OXFORD, MS -- The spinners started doing their business
well in advance of Friday night's long-awaited - and almost canceled - first
presidential debate. There was South Carolina senator Lindsay Graham holding
forth in the "Spin Alley" section of the media tent confiding that he had told
fellow Republican John McCain, "I said he could say something critical about
Obama. Just don't overdo it." That was either disingenuous or revealing -- or perhaps both.