William Saletan. . .

. . .was obviously watching a re-run of Designing Women, wherein Susanne Sugarbaker dressed down an overbearing customer. On the question of what "uninformed voters" tuned in to see, he soothes himself by proposing this possibility:

"Cheney seemed to think most viewers were tuning in to judge the vice presidential nominees. Edwards seemed to think they were tuning in to hear about the presidential nominees.

If Cheney guessed right on that question, he probably won. But if he guessed wrong—and I suspect he did—Edwards kicked his expletive."

But, how many "uninformed voters" tuned in to watch the debate itself? Do "uninformed voters" tune in to vice presidential debates at all, or do they just switch back and forth between the hundreds of channels and wait to see what the press is saying?

In any case, "uninformed voters" are really just "uninspired voters" with the extra clout that comes with the importance placed upon them by the respective campaign operations. To say that Edwards was in any way inspiring to anyone who cares so little as to not know who they're voting for at this point is like saying, "though Dodgers fans are known for showing up late and leaving early, 2nd baseman Alex Cora displayed enough sound fundamental skills to stir them up and cause them to start actually showing up early, and staying well after the game waiting for 1st baseman Shawn Green to come out of the clubhouse for a hat tip to the crowd."