Most assessments today of last night's presidential debate are grim. Under a picture of Barack Obama and John McCain squared off in Tennessee, the Drudge Report presented a single-word critique: "Boring." Politico is calling it the "worst debate ever."

We beg to differ. Instead, how about worst electorate ever?

The negative general consensus about the debate is summed up tidily in the Times of London's "Gnawingly dull debate won't halt the Obama Tide":

Senator Obama – you may be shocked to hear - promised tax cuts for working people; universal health care, an end to financial deregulation, the winding down of the war in Iraq, a renewed commitment to the war in Afghanistan and an America that is liked by the world. Senator McCain – in case you hadn’t heard – is a Republican who will continue the failed policies of George Bush.

For his part Senator McCain insisted he was – wait for it – a reformer who would reform Washington, end corruption on Wall Street, drill for oil, win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and robustly defend America’s interests. Senator Obama, he gravely reminded the audience, could not be trusted because he didn’t have the experience or the judgment.

Most media outlets, it seems, are peeved at the fact that the candidates strictly stuck to their talking points, despite the fact that doing so mitigates the strength of a debate, making it sanitary and common. It's a reasonable contention; but we've got one question: what campaign has everyone else been following up until now?

Sarah Palin dodged every single question in the VP debate, choosing instead to rattle off prepackaged quotes like she was performing a 10th grade book report. Where was the bored media's ire then? Instead, David Brooks of the New York Times said Palin "held up her end of an energetic debate that gave voters a direct look at two competing philosophies." WTF? What philosophy was that, Brooksy? She gave a shout-out to third graders! Sorry to break it to you, everyone, but our politicians now feel that they are above speaking to us honestly. And you know why they think they can do that? Because we don't really make a big deal out of it when they do, because we sit on our asses and allow columnists in the "paper of record" to call them "direct" when we know damn well that they're anything but.

And is everyone authentically shocked that the presidential candidates rarely veer away from their main points (ie Obama: "I was once poor," McCain: "I'm not a sissy lawyer") anymore? This is the final month before the most important election in decades, one in which the slightest verbal or physical mistake has been uploaded to YouTube instantly. Nobody's going to risk shooting from the hip and ending up with a macaca-gate on their hands—or worse, another Palin-style meltdown about Alaskan airspace. For the next thirty days, Obama and McCain are like spiders: more scared of you than you are of them.

And another thing…