Okay, I watched it. I agree with what seems to be the consensus, at least of commentators I've come across. Trump may have helped himself with a few voters by not being such a maniac but he's running out of time to correct the trajectory of this election and he didn't do that. Biden helped himself more by continuing to be more presidential, by continuing to disprove the claims that he's senile and out of it, and by simply running out the clock. This thing has already been decided — in voters' minds if not in early voting.

None of the stuff about Hunter Biden or the alleged dirty-dealing of Joe changes anything. First off, folks don't understand it. Secondly, it doesn't fit the picture that even those who don't like Joe Biden's politics have of the man himself. Thirdly, he's not the one fighting like mad to hide his personal financial information. Fourth, it's all from dubious sources and most of it came from outta nowhere just when the folks spreading it were desperate for something like this.

And fifth and most important: None of it makes Donald Trump a better president. The largest part of the Biden-Harris vote is simply people who think Trump has been very bad for this country, both in terms of honesty and competence, and that it can't endure four more years of him. Even if Biden's son is as corrupt as Trump and Giuliani insist, that doesn't make Trump a good chief exec. The voters who think he botched the COVID-19 response and has inflamed racial tensions still think he botched the COVID-19 response and has inflamed racial tensions.

Everyone's saying Trump's trying hard to replicate 2016 but it isn't 2016. Then he was running to say we needed an outsider to change the direction of this country. Now, he's saying we need the same leadership we've had for four years so as to not change the direction of this country. It pretty much comes down to that.

I didn't watch it. Well, I took a couple of brief peeks but basically, I didn't watch it…so if you came to this site to read what I had to say about it, what I have to say about it is that I didn't watch it.

The last few days, I've been logjammed on a script and writing less-pressing things than what I should have been working on. I finally got unlogjammed and around an hour before Debate Time, I decided not to spoil it by watching Donald Trump try to convince America that there will be no COVID-19 and a great replacement for Obamacare just as soon as he gets re-elected. The man is bad at so many things let's acknowledge how expert he is at being a major distraction. Besides, I figured, the debate will be watchable on YouTube and a hundred other places for the rest of my life. No reason to spoil my writing momentum by watching it now.

Writing this is also a distraction. I'll be back as soon as I get more pages done. In the meantime, I'll bet you can spend hours reading Fact Checks.

• "Tony Bobulinski" sounds like one of those fake Mafioso names Don Rickles used to make up when he was kidding Frank Sinatra.

Just got this…

Mark,

Today is the MOST important day in this Election so far.

The FINAL Presidential Debate is TONIGHT and President Trump is going to have to overcome OBSTRUCTION from the biased Debate Commission. They're threatening to cut his microphone for TELLING THE TRUTH and they CHANGED the topics.

It's obvious they want Sleepy Joe to win. But, the President has never let Left-wing media bias stop him before and he's not going to start now. President Trump wants to do something so HUGE that even the Do Nothing Democrats and Fake News won't be able to SILENCE US.

The President of the United States wants TODAY to be our best fundraising day EVER!

We know this is a big goal, but you've NEVER let him down before, and we know you never will. It's going to take EVERY supporter stepping up if we're going to succeed, and President Trump needs to know that he can count on you, Mark.

For the NEXT HOUR, ALL gifts will be 800%-MATCHED!

Please contribute ANY AMOUNT IMMEDIATELY to have your contribution 800%-MATCHED so we can CRUSH our goal. >>

The Debate Commission is biased. The Moderator, of course, is biased. Any reporters or commentators who say Trump isn't great and perfect and always right? Biased. And I've never let Donald Trump down before and I never will.

Election Day looms before us and many voices are warning us that it could be many days after November 3 that we know who won. Well, maybe. It has a lot to do with how long it takes certain states to count their ballots and announce the totals. If the states where Trump is expected to do well report in first, he could well take an early lead. There could also be court challenges and other matters that challenge or halt the counting. There could be recounts.

On the other hand, there are a lot of "must win" states for Trump like Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania. Presently, the forecast by The Economist gives Biden a 67% chance of carrying Arizona, a 78% chance of carrying Florida and a 90% chance of carrying Pennsylvania. Nate Silver's 538 site, using a different model, pegs those numbers at 68%, 72% and 86%…not that far off. If/when one of those three states reports a Biden victory, it's just about over for Donald. Watch this video and see how a member of Mr. Silver's squadron explains it…

So what do we think will happen in the final debate tonight? We can expect Trump to be Trump because, despite all the pundit talk over the last four years of him "pivoting" or putting on a different face for a certain purpose, he's never shown that he knows how to be anything but the Trump that thrills his base. So he'll be asked about Health Care and he'll rant about Hunter Biden. And he'll be asked about COVID-19 and he'll yell he's done everything right and he'll bitch the press hasn't asked "Sleepy Joe" about various imagined scandals.

He's really not running against Joe Biden, you know. He's running against The Press and all those powerful forces that have conspired to make him look like an outta-control, self-obsessed, incompetent liar. That seems to be his closing argument; that and the claim that The Pandemic is almost over.

And I'm absolutely not ruling out something bizarre like Trump walking off the debate or refusing to participate or showing up for it dressed as Katharine Hepburn or something…

The other day here, I told you that Garrett Thomas was one of my favorite magicians. Want to see him do another trick? He doesn't do one in this video but if you get a deck of cards and a note pad and pen, and if you follow his instructions precisely, you can do one…

Okay…someone who's going to vote for this man, write in and explain this to me…

Mark,

We have exciting news.

The FINAL debate between President Trump and Sleepy Joe Biden is TOMORROW.

President Trump knows he can't WIN AGAIN without you, so he's requested that we reach out to a few of his TOP supporters, like YOU, to become a Presidential Debate Member.

As a member, not only will the President turn to YOU for input, but your name will be broadcast LIVE during the debate for the ENTIRE world to see.

We're only offering this to a few of the President's most trusted supporters, like YOU. Spots are limited.

This is your chance to stand with President Trump and show the world that the Silent Majority will NOT be SILENCED!

We're sending him an updated roster soon and we want to make sure he sees YOUR NAME.

Contribute ANY AMOUNT RIGHT NOW to get on the Presidential Debate Membership roster and your name will be displayed LIVE during the debate tomorrow.

Thank you,

Team Trump 2020

So I'm guessing the "input" he's going to turn to me for will be to send questions which I am to answer while donating more money, and my name will be shown on some sort of YouTube broadcast of the debate on some Trump channel there. Is that it? And does he really think that he won that first debate but can't possibly win the one tomorrow night without my help…which by the way, he's not going to get.

And how is he making all these campaign appearances when he's studying roster after roster hoping to find my name on it? Someone…please help me.

I suppose a fitting tribute to James "The Amazing" Randi would be to be very, very skeptical about reports that he has died at the age of 92. But Penn Jillette has tweeted it's true and if you can't believe one liar and con-artist about another, who can you believe?

If you weren't familiar with the work of Mr. Randi, he was a magician for many years — that's where the "Amazing" in his name came from — but he turned into a guy whose specialty was educating the world to scams and hoaxes and rackets like charging people to communicate with their dead loved ones or claiming to be able to read minds. He didn't much like the word "debunker" but that's what he was, exposing psychic faith healers and other frauds.

I was honored to be part of a group that dined with him one night at the Magic Castle. No one at the table except Randi said much because he was such a fascinating conversationalist with insights and opinions and anecdotes that we all found riveting. I know his work will live on because I know how many others in and around the world of magic were inspired by him…and like me, are very, very sorry he's not around any longer. Unless this is a scam and he is.

• I feel sorry for Rudy Giuliani and feel he's been mistreated, perhaps illegally, even though I know he would love and defend every bit of it if it had been done to a political opponent.

• I believe what we're now witnessing is most of America developing herd immunity to Donald Trump.

Newspapers that have never endorsed anyone for President before are endorsing Joe Biden. And so are 94-year-old comedians…

Baby panda just wants some human contact…

One of my favorite entertainers, Tom Lehrer, is officially releasing the lyrics to many of his songs into the public domain. On his website, you can download a lot of those lyrics and read the announcement of what you're free to do with them. I have a feeling we'll be hearing a lot of them.

Kevin Drum has real good advice for anyone who's worried that there's still a chance of Trump winning a second term. His chances will never be zero but if you want to be reassured that it's a slim chance, just look at the way he's acting. He sure doesn't think he has a good shot at it.