The Washington Bullets basketball team (now the Wizards) won a spectacular national championship in 1978. This was a big deal in Washington, since the town hadn't had a major sports championship since the Redskins won one in 1942. But there were two amusing footnotes to their victory worth mentioning here. The first is that this was the origin of the now-familiar sports phrase: "The opera ain't over 'til the fat lady sings." Although most remember it as being a quote from the Bullets' coach Dick Motta, it was actually said very early on in a qualifying round by a reporter for the rival San Antonio Spurs, Dan Cook. The first time Motta was quoted (after Cook had already said it), it was reported Motta said: "It's not over... It's like an opera. It doesn't end until the fat lady starts singing and that hasn't happened in this one yet." He later reverted to Cook's original (and tighter) phrasing, and it was heard all over the place throughout the rest of the postseason, right up until the Bullets won it all in Game 7 of the finals.

I offer this as a cautionary tale to people who now think Obama's so far out in front in the polls that his only real worry should be what color drapes to use in the Oval Office. The earlier, and simpler, form of the metaphor springs to mind (from the immortal Yogi Berra): "The game isn't over 'til it's over."

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The weirdest moment in last night's vice presidential debate (at least for me) happened before the debate officially had even begun. Not realizing their mikes were being picked up by the networks, Sarah Palin (while shaking Joe Biden's hand) asked him "Can I call you Joe?"

Now, in normal life, this is a petty innocuous question. It's a bit of politeness, asking someone if you can refer to them informally, by using just their first name. But this isn't normal life, this is a debate viewed by millions, between two people who not only have full names, but also titles (Senator, Governor). Knowing that Palin only asked this because she had some zinger up her sleeve, I was waiting for it all night, until (near the end) Palin finally pulled it out -- "Say it ain't so, Joe!" Whew. That was less "zingy" than I had expected... and she followed it up by trying to be Reaganesque: "there you go again pointing backwards again," which (to my ears) fell pretty flat indeed.

So, in keeping with the spirit of the debate, I ask Senator Joe Biden, "Can I call you Joe?" Because I'm going to be typing his name a lot today.

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The honeymoon Sarah Palin has been enjoying with American voters -- ever since John McCain's surprise announcement that he was putting her on the Republican ticket -- is now officially over. And I'm writing this before tonight's vice presidential debate, I should note.

It cannot be denied that her nomination as vice presidential running mate to John McCain certainly had an effect on the race. It shook the race up. And for a short period, it looked like an absolutely brilliant and stunning political gamble by McCain to inject some much-needed vitality into his campaign. McCain's poll numbers rose, while Obama's fell. Palin herself enjoyed high approval numbers in the polls. She gave a rousing speech at the Republican Convention, and a lot of Democrats got very worried indeed.

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It's time once again for our weekly look at the state polls in the electoral race between John McCain and Barack Obama. Now, a lot has happened since last week's column, including the first debate, the "suspension" of McCain's campaign, Wall Street continuing to crash and burn, and Sarah Palin finally sitting down with Katie Couric (Katie must be beside herself with joy by this point, because she seems to be the only reporter Palin will now talk to). Palin interviews have headlined on CBS' evening news show for four weeknights in a row now. And that's not even mentioning the parody on Saturday Night Live ("I'd like to use my lifeline!").

So a quick overview of what has changed in the polls since last week is in order. Fifteen states changed categories in all. Eleven of these were good news for Obama, one changed towards Obama and then slipped back to where it was, and three improved for McCain. That's a pretty comforting trend for the Obama campaign.

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With all the ruckus over whether you can see Russia from Alaska (or from Sarah Palin's porch), there's a story from the Cold War that is largely being overlooked. Because back in 1986, one man walked from Alaska to the Soviet Union (as it was then known).

Alaska and Russia face each other across the Bering Strait, and smack dab in the middle of this waterway are two islands: Big Diomede Island and Little Diomede Island. Little Diomede Island is American, and Big Diomede Island is Russian. Wikipedia has some satellite photos of the two, including one close-up which really shows how proximate they are. Little Diomede has a fishing village on the westernmost part of the island (on the little bump or nipple sticking out towards the bigger island).

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While this will be a shock to anyone who has read just about any other column I've written, I speak today in defense of Sarah Palin.

Now, my true feelings about Palin and what is going to happen in Thursday night's vice presidential debate can be found at the end of this column (which -- I promise! -- will cheer up regular readers), but I have to defend what Sarah Palin said about Putin and Russia; because she is being made out to be some sort of incoherent idiot as a result. She may well be incoherent, and I would also venture to suggest that the jury's still out on her idiocy as well, but I haven't seen anyone give her the benefit of the doubt and attempt to explain what she was actually trying to say.

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[UPDATED -- See part 2 in the Talking Points section.]

This week's column will be presented in a sort of semi-liveblogging fashion. What you're getting here first is my usual take on the week, and the weekly awards. But the Talking Points segment of the program will not appear until after the debates (and after, of course, I type it).

Because while the purpose of this column has always been to provide Democrats with talking points to use when being interviewed over the weekend, there is really only going to be one subject this week -- how did Obama and McCain do in the first presidential debate?

Normally, in other words, I'm providing a public service to Democrats on what to say, and how to say it effectively. But even I am not egotistical enough to think that publishing a column an hour before a debate of this magnitude is going to change what Barack Obama says by even one word. So, rather than write a pointless column this week, I am postponing the Talking Points part of the program until after the debate actually happens.

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Although it has required an almost unbearable amount of restraint, I am not going to comment on John McCain's political grandstanding today. I'll get to it tomorrow, I promise.

Instead, we have the return of our in-house cartoonist! While it may have appeared to the public that CWCunningham was in an undisclosed location these past few months, he and I were actually colloborating on a video, in an effort to get (you can't make this stuff up) a liberal lobbying firm on K Street interested in our idea. But, sadly, it came to naught. But this week's financial meltdown proved to be too hard for him to resist, so we proudly present his take on the situation.

About the Cartoonist  |  Reprint Policy

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Going on the assumption that the presidential campaign will indeed continue (whether John McCain participates or not), we turn back to the polls to get a sense of what's going on out there. Now, today was a banner day for Obama in the national polls (especially the one that puts him up nine points, 52/43) -- but they are largely meaningless, since that is not how we elect our president. Given the facts of the Electoral College, we have to go down to the level of the state polls to more accurately judge the race.

[Program Note: Since I started this series of columns back in June, I've been writing them about once every three weeks. But we're now in the homestretch of the campaign, so they will be appearing weekly, every Wednesday, right up to Election Day. Links to all articles in this series appear in the Data section at the bottom.]

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One can't help but wonder if President Bush is thinking to himself: "It wasn't supposed to be like this." Now, there's a whole passel of issues which might make him feel this way, but in particular I'm talking about his negotiations with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki over the United States' continuing troop presence in Iraq. Because it is increasingly looking like Bush is simply not going to get what he wanted. But since what he wanted was to tie the hands of the incoming president, this is actually a good thing.

I've been following the saga of these negotiations for almost a year now, and written about them on many occasions. Bush's basic plan was to agree with Maliki that the United Nations mandate for American forces in Iraq would end on December 31, 2008. Neither country wanted another extension of this mandate. So, Bush reasoned, he would get a bilateral agreement from Maliki for the American troops to stay, and Maliki would agree to pretty much whatever Bush proposed.

It didn't work out this way. Maliki, with domestic political pressures of his own, decided that the more he stood up to Bush, the more his own public supported him. So he began leaking the details of Bush's demands to the press. This caused some major backpedaling from Bush, and Maliki was able to almost immediately gain solid advantages in the negotiations. Maliki can read a calendar, and he knows when our elections are. Time is on his side, and he knows it.

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