YIPS from Steve

I'm going to be on the road today out to St. Louis, so nothing from me until later. Hopefully, I'll be set up in time to blog the debate in real time. It's been good for some laughs so far.

Things to watch for today:

1. how do the political futures markets go? This morning at Tradesports Kerry is rising above $40 and Bush has fallen below $60. I think there are rising expectations from the markets that Kerry will do well in this format.

2. The economic numbers released today on employment.

Well, that was quick.

Why this debate matters: SNL is going to run their opening skit on it, in all likelihood, and whatever "slips" or "screwups" are perceived are going to be magnified by a factor of 1000. Now, don't start bitching about "bias"---this exact phenomena worked tremendously in Bush 41's favor in 1988 (Jon Lovitz, anyone?) as well as in 2000, when Darrell Hammond's Al Gore impersonation cemented the vision of Gore as a pendantic whiner.

See you later today! In the meantime, I leave you in Robbo's capable hoofs with our usual assortment of politics, high and low culture, music, recipes, sports, and, of course, "The Babes of the Battlestar"-esque sci-fi geek drool.

Ciao!