"VP Debate 2012: The Real Paul Ryan Is Bad for America."

Joe Biden's attitude was off-putting? Really? Rather like the entirety of the Republican platform?

VP Debate 2012: The Real Paul Ryan Is Bad for America, by Charles P. Pierce ("The Politics Blog" at Esquire)

There is a deeply held Beltway myth of Paul Ryan, Man of Big Ideas, and it dies hard. But, if there is a just god in the universe, on Thursday night, it died a bloody death, was hurled into a pit, doused with quicklime, buried without ceremony, and the ground above it salted and strewn with garlic so that it never rises again.

and

Moreover, the battering that Biden gave Ryan brought something into sharp relief that the Republican party has been fudging ever since Romney put the zombie-eyed granny-starver on the ticket — that, for his entire political career up to that point, on critical economic issues, Paul Ryan was an extremist even by the standards of the modern Republican party, which are considerably high indeed.

and

His blithe dismissal of any demand that he be specific about where he and his running mate are planning to take the country generally, was so positively terrifying that it calls into question Romney's judgment for putting this unqualified greenhorn on the ticket at all. Joe Biden laughed at him? Of course, he did. The only other option was to hand him a participation ribbon and take him to Burger King for lunch.

Yes, it's true. I have wordsmith love for Charles P. Pierce.

Today: NABC tap takeover at V the Market in Danville KY.

Later today, Danville, Kentucky's superlative V the Market is hosting an NABC tap takeover. The occasion is tomorrow's vice presidential debate at Centre College, and so naturally ... seeing as an Elector makes democracy pointless ... it's the takeover headliner. Also on the bill is Black & Blue Grass, Beak's Best and Hoptimus.

Speaking of Elector, NABC has produced a special batch of long-sleeved tees, as pictured here. While they last, these can be purchased at the Pizzeria & Public House location.

Ho hum, yawned Ignatius.

There was a debate last evening between running mates. You may have heard about it. If you're like me, you wonder why there was any fuss at all, given that the choice between presidential candidates is so incredibly clear that John McCain's selection of the least qualified underling in my lifetime (perhaps in the lifetime of the world's oldest human being) is merely icing on the forthcoming Barack Obama win.

You can comment in the usual manner, but here's something of the post-debate discussion at the site that I found familiar to my own reaction. After all, as noted earlier this year, I'm a European: Out and about: At long last, a staggering admission.

London: Mr. (Robert) Kaiser, I stayed up way past my bedtime to listen to this debate, and what I heard was not reassuring. I'm sure you know that Europe is appalled at the choice of Gov. Palin as Sen. McCain's running mate, and nothing she said tonight is going to change this view. I'm sure she's a lovely person who would make a lovely neighbor, but she's simply not qualified to be president. We still are having major problems with your re-election of the current president, but this would make things substantially worse.

Yep. Bush/Cheney has been an unmitigated 8-year-long disaster, and McCain/Palin differs barely a jot from the current occupancy (to paraphrase Garrison Keillor), and no senseless babble about soccer moms and mavericks stands to change the verdict of history. All the Republican candidates have is smoke and mirrors to distract attention from a dismal record that rivals that of the 1962 New York Mets.

Next.