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In my bored stupor, I totally missed this question during the debate last night. In retrospect, the way it's phrased seems designed to tell us more about Tom Brokaw's energy plan (or Thomas Friedman's) than that of John McCain or Barack Obama:

Should we fund a Manhattan-like project that develops a nuclear bomb to deal with global energy and alternative energy or should we fund 100,000 garages across America, the kind of industry and innovation that developed Silicon Valley?

Hmm... Silicon Valley or a nuclear bomb? Tough choice.

Still, while it's an absurdly loaded -- and probably flubbed -- question, the candidates at least had answers for it. When Brokaw pushed them to name their Treasury secretary in advance or call Russia evil, I have a hard time believing that he actually expected them to respond to what he asked.

At this point, perhaps he just expects them to ignore the question and go straight to talking points anyway, so he decided to have a bit of fun.