Category: default || By jt3y

Pardon me for not feeling creative, but I spent my normal essaying time balancing my checkbook and paying bills. And trying to pay my bills this month mustered all of the creativity I possess.

I did listen to the debate while I worked, and the combination of mathematics, low finance and bloviating gave me a pounding headache, to the point where I finally gave up and turned off the TV.

Interestingly enough, I started out listening to the debate on the radio, and frankly, I thought Dubya was cleaning Yawn Kerry's clock. The reception was lousy, though, I so I turned on the television. The visuals hurt President Smirky's performance, but I'd still have to give him a slight edge over JFK Lite. The Tube City Almanac National Affairs Desk will score the debates Kerry 2, Bush 1 ... and Voters 0.

Neither candidate said a damn thing of importance, of course. Kerry's responses could have been selected at random from any of his answers during the first two debates; Bush seemed intent on trying to work in as many references to Ted Kennedy as possible. And unfortunately, there was no moderator to call them to account.

Oh, I'm sorry, there was Bob Schieffer, whose questions ran the gamut from insipid to pandering. I wonder if those questions were forced on him by a committee, or if he was pulling punches for fear that the usual suspects would pounce on him for being a "liberal-biased" newsman from CBS. If so, his fears were justified when Shrub trotted out his oh-so-subtle "joke" about "not trusting the media." Ha. Ha. Ha. Get it? Nudge nudge, wink wink? See, CBS had these memos a while ago ...

Yeah, right.

By the way, "jokes" like that would be funnier if the Bush Administration hadn't been so nasty, partisan and controlling with reporters and news outlets for the past four years. Whereas most Presidents have viewed the media as at best a potential ally and at worst a necessary evil (I was going to say "nuisance," but that word seems to have gotten a bad reputation this week), Bush, like Richard Nixon, has treated them like a dangerous force that must be stopped. I don't find that attitude very healthy for democracy, and I don't find the President's japes about his hostile attitude toward the media --- and the public's right to know --- very humorous.

All in all, it was the weakest of the three debates. The pundits seemed to be calling this debate a draw; the instant polls gave an edge to Kerry; and I doubt anyone was swayed either way. I'd be interested to look at the overnight Nielsen ratings to see if most people stayed tuned through the entire thing, or tuned out after the first 15 or 30 minutes.

Personally? After I finished balancing the checkbook using principles set down by that great economist, Billy Preston (yep, nothing from nothing leaves nothing), I read a book.