Is an idiotic debate excellent news for Hillary?
Just asking.

It's looking as though as a possible hook for tomorrow's stories maybe be the debate itself, rather than the candidates' responses (throwing one more "meta-" into the hyphen parade).  It was the "Gotcha Debate," as HuffPo is reporting.  Does the dirt rub off on Hillary, who has been jumping the shark in peddling this very same nonsense? Or does it stick to Obama,  considering the sheer volume of it lobbed at him by FoxLite and Hillary together?  I have to admit, it was a pretty low energy performance from Obama. A little piece of me dies inside every time that "flag pin" shit is brought up, and I can't help but think Obama felt the same way: "Seriously, Chuck? You're pushing the flag thing? Why do I even bother? This is just pathetic. Or, better, idiotic."

One of the biggest ironies of tonight's time-suck was that it took place in the very same hall in which Barack gave his speech on race. Remember that one? The speech where he rejected a culture of sound bites and gotchas, and appealed to the news media to actually do its job?  Regardless of the damage done or benefit to either candidate, I think we can all agree that as far as our political discourse is concerned, tonight was anything but excellent news.