I Could Do Better than That

Wow. The debate was so lopsided last night that I actually dreamed that I was debating Dick Cheney. And in my dream, I was laying out a case for a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, point by point, without any recourse to talking points. I can only wish Edwards had done the same. It was clear last night that Cheney had studied for that debate and studied harder than Edwards. While little John attempted to use Kerry's talking points, Cheney talked fluently about policy, records, and all sorts of things. I never really believed the conspiracy theory that Cheney was secretly running things behind the scenes, but after last night, it's hard to deny. I say we let Cheney and Kerry debate from here on out and have an American Gladiators-style contest between Edwards and Bush on a jumbotron between questions. Then, whichever wins a given giant Q-tip match or obstacle course run earns his running mate ten extra seconds on the next rebuttal. Then we can see the brains behind each operation discuss politics and the young, dim ones do something entertaining, apparently the best that either can do lately.

I'm nearly finished with Niebuhr, and I can see now the accusations that he gives the "Christ transforming culture" an unfair advantage. It's clearly his favorite of the five, and his main critique of Augustine is that he's not fully a transformationalist, that he puts too much emphasis on the difference between the saved and the unsaved. I ought to be able to knock the rest of it out today and start planning the Acts Bible study.