Like most of you, I couldn't sit through the entire Vice-Presidential Debate. My impression was that it was an irrelevant quarrel between two men, neither of whom is qualified to hold the office of President of the United States. If I absolutely had to pick the one I'd want to see there, it would of course be Kaine because Pence isn't fit to be a hall monitor at a middle school. I wonder how many people know how fervent his anti-gay views are…and how illogical.
Still, of the two, I thought he came off better. A lot of people seem to feel that way this morning, though most admit he lied his ass off when he denied that he and Trump said many things that there's video of them denying. I haven't looked yet but I'll bet the Clinton campaign had a video edited by daybreak showing Pence saying, "Trump never said this," followed by a clip of Trump saying just that — over and over.
I don't know if in the long run that will hurt the Trump-Pence ticket. My working assumption is that nothing that happens in a vice-presidential debate makes a lot of difference unless (maybe!) the veep candidate looks so inept that his or her selection reflects badly on the presidential candidate's judgment. Sarah Palin and Dan Quayle did but I don't think even Quayle's inept performance cost the ticket any ground. And if Palin cost McCain any votes, it was with her overall campaigning, not with what she did in the debate where she probably exceeded expectations…which she managed by not showing up drunk, puking on the moderator's pants and falling off the stage.
The polls look better and better for Hillary Clinton, though we certainly have enough time for another roller coaster dip or two before they count the ballots. The most encouraging thing for her I've read in days is this article by Harry Enten, noting how Trump is faring worse with white voters than Mitt Romney did. That's important since white voters are about all Trump has going for him in this election. A group shot of all his black supporters will have about as many bodies as The Fifth Dimension.
In any case, my view of the debate last night is not unlike that of Daniel Larison, who thought Pence fared better but who was appalled to learn that both tickets have pretty much the same plan for Syria.
And as far as I know, there's never been a case where someone who was running on one presidential ticket endorsed another presidential ticket. But it looks like Gary Johnson's running mate is more or less doing that.
In other news: Yes, yes. Of course I know Ed McMahon was a regular on ABC back when Johnny Carson was hosting Who Do You Trust? I just thought they were setting the bar pretty low for who they'd consider an ABC star. As my pal Stu Shostak wrote me, Ed probably showed up at the taping because they had free drinks.
One of the many permutations of HBO I receive is running several episodes of The Larry Sanders Show. I own DVDs of the entire series and could watch them at any time…but somehow, I got sucked into watching them as they're airing. I forgot what a fine, well-written show that was…and well-acted. Rip Torn and Jeffrey Tambor were especially wonderful.
Still, I think I'm going to stop watching these episodes back-to-back. They don't work as well that way, especially as I get a bit weary of how depressed and miserable almost all those folks were with their jobs and lives. So I watch one where Paula (Janeane Garofalo's character) hates what she does and then I watch one where Phil the Writer hates what he does and then I watch one where Hank's assistant Darlene hates what she does and of course Larry Sanders always hates what he does…
…and I am reminded that some shows are better when you don't binge on them so I'm going to stop. I also have the same problem with Tambor's character, hilarious though he may be, that I had with Ted Knight's on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. At some point, both Hank Kingsley and Ted Baxter became such destructive, thoughtless assholes that it's hard to accept when everyone hugs and declares that they're all family and it wouldn't be the same without ol' Hank/Ted. That won't be as much a problem if I don't watch them in concentrated doses.
I'm also enjoying the wonderful new DVD set of The Defenders more now that I've stopped trying to watch more than one in a day's time. Better to ration those out at one per week…the way they were made to be seen. Gotta run.