Debatable...

I probably will watch the Biden-Palin debate tonight. I didn't watch last week's Obama-McCain debate. My mind is set, and I see very little that could change it. Obviously I follow the news, but the nature of a debate seems very artificial and constraining to me... they seem designed to prevent ideas and substance from being expressed, rather than fostering such expression.

So why bother watching, if my mind is made up, and I don't expect to learn anything substantive about either candidate's positions and outlook? Exactly my point.

Unless, as I said to another coffee drinker a bit ago, it's like a car race. I couldn't care less about the outcome, but there might be a really cool crash...

Sick, sick, sick.

Welcome to American politics.

Followup: Matty Boy at Lotsa 'Splainin 2 Do points out that The Venerable and Much Missed Molly Ivins deserves credit for the car race metaphor I used above. "The late Molly Ivins is given the credit for the great line: 'Debates are like stock car races - nobody really cares who wins; they just come to see the crashes.'" I really don't mind giving credit where it's due. Especially if I can concede said credit to Molly. I've read a great deal of her stuff, and while I honestly did think I had come up with the idea myself, I don't doubt for a second that some poorly-lit corner of my mind was giggling as it recalled this.