So last week I was presumptuous enough to give advice to Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin before their much-anticipated TV debate. The key point to both of them was “Remember, perception is reality!”

    Whatever else I mentioned might not have made much difference, but the “perception” angle was valid. And, understandably, the respective political camps perceived the results of the debate from their own points of view.

    Perhaps members of the national media were looking for glaring mistakes or omissions of one sort or another by the candidates but they were disappointed. Nothing happened which stood out as a defining sound bite.

    There were slips, of course. The Alaska governor mentioned “General McClellan” instead of the correct “General McKiernan,” for example.

    The Wall Street Journal went so far as to chide the Delaware senator for  “factual claims that would have got Mrs. Palin mocked from New York to Los Angeles”  in a lead editorial on Oct. 6 headed “Biden’s Fantasy World.”

    All in all it was a very interesting debate, with Sen. Biden showing the advantage of his greater background in governmental affairs and Gov. Palin appealing directly to the viewing audience with her very likeable personality.

    And by the time this is read we will all have some idea of the current tenor of the hectic race for the presidency following the clash Oct. 7 between the principals in the fight, Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama.

    From the vantage point of making a comment before the TV debate, we can hope that both men will practice the civility which the general public wants to see.

    *****

    By the way, the same Wall Street Journal used top-of-the-page prominence for a letter titled “The Efficient Delaware Court System Attracts Business” in its Oct. 4/5 edition. It was from Allen M. Terrell Jr., president of the Delaware State Bar Association, and concluded: “Any inclination for litigants to properly file matters in Delaware is a testament to efficient courtrooms, highly competent counsel, and dedicated and fair judges.”

    *****

    We were in Washington, D.C., over the weekend for a Kennedy Center concert and once again became stuck, along with many other vehicles, as we inched up New York Avenue before reaching the point near the Washington Convention Center where the traffic breaks up.

    Ahead of us was a Delaware car — we always spot the few we see — and we were moving so slowly that I mentioned to Mary that I might get out and say hello to whoever was in the car.

    She dissuaded me from the impulse.

    But if we had been moving just a little slower I might have done it.

    One aspect of traffic in Washington which makes you think is the city’s bus system. On the side of the buses is a sign saying that all the city buses are powered by natural gas.

    It made me think that perhaps this would be a good step for Delaware’s public bus system to adopt. It would save on gas and at the same time not add to air pollution.

    *****

    “Once upon a time…” — That opening seems appropriate since it was so long ago — I wrote a twice-weekly column for the Morning News of Wilmington. Mary took the trouble to save a few of them — the column’s name was “Below the Canal” — and a few of them are interesting simply because of the contrast to what is going on today in Delaware.

    In a column on Feb. 26, 1962, for example, there was the mention that “Gov. Carvel’s proposed budget for 1962-63 is a little more than $94 million.”

    By contrast, Gov. Minner’s general fund budget for FY 2008 is $3.285.6 billion.

    One item in the Carvel butget indicates the scope of the change. The Delaware Library Commission had been operating on a $52,145.80 budget. It asked for $55,000 for the next year. The budget commission trimmed the amount to $42,000. The reason for the substantial cut was the $13,510 in the salaries account — a jump from $25,890 to $39,400 had been proposed.

    Another comparison: The City of Dover is anticipating about $37 million in general fund revenues in FY 2009, which does not include nearly $111 million in electric fund revenues against a projected expense of $102.3 million.

    Ten years ago Dover’s general fund revenues were about $18 million.

    But all the above figures pale, of course, when compared to $700 billion to give a financial shot to the U.S. economy.

    *****

    A man and a woman are standing at the altar, about to be married, when the bride-to-be looks at her prospective groom and sees that he has a set of golf clubs with him.

    “What on earth are you doing with those golf clubs in church?” she whispered.

    He replied, “This isn’t going to take all afternoon, is it?”