I missed the first half of Chris Matthews. Immediately before his show is Wall Street Week in Review, with Maria Bartaromo. I had gotten up and was watching her interview Bill Clinton and it put me back to sleep, and when I woke up again, Matthews was half over.

The one thing in his show that caught my ear was during the "tell me something I don't know" segment. Katty Kay said that after the debate she talked to some friends in Iraq who said that people there weren't really happy with the way that McCain is saying that things are so good there now and the "surge" is working so greatly - that things were still really uncertain. All you have to do is read the news to gather that. But it's all McCain has - "the surge has worked." And of course, Obama doesn't really need to take the discussion to the question of whether McCain's statement that the "surge" is working and that we are winning in Iraq is true or not , because events will do that. There is do doubt, according to several articles that I have read in USA Today, New York Times, and other outlets, that there is rising tensions between Sunni and Shiites. In fact, NPR recently reported that U.S. solidiers were bodyguarding Sunni Awakening leaders from being arrested by the Shiite government. I don't know the details there, but this is McCain's definition of "working?"

I tried to watch a few minutes of the "debate" between Udall and Shaffer for the U.S. Senate seat in Colorado. They appeared together on Meet the Press. But Shaffer was so obnoxious, just trying to hog the time, and Brokaw did little to stop him, I thought it was disgusting and I turned it off. Stephanopolous interviewed McCain, and we watched some of that. Nothing new.

But Stephanopolous' roundtable was really interesting, and I would give it the trophy for the day. It was, of course, regular George Will, who is a man in an alien land these days with all this big government stuff floating around, especially proposed by republicans. But also were Robert Reich, Newt Gingrich, and a Greenburg dude from the Washington Post.

I didn't take notes, but the conversation was facinating. I hope a transcript is published soon. Basically no one really liked the "bailout" for a number of reasons. But basically they all said it had to be done. Well, after that, I guess all such differences of opinion might be characterized as a distinction without a difference. But, what was interesting to me was how they all didn't really like the bailout, but they all had different reasons for being suspicious, and how they all had different remedies.

At one point, Robert Reich said to Gingrich, that he was (and he was) sounding a lot like a Democrat. (he was talking about the importance of education.) Gingrich didn't even try to deny it very much. But the conversation was very much an indication of how traditional party allegiances are shifting.

Face the Nation had an interview with Obama. Nothing new from him. No mistakes, and he was on message that voting for McCain and Palin was continuing the Bush policies. That's a safe tactic for Obama, especially when the stakes are high and he is tired.

I didn't hear whether or not the Matthews meter gave the week to Obama or McCain, but how could they not give it to Obama? It may have been the decisive week of the entire campaign.

to be continued....