It was sometimes hard to hear the debate/dual-interview on Meet The Press over Mrs. Krehbiel's virulent cursing whenever George Allen spoke, but I observed: George Allen is definitely a professional politician; that is, he failed to answer almost every single question directly. Instead, he recited Bush's talking points almost word-for-word. I also happily noted that Jim Webb has made great progress in cutting the "ums" out of his speaking.

I admire Webb's thoughtfulness, but I worry about him explaining his reasoning too much. I have zero faith in the average American voter's intelligence level, so I figure if the policy explanation requires any sort of nuance or words with more than two syllables, it's probably going to sail way over the voter's head. ("Fancy words scary, me vote for cowboy!")

Thomas Krehbiel writes The Krehbiel Strikes Back, a moderate commentary on news, media, politics, and culture.