see also Glenn Greenwald's comments.  Here is a snippet:

Last night was a perfect microcosm of how our political process works. The Right creates stupid, petty personality-based attacks to ensure that our elections aren't decided on issues (where they have a decisive disadvantage). Media stars -- some due to sloth, some due to ideology, some due to an eagerness to please the Right and convince them how Good and Fair they are -- eat up the shallow trash they're fed and then spew it out relentlessly, ensuring that our political discourse is overwhelmed by it, our elections dictated by it. That happens over and over. It's how our media and our elections function. Last night was just an unusually transparent and particularly ugly expression of it.

It was much, much worse.

Here's a sampling from around the web, not taking time for proper attribution.  My favorite is the faux questions from Cheers & Jeers over at the Orange Satan.

The result of the debate was as dull as it was pointless, with a discussion that tells us nothing about the candidates, their visions, or their ability to govern. E&P’s Greg Mitchell called it “perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years.” The Washington Post’s Tom Shales called it “step downward for network news,” and noted that the moderators delivered “shoddy, despicable performances.” Will Bunch noted, “Quickly, a word to any and all of my fellow journalists who happen to read this open letter. This. Must . Stop.” Salon’s Walter Shapiro added:
Broadcast to a prime-time network audience on ABC and devoid of a single policy question during its opening 50 minutes, the debate easily could have convinced the uninitiated that American politics has all the substance of a Beavis and Butt-Head marathon.
So, who won? I haven’t the foggiest idea, but I’m quite certain we all lost.

How is it that Charlie Gibson was challenging the candidates with reference to a constitutional provision that was overridden by Amendment XII over 200 years ago? I've seen a lot of dumb TV news stunts over the years, but that really takes the cake.

While it would've been impossible for either candidate to look good while Charlie and George were gang raping democracy, I don't think Obama came off particularly badly. In the first half, which was supposed to be tough on him, I thought Clinton looked pretty uncomfortable with where her campaign had taken us. She was probably better in the second half. And while the bulk of the bullsh*t was thrown at him, I was just annoyed at the bullsh*t. There are genuine nonpersonality differences between these candidates which moderators who had any idea what they were talking about could have elicited. But when Charlie Gibson is a Laffer loving wingnut whose heart bleeds for the capital gains earnings of $200,000+ earners, and Snuffleupagus is a Sean Hannity sock puppet, that's not the debate we're going to get.

Cheers & Jeers gem:
Here were the questions, in order.   Please keep in mind that co-moderator George Steponyournutsabit said himself that "the number one issue on Americans' minds" was "the economy."

1. Would you pick your opponent as vice president?

[Commercial Break]

2. Barack, you made a comment that polls show was non-controversial.  Let's rehash it for 20 minutes and try to spin something controversial out of it.

Sean Hannity couldn’t be here tonight, but he wanted me to ask you, Barack: How long would you be president before you let the Weather Underground people sleep in the Lincoln bedroom?

[Commercial Break]

3. How should America punish Reverend Jeremiah Wright for forcing the media to keep playing that tightly-edited 10 second 'damn America' clip over and over?  Charlie here thinks we should drop him out of an airplane...I'm leaning toward the wood chipper.

[Commercial Break]

4.  Barack, you refuse to wear an American-flag lapel pin.  Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, Hitler and Osama bin laden also refused to wear such a pin.  Ya see where we're goin' with this, Comrade Uberfuhrer Obama bin Laden?

[George high-fives Charlie]

[Commercial Break]

5. Quickly now, let's spend 60 seconds on the most disastrous foreign policy blunder in American history.  How much do you love General Petraeus?  Would you give him tongue on a first date?  Because, like, we totally would.

[Commercial Break]

7. Let's talk about the economy.  Nah, it's too early.  Let's go to a commercial for a right-wing front group claiming it cares about the environment.

[Commercial Break]

8.  Mmmm...love it when the wife packs zucchini sandwiches!  So which of you is more traitorous than the other?

9. American hero Ronald Reagan saved America with his stance on the capital gains tax.  Why do you want to destroy America with your stance on the capital gains tax?  Answer wrong and we bring out the lions.

10. How quickly do you think we could have Ronald Reagan's face and entire body carved into Mount Rushmore?

[Commercial Break]

11. This debate is now more than half-way over.  Let's spend 3 minutes on the economy.  Better yet, let's just pretend the economy is great and move right along to the cancer-curing portion of this debate.

12. OK, you each have 90 seconds to cure cancer.  Go!

13. Now it's time for you to suck this raw egg through a straw.  Great idea, Hannity!

14.
Can you do armpit farts?  We loves armpit farts.

15. Please give your closing remarks.  But you have to do them together and you both have to talk like Yoda.

Thank for coming.  We'll close this evening's broadcast with a live audio feed of Sean Hannity laughing his ass off.  Hi, Sean!  We love yeeeeew!

If you'd like a refund of your two lost hours, please contact ABC's customer care department at 212-456-7777 or 818-460-7477.  Be polite.  It'll confound 'em.

small tidbit

NEW YORK - A passenger who left his seat to pray in the back of a plane before it took off, ignoring flight attendants' orders to return, was removed by an airport security guard, a witness and the airline said.

The Orthodox Jewish man, who wore a full beard, a black hat and a long black coat, stood near the lavatories and began saying his prayers while the United Airlines jet was being boarded at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday night, fellow passenger Ori Brafman said.

When flight attendants urged the man, who was carrying a religious book, to take his seat, he ignored them, Brafman said. Two friends, who were seated, tried to tell the attendants that the man couldn't stop until his prayers were over in about 2 minutes, he said.

I was one of the people who thought the position of the RCC in the US had become that RC politicians who supported keeping abortion legal were to be denied Communion. This article explains that's not true, and why.

Pelosi, at Papal Mass, Demonstrates Pro-Choice Politicians Not Prohibited From Receiving Communion

from the furor today I guess I didn't miss much... or I missed a lot. I have certainly seen and heard reaction from our friends over on DK, on MSNBC on blogs and even on other news. Unbelievable! Apparently, ABC News lets tabloid reporting and fatuous questioning dictate debate questions now. Wow. Just... wow.