Do presidential candidates ever zone out during debates?

Apparently so. A Washington Post blog quotes Bill Richardson  discussing an incident during one of the Dem debates:

I had just been asked a question — I don’t remember which one — and Obama was sitting right next to me. Then the moderator went across the room, I think to Chris Dodd, so I thought I was home free for a while. I wasn’t going to listen to the next question. I was about to say something to Obama when the moderator turned to me and said, ‘So, Gov. Richardson, what do you think of that?’ But I wasn’t paying any attention! I was about to say, ‘Could you repeat the question? I wasn’t listening.’ But I wasn’t about to say I wasn’t listening. I looked at Obama. I was just horrified. And Obama whispered, ‘Katrina. Katrina.’ The question was on Katrina! So I said, ‘On Katrina, my policy . . .’ Obama could have just thrown me under the bus. So I said, ‘Obama, that was good of you to do that.’

First, “I wasn’t going to listen to the next question” might be the most honest politician statement of the entire campaign.

Second, I love that these people really just need a one-word cue (“Katrina!”) before they can launch into whatever their spiel might be.

Via TNR’s The Plank.