John McCain on the charge that he intentionally avoided eye contact with Barack Obama during their Friday night debate as a way of expressing his disdain for him.

“I was looking at the moderator a great deal of time. I was writing a lot of the time. I in no way know how that in any way would be disdainful.”

He also noted that in many of the debates in which he has participated, “I don’t look at my opponents because I’m focusing on the people and the American people that I’m talking to.”

At least Obama’s no Putin.  Here’s McCain from the debate:

“I looked in Mr. Putin’s eyes and I saw three letters — a K, a G and B.”

Tonight on Jay Leno: Meghan McCain.

We’ll see how Jay treats her.

As Aaron Banrhart points out, Leno’s been rough on her dad’s running-mate.

Some sample Leno monologue jokes collected at TV Barn:

Did you all see Sarah Palin’s interview with Charlie Gibson? In fact, John McCain was watching it at home and at one point he turned to his wife and said, “She looks really familiar.”

If you watched TV last night, you know that Charlie Gibson did something John McCain has never done: interviewed Sarah Palin.

… we’ll know it was worth admitting Alaska 50 years ago.

But the jury’s still out on Hawaii.

From Washington Post coverage of the McCain/Palin rally in Fairfax County yesterday:

Celebrity is its own momentum. “It was so cool watching all the people get in line,” said Vicki Hoffman, an artist who lives in the neighborhood. “It was like Woodstock.”

From Not Larry Sabato coverage:

ATTENTION DEMOCRATIC SCHOOL BOARD:  YOU IDIOTS TURNED THIS INTO THE REPUBLICAN WOODSTOCK RIGHT IN FAIRFAX.

Our colleague Ben Tribbett at Not Larry The Cable Guy Sabato has a truly inspired take on the McCain/Palin rally in Fairfax, Virginia today.

It’s worth the whole, short read — if only for this line:

I remember when I was in Fairfax Public Schools having absurd assemblies for McGruff the crime dog, certainly they could do an assembly for a Presidential candidate.

… It’s Sarah Palin.  The HeroBuilders Action Figure.  What a doll.

We learn this about Sarah Palin:

She assured them she would not take much time off: she had returned to work the day after giving birth to Piper, the child in tow. “To any critics who say a woman can’t think and work and carry a baby at the same time,” she said, “I’d just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave.”

There was no mention of the baby’s condition. Instead, she joked about giving her child the middle name Van, since Van Palin would sound sort of like the hard rock band Van Halen.

Let’s take the joke further — let’s surmise that she wants to become John McCain’s vice president because McCain was born here …

Here’s John McCain on “Face the Nation” today:

SCHIEFFER: Will you have Democrats in your Cabinet?
Sen. McCAIN: Yeah, of course.
SCHIEFFER: How many?
Sen. McCAIN: Well, I don’t know how many, but I can tell you, in all due respect to previous administrations, it’s not going to be a single, you know, “Well, we have a Democrat.” It’s going to be the best people in America, the smartest people in America. So many of these problems we face–for example, energy independence. What’s partisan about that? In other words, we’ve got to have people who are the best and the brightest.

A proud legacy to build upon, indeed.

Latest polling?  Nope.  It’s the Alaska Permanent Fund.

And that’s not Sarah Palin…

(spotted at radio king Paul Harris’ sensational Paul Harris Online)