Earlier, I did not understand McCain’s reference to transplants, when he seemed to be talking about optional health-care items, such as facelifts. Many readers have written in to point out that McCain meant hair transplants – plugs, in a jibe at Joe Biden.
Ah. Might have been good if he had said so. (Apparently he did in the second debate, but I missed it.)
And a reader reacted to my point that we’re electing a president, not a debater (and Obama is obviously a master debater – which I should not have written, but which I’m going to leave, as I’m in that kind of mood):
“If we elected debaters, Alan Keyes would have finished his second term in 2004 and would probably still be running for reelection, having convinced America to scrap the Twenty-second Amendment.”
So true. I remember a hilarious comment made by a colleague of mine after a Republican-primary debate in 2000. That debate involved George W. Bush, John McCain, and Keyes: “The uninitiated would think that America was the most racist nation in the world, because Keyes doesn’t have a chance, and, the way the debate went, the other two were unfit to be his valet.”
Hang on, whom did Obama beat to win his Senate seat? I forget . . .