Town hall voter: "I know Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae"

Remember the town hall questioner Oliver Clark, who John McCain said may not have heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the economic crisis? Well, turns out the senator was wrong, and Oliver wanted people to know:

"Well Senator, I actually did. I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent person. I have a bachelor degree in Political Science from Tennessee State, so I try to keep myself up to date with current affairs. I have a Master degree in Legal Studies from Southern Illinois University, a few years in law school, and I am currently pursuing a Master in Public Administration from the University of Memphis.

In defense of the Senator from Arizona I would say he is an older guy, and may have made an underestimation of my age. Honest mistake. However, it could be because I am a young African-American male. Whatever the case may be it was somewhat condescending regardless of my age to make an assumption regarding whether I was knowledgeable about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

Yours truly on Inside Politics this weekend

Shameless plug for other people's products: I'm on NewsChannel5+ Inside Politics with Pat Nolan this weekend, along with NashvillePost.com's Ken Whitehouse. We're talking about the Belmont debate and what it could mean for next week's debate in New York and Nashville's potential to host a party convention in the future.

The show airs on Comcast Channel 50 tonight at 7 p.m., Saturday at 5 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., and Sunday at 5 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. (it's also on Channel 5 at 5 a.m. Sunday, for all you rabbit-ears users).

Morning Links: Dow keeps dropping; race keeps plodding

This guy finally got his scalp open early this morning.

So the Dow is down 300 today, which is actually only half as bad as yesterday (but give it time!). That's making some Republican supporters angry, especially because they're losing -- heck, even the made-up people are supporting Obama.

Oh, and the Palin trooper report will probably come out today (and it doesn't look good), so the "Palin campaign" released their own report first -- and unsurprisingly, she's cleared of all wrongdoing. Well, I guess that's that.

One final note -- in the time it took me to write this, the Dow dropped 75 points. Now go burn your money.

ALSO:

Barack Obama is taking over your TV, ala Ross Perot -- except maybe Obama will use PowerPoint.

A Medill student tells us to all stop laughing at our politicians. Somebody please tell him we're laughing to keep from crying.

And on that note:


(Photo credit: Richard Drew/Associated Press)

A day of rest

Today I'll be kicking back and doing the kind of things that all people do on a day off, like get their car emissions tested for the third time. In the meantime, feel free to e-mail me about what you'd like to see this blog become now that the debate is over and the election is nearly upon us. Want more election coverage? General politics? Sophomoric humor? Let me know, and I'll tell you what the bosses think. After all, I am both their pawn and yours.

Making some noise

From Tennessean reporter Michael Cass:

Two of the people I interviewed at the Ryman Auditorium after the debate ended last night were Jerry and Jane Armour. Jerry, a psychotherapist, said he was there to observe the crowd as much as anything else. He found the audience "not as excitable as I thought they would be."

"They were pretty civil, and I was sort of proud of 'em," Jerry said.

But while they may have been on good behavior, the people at the historic venue got to make a lot more noise than the town-hall audience under the watchful eyes of Tom Brokaw and the Commission on Presidential Debates (though those folks did make their feelings known in quieter ways).

"I think we had more fun here than they did at the Curb Center," said Jerry's wife, Jane, a Belmont alumna. "It was a great experience. We could react over here."

Hatin' the players and the game

Worst debate ever? McCain demands that you take it back. Take it back!

Was Tuesday's non-answer fest really the worst debate ever? Politico says yes. I say that at the rate these guys are going, just wait until the next one. (And -- while not presidential -- has anyone forgotten this mostrosity?)

(h/t Michael Cass; photo credit Billy Kingsley/The Tennessean)

The world is over: Politics beats football in Nashville

"Those awards are great, Al, but let's see you shake off Ray Lewis."

The preliminary TV ratings are in this morning, and woe to competing cable programming: the debate scored a whopping 57.7 in the area, equivalent to 586,405 homes according to our friends at NewsChannel5. In comparison, the first debate scored a 40.6 (412,618 homes), and last week's VP debate hit 53.0 (538,639).

The debate rating knocked off the previous local high of the past decade: the 2003 AFC Championship Game between the Titans and the Oakland Raiders, which scored a 54.7. I just wish Nielsen conducted a viewer satisfaction poll, because I'm pretty sure both programs would score lower than last week's Project Runway.

(Photo credit: Larry McCormack/The Tennessean)