I don't want to alarm anyone. But you should be aware there's a significant chance we'll see some real tire-swinging from tonight's moderator Tom Brokaw. Brokaw is a pro with a long and distinguished career. But he does appear to have a real thing for the tire-swing. As the Times reported at the end of September, in recent months Brokaw has served as NBC's emissary to the McCain campaign "to assure the candidate's aides that -- despite some negative on-air commentary by Mr. Olbermann in particular -- Mr. McCain could still get a fair shake from NBC News. Mr. Brokaw said he had been told by a senior McCain aide, whom he did not name, that the campaign had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one of the moderators of the three presidential debates -- until his name was invoked."

And remember that it was Brokaw, during the Democratic convention, who went on at some length how Bill Clinton and all Democrats had to be really careful about criticizing John McCain because of his time as a POW ...

Again, I'm not saying Brokaw's some hack. He's definitely. not. But he does seem to have remained captive to the McCain myth, long after many of his generational pundit peers have hopped off the tire-swing for good.