The most important night in the history of American Television

Generally I reserve this blog space for things that are (by my own admission) of little consequence. Let’s be honest, aside from the hearts of a few passionate fans, there isn’t a whole lot riding on tomorrow’s Indiana-Michigan State game.

The same most certainly cannot be said for tonight’s presidential debate scheduled to take place tonight in Oxford, Mississippi.

In fact, few things are more important than what Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain have to say after one of the most tumultous weeks in our nation’s history.

Regardless of what side of the fence you’re on, or even if you’re straddling said fence, it is critically important to tune in for tonight’s debate, which will focus primarily on foreign policy. Whether you’re a democrat who’s not yet sold on Obama’s over-generalized plan for the future (ah-em) or a Republican who just isn’t sure that four more years of a Republican president is such a good idea, the debate tonight at Ole Miss could go a long way to deciding who you vote for in November.

But more than anything, Americans need to be talked to, need their questions answered, which is why Sen. McCain’s proposal earlier this week to postpone the debate was baffling at best and idiotic at worst. The last thing Americans want as the Nation pays for decades of de-regulation in the financial sector is silence, and while we may not get to see Gov. Sarah Palin dance around long-awaited questions about her checkered past and questionable bona fides, we will get to see the two men vying for our trust and the job of our nation’s chief executive answer questions about what the next four years could look like under the Obama and McCain administrations respectively.

Forget one-hour premiere of The Office (which was great – despite my lambasting of the strike-shortened fourth season), this is must-see TV.