POST-DEBATE COMMENTS LEAVE HEADS SPINNING

Regarding Sunday night's first presidential debate, and in consideration of tonight's encounter in Richmond, Americans have cast their votes in a sense, electing to seek information about an important decision. We find this heartening. We also question the necessity in American politics of "spin" where straightforward discourse will suffice.

Here is what the A.C. Nielsen Co., which monitors viewership of television programs, had to say about the Sunday debate in St. Louis: The debate was carried live on seven networks and got a combined rating of about 40. Each rating point represents 920,000 households, meaning almost 37 million households were tuned in to the proceedings. By contrast, baseball's American League playoff game, carried on one network opposite the debate, got a rating of 8.3.

Thus, the American public demonstrated, according to the Nielsen numbers, a willingness to observe these candidates, study their demeanors, hear what they have to say, scrutinize their plans for the future of this country. It is an encouraging thing; maybe voter indifference is not so pervasive if this many Americans are willing to look in and spend a few moments considering those seeking the nation's highest office.

With this as a cue, why are we in need of these intolerable degrees of spin? Spin is a word relatively new to the American political lexicon; it is the afterplay of a political pronouncement, a favored revisionism afforded by time. It is the slant that well-placed congresspersons, campaign advisers and other political sorts lavish on the news media after something like a presidential debate, saying in effect, "Here's how to interpret what was said," after so many Americans heard what was said.

The purveyors of this are known as spin doctors, spin experts, spin masters. There seems to be no shortage of them. The place they ply their craft is often regarded as "spin alley." Enough already.

Here is a suggestion to those folks, and the American public, about this handiwork: leave spin to tennis balls, tops, carousels and the Earth on its axis. In the case of these debates, which are attracting significant and warranted attention, Americans are better off computing the version they hear live, from the horse's mouth, than what is spun later for their consumption.