by Berry Craig

MAYFIELD, Ky. – “Never let your mouth overload your ‘you-know-what’” is an old Kentucky expression.

I’m being polite. We don’t use “you-know-what” when we say that.

John McCain said he would whip Barack Obama’s “you-know-what” in the final presidential debate. He ended up with an overloaded you-know-what.

David Gergen, who advised Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, called McCain’s performance “an exercise in anger management.”

Anger mismanagement is more like it. McCain again oozed contempt for Obama, who, to employ another vintage Kentuckism, opened up a can of whup-you-know-what on McCain.

Oh, the “straight talker’s” stock smarminess was a big hunk of red meat for the Red Staters, union-haters, gay-baiters, Confederate flag wavers and the Jesus-loves-me-but-he-can’t stand you crowd. They were true believers anyway.

Post-debate snap polls showed most people thought Obama bested McCain again. Even a quickie survey from Fox News, the Republican Party’s propaganda ministry, had Obama out-debating McCain.

Some of the TV talking heads declared McCain the winner. They gushed over his comeback when Obama compared him to Bush.

“Senator Obama, I am not President Bush,” snapped McCain. “If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”

McCain is George Bush, of course.

The “maverick” has voted for the president’s bills almost 90 percent of the time – 95 percent last year. Those numbers are not from the Obama campaign – they come from the non-partisan Congressional Quarterly.

Anyway, I switched off the tube after the debate. I did likewise after the first and second ones, which Obama won big-time, too. I didn’t care to hear how the TV hacks spun what I saw myself.

The Daily Kos blogsite said most of them cooled it right after round three, worried that the insta-polls would prove them wrong. But CNN’s John King went out on a limb, scoring the debate an 18-15 McCain victory, according to the blogsite.

King ended up with egg all over his face makeup.

Kos said King ranted “against the snap polls, saying they were bunk because people are answering just after watching the debate [sic], while being too ‘emotional’ … unlike the pundits who are all about reason and logic.”

Nobody bloviates like a pompous TV news “personality.” Kos added, “I love how the American people don’t give a s--t what John King thinks.”

This old daily newspaper reporter turned history teacher loves it, too.