The more I think about it, the more I like your "automatic timer" idea. Just had to say...

For everyone else -

Thanks for being decent about Michale's recent sadness. You guys are a credit to this site, one of (I have to believe) the shining beacons of light in the political mudslinging world. I have always maitained I don't get the most commenters in the blogosphere, but I do get the best and most intelligent ones, and this just reinforces that opinion. And adds "the most empathetic" to the litany.

-CW

May you get to collect all sorts of wonderful new memories of your Mother from those who come to celebrate her life. They will not completely fill the emptiness of her absence, but they may help take away the roughest edges.

Absolutely CW. Really sorry to hear the bad news Michale. Please accept my condolences for your loss.

I can only try to imagine the sadness of coping with such a loss.

Michale, you are always among friends here.

At the risk of playing into the liberal-biased media conspiracy, Jim Lehrer practically handed Obama, on a bloody silver platter, the opportunity (on more than one occasion) to blast Romney off the stage but, the president was unwilling or simply unable to take advantage of those opportunities.

I guess I'm just not willing to criticize Jim Lehrer for something that was totally within the discretion and capability of the president to handle with finesse and a determination to demonstrate to the American people who deserves to lead them through the next four years.

I'll be addressing Obama's missed opportunities tomorrow, as the column format is perfect for it. Just FYI...

:-)

-CW

You may have noticed the absence -- especially since the debate -- of one of our more... um... prolific commenters here from the regular fray. Last week, Michale posted that he was going to be taking a break from the site.

After contacting him via email, he gave his consent for me to post the following, in partial explanation:

Michale has privately informed me that his mother has recently passed away. He's in San Diego attending the funeral and this is part of the reason he won't be around as much in the coming weeks. Michale's not one for kid gloves treatment but please be respectful and don't beat him up too much in his absence, as now is really "not the time."

[Also, he mentioned for Liz, scroll down on the mini-golf link, there is a PayPal donate button further down the page.]

Bad events never have a good time to happen. But even though we're in the midst of the four-year campaign frenzy, and even though he's tangled with all of us on more than one occasion, I just wanted to say our thoughts are with Michale at this time. And by "our" I hope I'm speaking for all of the CW.com community, and not just the editorial "we" I'm so fond of using.

Requiescat in pace. To absent friends...

-CW

If Obama had done that, even half-way competently, then I suspect there wouldn't be so much criticism of the job that Jim Lehrer did as moderator.

I don't like the idea of having two immoderate moderators.