever try to make a sports logo out of a personal attribute? Don't bother...
...Presidential debates historically have been hit or miss in terms of entertainment value......The last McCain-Obama showdown was called boring by many, but I found it fascinating watching McCain's weirdly tense body language as he paced around the stage...
...The Sarah Palin-"Joe" VP debate, on the other hand, was disappointing to me because I was really hoping for a series of bloops and blunders or at least some choice malapropisms on her part...
...Instead we got the spectacle of her delivering 20 well-scripted, well-rehearsed "answers" that sometimes did but mostly did not correspond to any question formulated by the debate moderator...
...Her head so stuffed with names and facts that the words came a-spillin' forth from her mouth like a burst water balloon, accompanied by a disturbing series of calculated smirks, winks and smiles...
...One debate I still regret not taping was the legendary 1st meeting between Bush and John Kerry in 2004...
...The Decider's mind that night shriveled up in prime time for an entire nation to see...
...Of course the thing about most candidates' debates is that you always think your guy (or gal) won...
...Perception is indeed reality, but not even Bush supporters dared go there after that shockingly clueless performance...
...Speaking of which, the key issue is the extent to which the electorate holds Republicans responsible for the economic mess, in effect saying: That last guy you-all "gave" us was a total disaster -- a reverse King Midas if you will; let's try one of the other guys now...
...Now that the Straight Talk Express has been derailed, driven off the rails by a sludge of negative messages, will McCain be looking to land a decisive knockout blow...
...Trailing by close to double digits on many scorecards, John "No Pain" McCain may he's feel behind enough to risk a few wild swings in the hope that one of them stuns Barack "The Lock" Obama...
...That always leaves a boxer open to a devastating counterpunch if the other guy is expecting a long roundhouse...
...All the nasty campaign rhetoric also leaves the ex-POW vulnerable to additional charges of negative campaigning, which accorinding to a major new study turns off more undecided viewers than it attracts to the "cause"...
...Palin was charged with breaking ethics laws and abuse of power in the sordid case of the Alaska state trooper who was terminated...
...This hasn't stopped her from telling crowds at campaign stops this week that she's relieved to have been "cleared of all wrongdoing"...
...It's behavior like that makes it easy to dismiss Palin as just another sleazy politician, hardly a maverick at all, but one who has mastered lying and distortion of facts that is almost congenital to her party...
...I hope there's a day and that day comes soon when the name Sarah Palin is the answer to a trivia question, an amusing footnote in U.S. political history like Dan Quayle or Lyndon LaRouche...
...Finally, speaking of long shots, have you heard the new right wing talking point about the faltering economy? According to at least two recent op-ed pieces in the cranky New York Post, it's tanking precisely because the markets are scared of the impending Obama presidency, and are reacting in kind to his proposed economic policies...
...That bit of fatuous frippery nicely encapsulates the urgent nature of the right's hapless desperation at this point...
...It's also the kind of smear that's impossible to disprove, but that doesn't mean such ludicrous charges are grounded in anything like a fact-based universe...
...Then again we are talking about The Post here, where reality rarely intersects with their biased opinion pages...
...Not like here at Warden's World, where we always shoot right down the middle!
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