I didn't see the debates. From what I read, a lot of people didn't. Instapundit wonders:
Could it be that outside of the political-junkie crowd people just aren't that excited about this election?
Or maybe, it's that people inside the political-junkie class aren't that excited. At Commentary, John Podhoretz estimates viewership at around 50 million and says:
The overnight ratings aren’t the final tabulation; they are a sample, and the numbers can grow when the whole nation is factored in. Even so, at best, it appears this debate will still trail Bush-Kerry’s. That is surprising, considering the historic nature of this election and the supposed universe of engaged new voters we’ve been hearing about all year.
But according to the people running and the people jockeying for ratings, every election is the most historic ever. And according to the campaigns, there are always tons of new people who are as excited as all get-out at the chance to rally for candidate X.
In reality, the new engaged people that Barack Obama is supposedly rallying rarely seem to know the news from last week's Time magazine, never mind what's in the news today. They don't need to watch the debates because they know who they're voting for and the facts have little to do with it. As for McCain, a large sector of the political junkie class on the conservative side is voting Republican in spite of him. If there's a desire to watch him mop up the floor with Obama, it's because we're rooting against Obama, not because we're for him. So the urgency of firing up the boob tube for the debates is rather less.
This will be my second campaign without television, and I'm loving every minute of it. I'm glad McCain seemed to hold his own and even score some points because I think he'll keep us on the offensive in the war on terror and screw up the country less than Obama. But in this election I'm not exactly hunting for YouTube clips or commentaries because that sentiment of rooting for the home team isn't nearly as strongly as it was with Bush. No idea how far out of the mainstream I am on this, but it's fair to suppose that if McCain pulls off a win he may be put over the top not by a last minute building of enthusiasm but a surge in conservative resignation to the need to do the needful.
