Gringolandia debates

We've just returned from mini-Gringolandia: a private room at the Piano Lounge at the Hotel Villa Real San Cristóbal, where some 40 or so Americans have gathered to watch Wulf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper (dreamy), and John McCain's lizardfaced grins.

Everybody on CNN and even some of our gringo audience in S.C. seems to be saying that Mr. McCain had at least his best debate, if not actually doing better than Obama. Can they be serious? Can anyone watch that man "debate" (actually a series of loud indrawn breaths, fractured interruptions, and nervous, reptilian smiles) and think that he might somehow qualify as president material? It stuns me.

Tonight did not in many ways resemble last night, when we stood in a crowd of thousands of Mexicans, watching four or five giant (15'-20' tall) mechanical insects that stalked among the crowd, to electronic music. Our friend Peter took a bunch of pictures last night, so we will get a couple up here soon; giant mechanical insects battling in front of brightly-lit half-century old cathedrals is not, I imagine, an easy thing to acurately picture without visual aid.

(Aside: Is that John McCain's house? No, it's just the Iglesia de Guadalupe, the church out our front windows.)

Anyway, (try to imagine me snorting and grinning, McCainesque, as I say this) it's nice to get to participate in Gringolandia, even if only in this kind of satellite fashion: in private rooms of fancy Mexican hotels.