I didn’t know watching TV could be so exhausting until this morning. I guess watching the Sox lose, the Veep Debate, and the Cubs lose can really take it out of a couch potato.
Diminished expectations were the theme running through these three events. I thought the Sox played better than the Cubs, and the fact that no one believes the Sox are going far in to the playoffs makes watching them play a little sweeter. The Cubs, as presumptive World Series participants, were exasperating with their errors and their whiffs. With their wide swings in the dirt, the heavy hitters (D-Lee in particular) looked like they were hoeing a garden. We are expecting a lot more from the Cubs, and watching them play like Little Leaguers is a new level of depression.
The expectations were low for Sarah Palin going into the debate, so the fact that she could pronounce Achmedinajad (but not “nuclear”) made her this year’s Stephen Douglas, at least among right-wingers. I was disappointed but not surprised it wasn’t a bloodbath. Ya, you betcha I was. But her answers were so vacuous, she seemed like a customer service supervisor who could spout all kinds of nonsense but still not get me what I want. Biden in contrast was sober, smart, and experienced, but what does that count against charisma?
I watched the CNN broadcast, and so got to watch the little EKG meter at the bottom which bumped up and down from the reactions of undecided Ohio voters twisting little knobs somewhere in Chillicothe. As much as we mocked the gimmick, throughout the night, my wife and I couldn’t take our eyes off it. The blips actually revealed a few interesting things, like everyone agreed with Biden’s comment that Dick Cheney is the most dangerous elected official in America (big spikes there), the govt needs to have more diplomacy and engagement, and the country should lead UN troops into Darfur. Toward the end of the debate, when Biden was explicit in his foreign policy opinions and Palin sounded like the Chamber of Commerce booster she is, her nonanswers failed to get the EKG to move beyond tepid. But that and $3.95 will get you a cup of coffee.
I hope the Cubs, Sox and Palin can hang on just long enough to keep us entertained this month. For one thing, we’ve got a lot of poems in the queue at Bardball. Today we posted a video from Tom Latourette, which is funny, cruel and timely: