My friends called me about making plans to watch the presidential debate with all the enthusiasm we normally save for deciding where to watch the Packers game.

Moderator Jim Lehrer added to the football mentality when he laid the ground rules: there was a coin toss to decide who would speak first (Obama won the toss). But the crowd would not be a factor, as Lehrer declared no crowd noise would be allowed.

But the pre-game excitement was soon replaced by ennui. It was a lackluster debate.

Both candidates displayed their strengths and weaknesses, but if I had to pick a winner, I’d give it to McCain.

With his blue suit and ghastly candy cane tie, McCain sought to assure voters that his experience makes him the better candidate. He brought up Ronald Reagan several times, to remind Americans of his length of service in the Senate. He mentioned his ability to reach across the aisle to work with Democrats, and took a stab atObama, saying he was so far left, it would be impossible for Obama to do this.

I don’t think McCain ever mentioned President Bush by name. And his tripping over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s name made McCain seem prickly. He tried to make several jokes, and one eventually got the audience to laugh.

Obama tried to frame the terms as judgment versus record. The gist: McCain may have a long record, but he’s been wrong about a lot of things, too.

The first question was about the economy and here Obama was strongest. The current crisis is the “final verdict of eight years of failed economic policies” of President Bush and supported by McCain. “Prosperity doesn’t trickle down,” Obama said. Meanwhile, McCain kept repeated he’d declare a “spending freeze.”

Both contenders rambled a bit too much but each said something unexpected.

Obama said he was for missile defense. (I didn’t know that.)

McCain said he’d like to form a “League of Democracies” to pressure Iran with economic sanctions. Sounds like a runaround the UN Security Council. But, really, what would the “League of Democracies” be? Sounds a bit like a rip off of the comic book series “Justice League.”

Of course, each candidate twisted the record of his opponent and exaggerated his own. The Washington Post  tracked them.

John McCain said he began questioning the Iraq War strategy in 2003, which is true. He said in November 2003 that more troops should be sent. But his walking around a Baghdad market in April 2007, guarded by more than a hundred soldiers, and declaring that things were getting better, painted him more as a backer of the Bush Administration’s disastrous war policy.

McCain went after Obama for not holding hearings on Afghanistan and for never visiting the country. Obama said his Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee doesn’t have oversight of Afghanistan, which is true. But his subcommittee does have oversight over NATO, so he could have held hearings.

Both ended the night telling their competing narratives. (It’s about narratives, not policy, remember?) Barack Obama spoke about his Kenyan father wanting to go to school in the United States and his dream coming true. Suddenly, Rudy Giuliani’s performance at the RNC popped into my head. The former mayor of New York mocked Obama’s lack of experience and said Obama’s rise could happen “only in America.”

Unsurprisingly, McCain fell back to his favorite storyline: he was a POW. (I was wondering if he could make it through the debate without mentioning this.) He’s a maverick, too.

We’ll have to wait til the polls come out to see if independent voters were persuaded by either candidate. I’m not sure Obama’s performance sold anybody who is actually full of fear about terrorists coming here.

This humdrum debate makes the Vice Presidential one even more appealing. Sarah Palin and her talking points versus the garrulous Joe Biden will make for a great match up.

So many people I have spoken to are worried that the election will be stolen again. I’ve been thinking the Southwest might be the place to keep an eye on for shenanigans. But maybe a swing state in the Midwest is a better bet.

The Michigan Messenger reports that “Michigan Republicans plan to foreclose African American voters.”

Eartha Jane Melzer reports that the state’s GOP has a list of foreclosed homes it will use to block people from voting. The Party’s chairman said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview.

Michigan’s GOP is demanding a retraction. The Michigan Messenger says no way. Meanwhile, Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee have filed a lawsuit in federal court over the issue.

Democracy Now notes that “The Republican plan to challenge voters who have defaulted on their house payments is likely to disproportionately affect African Americans who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters. In Michigan, more than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans were made to African Americans.”

Democracy Now also reported that “John McCain’s campaign stands to benefit in other ways, as well, from the burgeoning number of foreclosures in Michigan. McCain’s regional headquarters are housed in the office building of foreclosure specialists Trott & Trott. The firm’s founder, David Trott, has raised between $100,000 and $250,000 for the Republican nominee.”

Here in Wisconsin, the state’s Republican Attorney General (& a co-chair of the McCain campaign in Wisconsin) J. B. Van Hollen  is suing the state’s Government Accountability Board, “seeking to review — and potentially disqualify — the names of as many as 1 million eligible voters whose names appear on the state’s poll list.”

The Cap Times reports that “Kevin St. John, a special assistant to Van Hollen, claims the attorney general is simply demanding that genuinely ineligible voters — whom he identified as felons serving their sentences or dead people whose names have remained on voter rolls — be prevented from voting.”

Well, Wisconsin isn’t Chicago so I doubt a lot of dead people will be voting. But a lot of students will be.

I got this today in my e-mail inbox from a pal: “Hello all . . .  please take a moment to read, respond, and pass along to as many women as you can.” with a link to a new blog, Women Against Sarah Palin .

What’s so interesting about this year’s campaign is how people outside of political parties are injecting themselves into the debate. As Micah Sifry of Tech President said at this year’s Personal Democracy Forum, “voter generated content is wild card of 2008 election.”

On a related note, Sifry just blogged “someone has hacked into one or more of Sarah Palin’s personal email accounts on Yahoo! and published some of the contents on the web.” This comes on the heels of reporting that reveals Palin may have used personal e-mail accounts to conduct state business and thus circumvent open records laws.

My friend and colleague Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates attended the Christian Right’s Values Voter Summit this past weekend in Washington D. C.

He noted the Obama Waffles for sale and asks, “Was the Obama Waffle box an anomaly in this Christian Right event?”

Judge for yourself, says Berlet.

Berlet has also written about Sarah Palin and asks, “Does Sarah Palin share with millions of other evangelicals a nightmare vision of an approaching global battle between Godly Christians and evil Satanic agents of the Antichrist in the End Times? I hope some reporters ask Palin if she shares the vision of an apocalypse soon.”

Hey Katie Couric–there’s your first question for Palin when you interview her.

From Graph Jam

Yesterday I got this from my brother, a 42 year old tile salesman, living in a suburb of Chicago.

“A Political Observation from the Men”

Okay, let’s work this out logically without a lot of emotion.

If you vote for Obama…

You get this…

But if you vote for McCain…

You get this…

I don’t know about you guys, but looking at this in a logical manner, McCain appears to be the better candidate.

John McCain tried to unify his party with his prime time acceptance speech. “We’re going to fix Washington,” McCain said. “We’ve got a record that proves just that.”

Most delegates seemed pleased with his talk but not everyone was buying it. “I don’t believe there will be any change between McCain and Bush,” said Washington State delegate Stephen Hardy, a college student and small business owner. He said Bush campaigned in 2000 on “Republican ideals of a humble foreign policy, sound monetary policy, and getting back to the Constitution,” but never lived up to them while in office. “I don’t see what McCain champions regarding the Republican ideals.”

Hardy was wearing a “Goldwater ’64” button alongside a “The Old Right—Good Ideas Never Die” button. He’s a Ron Paul supporter and like dozens of other delegates, he had managed to find time to attend Paul’s counter-event in Minneapolis held at the same time as the RNC.

He said Sarah Palin is “an excellent choice” for Vice President, due to her stance on the Constitution. Ron Paul supporters “don’t think John McCain shares those values and that’s why we supported Ron Paul.”

I asked Hardy if he was disappointed about how little civil liberties were discussed during the RNC. “I think civil liberties were addressed, unfortunately,” he told me. “When Sarah Palin in her address talked about how unfortunate it was that Senator Obama was concerned about criminals being read their rights, I wondered why this crowd of 15,000 people cheered with abundant applause at the death of habeas corpus.”

The Republican National Convention may be the place where John McCain officially accepts his party’s nomination. But it’s Sarah Palin’s show.

She dazzled the crowd at the Xcel Center Wednesday night, which had been subdued during the first two evenings. Palin generated excitement with her digs at the Democratic ticket. “A small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities,” she said. A small group of elderly women in the Kansas delegation started chanting “Yes, We Can,” when Palin talked about shattering the glass ceiling.

She didn’t say anything that we haven’t heard before from Republicans. She criticized the media and Washington elites, made Democrats out to be soft on terrorism, and spoke romantically of her small-town roots. She got two Obamas with one quip when she said that people in small towns “are always proud of America.” She made herself seem oh so normal.

But not everyone goes from the PTA to the Governor’s mansion. What’s new about Palin is the packaging. She’s giving the GOP and McCain a chance to re-brand: Maverick 2.0.

The Christian conservatives are thrilled about her and will probably motivate their base to get out the vote. Fiscal conservatives are happy. (Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform calls her “a solid Reagan republican.”) And she might manage to rouse young people inside and outside the party.

Trey Stinnett, the youngest delegate in the Texas delegation, was “ecstatic” after Palin’s speech. “I think Sarah absolutely rocked the house,” he said. He was wearing a cowboy hat that had “Palin is hot” scribbled in a black marker on the top.

His girlfriend, twenty-one year old Paula Stang (and alternate delegate) called Palin “refreshing.”

“There’s a palpable feeling of ‘we can do this,’ ” former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele said after Palin’s performance. “Folks in the party are now ready to win this race.”

I wasn’t sure what to expect at this year’s Republican National Convention. I attended the 2004 RNC in New York and back then the party was full of swagger. The Republicans dominated both houses and the executive branch. Four long years later, things are bit more subdued. But just a bit.

Despite the so-called “enthusiasm gap,” delegates here are pretty fired up about McCain and Palin. The mainstream media and even some McCain advisers have been saying McCain’s pick was an attempt to woo Hillary supporters. But it’s McCain attempt to court the Christian conservatives within the party.

Regardless of the criticism Palin is getting, McCain made a politically savvy choice. She’s not well known but has the conservative bona fides that make her acceptable to various factions within the party. And, she won’t scare off moderates.

“I am now more confident about a John McCain presidency than I am about a George Bush presidency,” Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told the New York Times. “The campaign has courted conservatives aggressively, and it has turned around remarkably in just the last few weeks.”

On the convention floor, I spoke to Texas delegate Sandra Ojeda Medina, an assistant principal at Crockett elementary in San Antonio. She was whipping up the delegates, getting them to whoop, holler, and clap. Her long black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and like most of the Texas delegation, she was wearing a red polo and jeans.

Ojeda Medina told me that the convention was fabulous. “We are so excited and energized about our ticket,” she said. “Palin is going to do a lot of good for us. I think a lot of women can identify with her as a mother now and certainly the issues she’s having to deal with at this time. Her compassion has already been seen in what she said about her daughter’s situation. She’s going to love her unconditionally.”

Ojeda Median’s top election issue is to “beat Obama.” I asked her to name a specific issue. “We want to maintain our conservative values. We are pro-life. We are fiscal conservatives,” she said. “We want what’s right and good. We want people to take responsibility and initiate to succeed in America.”

And as for having a politician from another oil state on the ticket? “It’s fabulous because we know about conserving our natural resources,” she said.

David Savage works in the oil refinery industry. “Big Oil,” he said. He lives in Cady, Texas, and said Hurricane Gustav was a bit unnerving, but “the Republican governors down there seem to have planned and minimized the impact.”

Savage thinks it’s a good idea to have another politician from an oil state on the GOP ticket. “It’s extremely important because she knows what’s going on up there. She supports drilling in ANWR,” he said. “People talk about Big Oil, but Americans have a big appetite, and we have to meet that need.”

The economy is Savage’s top priority. “I’m in the energy business,” he said. “Like the Boone Pickins ad say, we’re exporting out wealth to our enemies. So we need a mix of nuclear, coal, oil and gas, winds, solar, to be more energy independent.” He added, “Sarah Palin on the ticket is going to be a big plus.”

Savage was not concerned about Palin’s thin foreign policy experience. “As Vice president, don’t really get that involved. They attend funerals, that sort of thing. It’s a developmental position for someone who will be a future leader,” he said. “I think she really resonates with people. She was the mayor of a small town. She is an executive as governor of her state. She’s the only person on the ticket of all four of them that has been in an executive branch position.”

Ann Mazone is a delegate from Navasota, Texas, who works as a special education aide. Mazone’s number one issue for the election is the economy. She’s concerned about the high cost of gasoline, even though she doesn’t drive. “We’ve got to do something about it. We let it go too long,” she said. “This should have been straightened out in other administrations. It should have never have gotten to here. We’ve got to stop playing politics and come together and solve this problem.”

Palin may be from another oil state, but Mazone said that Palin “a little bit different because she wants to drill. She will bring a better perspective because she lives there in Alaska. Palin might be able to guide and make sure they don’t have another Valdez.”

Palin’s “independent spirit” is something Mazone finds appealing. “I really like that she has a daughter and I understand that. Her daughter is pregnant and she rallied around her. I’ve been there and that endeared me to her,” Mazone said.

Similarly, Mazone likes McCain’s maverick stance. “I like the fact that he just did not follow the party line all the time,” she said. “He did what he felt was best for the country first, before party. And that’s the way it should be.”

Like everyone else I spoke to, Mazone thinks McCain-Palin makes a great ticket. “Both are independent spirits. It’s going to be interesting, the next four years,” she said.

After leaving the Texas delegation, I saw former Speaker of the House Denny Hastert of Illinois. “I’ve known Obama for a while,” Hastert said. “He’s become a rock star even though he hasn’t really produced anything. We’ll see what he can do if he gets elected.”

Hastert said “Palin demonstrates what McCain is. She’s a maverick.” He also pointed out that she’s the “only person on ticket on both sides with executive experience.”

And what does Hastert think is the number issue in this election? “We need to get something done for this country: energy policy, economic policy, solving some of the fiscal things we are in too.”