Posts in the van belong to their posters, not to First Draft or any of its affiliates, which are entirely imaginary and also run by pirates. No violence. Strap in securely.
Update: Van closed. Thanks to the 50-some people who showed up tonight to witness Jim Lehrer get stomped like a pimp at a biker rally by Mitt Romney all night long. I have never seen someone lose control of an interview (and basically this was set up to be a joint interview, not a debate) so fast. Ten minutes in Romney was just talking over him, and Lehrer was reduced to stuttering along with “would you like to respond to that?” being his only substantive question.
Based on exactly ten seconds of post-debate coverage viewing I think the line of the night goes to Al Sharpton, who said, “Romney’s problem is that this debate is taking place in 2012, not 1812.” That’s the entire Republican party’s problem anyway, really. If this really was 1812 they wouldn’t have this inconvenience of having to pretend their platform is really about freedom or enterprise or enterprising freedom. If this really was 1812 they could just swagger out on stage and yell the N-word and burn a Union Jack and all would be well. It’s got to be so hard on them now.
A.