“People do dinner parties for these boring debates? You’ve got to be
kidding me! Dinner parties are supposed to be exciting and fun events.
Who wants to watch a presidential debate at one?”

I don’t know, I enjoy the debates.  For someone so interested in
analyzing politics, I am a little surprised that you don’t.  On the
other hand, I can understand because it is more productive to analyze
facts than to analyze bluster.

I listen to all the speeches.  News is so repetitive, etc., I like to
hear what the president has to say.  I always watch debates and state
of the union, even if it is not my choice in office.  Here in Chicago,
one of my favorite bars screened all the debates.  With TV volume up
(which they never do otherwise), serving drinks only during
commercials, and discussion afterwards.  We could not go because we
have to work weekday mornings and my wife had homework to do, but we
wanted to.  We did drink and watch them at home and cheer at lines we
liked and talk shit at ones we didn’t.  It was a good time, believe it
or not.

I enjoy your Kermit Day concept.  Really funny.  And I think your
non-partisan tone is to be commended.  I have no idea who you like;
and it doesn’t matter regarding your analysis.  The “crude talk” you
are getting must be truly bizarre.  You are simply being factual.  I
do hope you will turn out to be wrong but you are just saying how
things are.  People who get angry at truth are…well, I guess this is
the point of Kermit Day.  I agree with you that Obama was the same in
this election’s first debate as he has always been.  (“14 days until
kermit day”)  I saw him as reserved and respectful, professional and
presidential.  Thoughtful.  Maybe not best in a debate when the
opponent is aggressive, but still the kind of person I want running
the country.  Ds who castigate him for it are not helping their own
cause.

I don’t see the debates as spontaneous. Everything that is coming out of the candidates’ mouths is so scripted, so exercised. The debates never feel intellectual like, say, the Lincoln and Douglas debates.

I think debates would be fun if they were actual debates. But we live in a TV/Internet Age and everything said feels watered down, as if the public wouldn’t be able to absorb it unless it was said in kindergarten language.

While you might be in a bar watching the debate and talking about it with others, what I find interesting is watching you. It’s not the candidates or the campaigns I find interesting. It’s the electorate I find fascinating.