Liberal Judith Warner – “On Tuesday afternoon when I went to The Times Web site and saw the photo of Sarah Palin with Henry Kissinger, a funny thing happened. A wave of self-recognition and sympathy washed over me.”
Right Winger Rod Dreher (thankfully a former film critic) – “I remember the morning I woke up in my college dorm room and went in to take my final exam in my Formal Logic class. I knew I was unready. Massively unready. And now I was going to be put to the ultimate test. I sat down in Dr. Sarkar’s class and resolved to wing it. Of course I failed the exam and failed the class, because I had no idea what I was talking about. I wasn’t a bad kid, or even a stupid kid. I was just badly unprepared, and in way over my head. Seeing the Palin interview on CBS, I thought of myself in Dr. Sarkar’s exam. But see, I was a college undergraduate who had the chance to take the class again, which I did, and passed (barely). I wasn’t running for vice president of the United States.”
Ta-Nehisi Coates takes the Dreher and runs with it – “Which brings me to the sexism of John McCain. He knew full well what Sarah Palin was going to face if he nominated her. He knew that reporters would go through her past, that they’d quizz her on the present, that she would need to be ready, and he shunted concern aside, and tossed her to the wolves. Think on that for a mement. For one last run at the White House, he risked a future star of the party he claims to call home. How do you do that? I don’t meant to rob Palin of agency, certainly she is also a victim of her own calculations and ambitions. But where I am from, the elders protect you, and pull you back when you’ve gone too far, when your head has gotten too big.”
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And just for the record, the FactCheck.org take on the debate
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And from Politico…
McCain at campaign HQ, making calls
After a late night flying back to Washington, McCain is at his campaign HQ making calls to push a deal on the financial bailout, according to a top aide.
He won’t be headed to Capitol Hill today.
As for why not, Mark Salter told the campaign pool reporter: “Because he can effectively do
what he needs to do by phone.”