Last night's presidential "debate" truly was a low point in American politics.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who turned it off in disgust after watching 40 nauseating minutes in which not a single issue -- not the war, not the economy, not gas prices, not global warming, not health care, not the collapsing dollar -- was brought up.

Apparently, in the minds of Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, such issues are of less import than a flag lapel pin or whatever the latest specious complaint making the rounds of the idiotnet happen to be.

Of course, it seems pointless to add to the braying chorus of complaints about our media -- which, if there is an objective behind the vapidness, one sometimes suspects must be exactly the point.

Watching Gibson and Stephanopoulos, it was clear that the template for modern journalism has been set by what Matt Yglesias has called the Unbearable Inanity of Tim Russert:

[T]he balls Russert favors may be hard, but the pitches he throws aren't curveballs, which go someplace useful. They're sillyballs, which go somewhere pointless. Russert has created a strike zone of his own where toughness meets irrelevance.

Substitute Gibson and Stephanopoulos ("who's more patriotic?") for Russert, and you've pretty well captured last night's debate -- not to mention most of modern punditry.

Check out these comments on the ABC News website to get a sense of the depth of betrayal felt by many Americans who tuned in last night. Or watch this video of the audience jeering Charlie Gibson at the end.

By far, one of the most depressing things I have ever witnessed in this hollow farce we now call politics.