(Justin Verlander on the mound. Photo NBC.)

I am groggy and it is the Fall Fund Raiser on National Public Media, which is enough to make me irritated all by itself. It is my fault, the buck stops here and all that. I accept full responsibility in passive voice. Mistakes were made.

I stayed up to watch the Tigers last night and wound up flashing over to the unhappy collision of the alleged Titans at Hofstra.

Mitt got double-teamed and still kept his composure. It was painful to watch Candy Crowley try to steer things to Mr. Obama, and to a degree she succeeded, even if it made her twist like a pretzel.

(CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowely. Photo CNN.)

Her insertion of extraneous and incorrect clarification into Mitt’s attack on the President’s record on the Benghazi assassination was either transparently partisan or an indication that she has significant short-term memory problems that could require professional help.

But oh well- what did I expect? The media has been carrying the President for years now, and it is foolish to expect the wonks to change now.

The President may get a bump out of this- he certainly showed some vinegar that was completely absent in his first performance, but it is pretty easy to improve on an abysmal showing. I am listening to the talking heads pump up his performance this morning.

If Mr. Romney is elected, how much more will we have to contribute to NPR to keep All Things Considered and Big Bird afloat? That is a pocketbook issue.

The issues I did not hear about included Climate Change or Sequestration. The former is a touchy subject, since the big warming trend seems to have stopped sixteen years ago. Sequestration, on the other hand, is real and looming and it scares the crap out of me because it will knock the bottom out of my line of business. Not a word about that, and it is bigger even than Big Bird for most of the people I know.

I went back to the game that may matter less but is much more satisfying. Justin Verlander got to the ninth inning before he got the hook. He pitched a great game, though the Yankees were game and stayed with him right to the end.

It is too soon to count out those pin-striped New Yorkers- C. C. Sabathia is on the mound for the Yanks, and he has had full rest and could drag this to game five. The Yankees have not been swept in a series since 1980.

The Tigers won Game Three but it would be nuts to count out the Yankees yet.

That is a sort of universal feeling this morning. But the litany of little set-pieces speeches made some things crystal clear.

I will not vote for George Bush this time. I have decided that the only candidate who actually did what he said he was going to do was Justin Verlander.

I will be watching tonight. It could be titanic.

(Max Scherzer will take on C.C. Sabathia in Game 4 of the ALCS. Image courtesy US Presswire)

Copyright 2012 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com