If there's anything in our election cycle that does nothing to change any minds, but provides great political theater, it's the presidential debate.

I doubt the presidential and vice-presidential debates changed a single poll number out there, but they certainly provided tons of fodder for the blogosphere, which is emboldened on both sides of the right and left by this pointless chatter.

And that's fine. If bloggers get paid for saying nothing anyone hasn't already heard, then they'll join leagues of preachers who have been doing it for centuries. What I can tell you, though, is the rhetoric of debates seldom changes, as you can see here from this 1967 debate between Batman and the Penguin for the mayorship of Gotham City.

In fact, there is something uncannily familiar about the Penguin's opening statement. Hmmm...