Who watches the debates?

“Why are the Democrats’ debates on at such weird times?” they ask, and “Why aren’t there more of them?” “And who watches them, anyway?” they wonder.

Back in ‘08 a younger friend dropped by for coffee. In the course of our conversation she was lamenting some policy or other, and I responded by asking who she’d voted for. She blithely informed me that she’d never bothered because it didn’t make any difference. I, of course, asked how she knew that if she’d never tried it, going on to explain that, at the very least, voting grants the right to complain with greater effect. We talked for a couple more hours, and she left promising to think about what we’d discussed.

The next time I heard from her was when she called during the final minutes of the Republican convention. She was in an absolute swoon over McCain and Palin, and told me that she had finally registered — as a Republican. Oh, well. Anyway, in the course of her burgeoning political awareness she found it necessary to inform me that, unlike her, I lack the necessary “people smarts” to choose the right candidates; this proved her mother’s comment, years earlier, that whenever she found something new she became an instant expert on it for a while. Her kids, both registered Democrats, just roll their eyes while muttering the obligatory five-syllable “Mommm!”

So a couple a weeks ago she stopped by for coffee and cribbage. And right there, smack dab in the middle of the afternoon, she up and says “That Trump guy is awful!” Hello?? She followed that up by casually mentioning that she’d watched the Democratic debate. “I just don’t like the Clintons,” she said, “and that old guy was all percent this and percent that. But I like that O’Malley guy, he makes a lot of sense.” Hearing that beat the heck out of my 16-point hand. And she asked when the next debate was.

Who watches?

Door . . . Open.