I applaud Boston’s young conservatives. Thanks to a gentlemanly invitation from Rich Wheeler at the Massachusetts Federation of Young Republicans, I watched this past night’s debate with a herd of Alex P. Keatons at The Place outside Faneuil Hall. And while I expected to find a rowdy bunch of politically intolerant yuppies, they weren’t rowdy whatsoever.

With Sarah Palin constantly setting up tug and blow job jokes with lines about removing gloves and applying lipstick, only one diversion can lasso my comic attention: John McCain’s age. I wasn’t going to exploit for political purposes Barack Obama’s opponent’s senility and malfeasance, but, after last night’s debate, I’m compelled to graduate from sexism to ageism.