The President's Name Is Missing...

Nick Gillespie | October 11, 2007

...from Tuesday's Dearborn debate. Salon's Tim Grieve does the hard work of counting mentions of George W. Whatshisface and gets all the way to...zero.:

Number of times Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee and Duncan Hunter uttered the word "Bush" during Tuesday night's two-hour debate in Michigan: 0.

Number of times Giuliani and Romney referred by name to Bill or Hillary Clinton: 16.

More here.

I'm not sure what kind of reviews zombie candidate Fred Thompson is getting for his performance, but I'll tell you the one thing I like about him: He always has an expression on his face like he just walked out of the most-godawful state fair porta-potty on the hottest day of summer. If Dick Cheney's sneer is a smug, cowardly, Draco Malfoy turn of the lip, Thompson's is full-blown, immersive revulsion and barely constrained contempt for all that he can see, hear, taste, and smell.

So I like that about him. Everything else, not so much.

Hat Tip to Salon: Film critic extraordinaire Alan Vanneman.