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And I have tears in my eyes, too, watching Barack Obama and Michelle and their two beautiful little girls walk out there in Grant Park. And I'm glad my own little girls spent this morning knocking on doors here in Virginia, helping to get out the vote.

Sara, I was intrigued by your post (Palin May Be Pretty, But Her Poll numbers Aren't) noting that Palin's ''supposed sex appeal hasn't translated into more votes.'' I'm no Palin fan (though I can't get too worked up about the $150,000 wardrobe expenditure)—but I can't help wondering if Palin's sex appeal isn't actually hurting her, at this point. ...

I take back what I said about his bright future even as a Fox News star. Joe is a faux plumber! (Quel horreur!) And a tax scofflaw!  And something about Obama just happens to remind him of Sammy Davis Jr.!  And-- if true, this next thing is weirder than weird—Joe may be related by marriage to Charles Keating, star of the S ...

I'm still not worried about Joe the Plumber. For one thing, the guy's now the most famous plumber in America, and I'd say he's got a future as a Fox News star. But for another, Emily, he's fine either way: If he buys this company and it doesn't make enough to push his personal income over $250,000, then he gets no Obama tax increase, and ...

Let's stop feeling so sad for poor Joe the Plumber, who just wants his teensy little piece of the American dream. In his original comments to Obama, Joe explained that he was about to buy a company that would make profits of about $270,000 a year. If that profit bumps Joe's own income over $250,000, then he'll be making more money per year than ...

Palin started to disintegrate in the second half. She ran out of talking points and started to get plastic and incoherent on the subject of mavericks. Biden, meanwhile, started strong, briefly slumped a bit—some repetition and exasperation in the middle—but he came back strong. And it was rather moving when he choked up, talking about his first ...

Palin recalls a moving moment: ''I had a good conversation recently with Henry Kissinger ... and he shared with me his passion for diplomacy.'' OMG, he must have really liked her.

Oooh ... I am impressed. Palin cutely manages to turn her inability to answer Ifill's and Biden's questions into her advantage: She says (and I paraphrase, since this is from memory), ''So I may not answer your questions, moderator or Joe, but that's because I am speaking instead to what the AMERICAN PEOPLE want to hear.'' Do not ...

So I thought McCain did slightly ''better'' in the debate than Obama. Like Dahlia, I thought Obama came across as wonky—he had trouble shifting from long, rather academic-sounding answers to short and punchy. I though McCain seemed folksy and confident while Obama seemed annoyed and sometimes defensive. McCain was aggressive; Obama was a ...

OK, I think I heard John McCain say, in his debate with Obama, that a) he was going to be voting for the $700 billion recovery plan (''Sure.'' Well, really, who knew?), and b) that if elected president, he would cope with the resulting budget squeeze by having ''a spending freeze on everything but defense, veteran affairs and entitlement ...