Wasted

Last week, I mentioned two wasted questions by Gwen Ifill in the Palin-Biden debate. Tonight, Tom Brokaw had his own, which he chose from among those submitted online.

A woman in New Hampshire asked, "What do you not know now, and how will you learn it?"

Here's what I don't know -- why ask such a useless question? It's a classic example of an unanswerable question that teaches us exactly nothing about the candidates, but allows them to go off on long-winded rehearsed speeches.

On the other hand, McCain could have changed his public perception by invoking one word in his answer: "How will I learn it, Tom. Wikipedia!!"

Speaking of Brokaw, it took only a few minutes to get sick of his time-cop routine, reminding the candidates that he was trying to keep them to the format they had agreed on. By doing so, he injected himself far too often and got in the way of Obama and McCain spewing their time-worn answers. Granted that not much was different from what we've heard from them before, but Brokaw was a lousy intruder.

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