Hunter S. Thompson used to say that elections are the Super Bowl for political junkies. That’s must be why immediately following debates the question that is asked is, “Who won?”

I know we call it a debate, which denotes discussion and considering opposing arguments. That could lead to a winner. What we really have is 90 minutes of self-promotion and front runner flagellation. That’s not a debate – that’s the “Real World: Washington DC”…with a fraction of the nudity and public drunkenness (but that could change after the Iowa caucus – yeehaw!).

Anyway, the new thing for those that watched the ‘debate’ on Fox was the “Voter’s Voice” chart.

It’s the real time opinion of Republicans watching the debate. It soared for Romney and shrank for Paul. The it went back up for Huckabee and down for Giuliani. And then I wondered if the voters were listening to the debate or reading the crawler. “Clinton leads in NH by 31%.” Down. “Meanwhile, Chertoff says terrorist threat from abroad not abated.” Up. “Islamic terrorists enjoy pouched kittens for religious festival.” Meh. You know crawler stuff…

My point is: leave it to Fox to fast track opinion over content.

And its like the super hot blond anchors on Fox – can’t see how it’s relevant – but it is effectively distracting.