I haven't had enough coffee yet to process the photo on the front page of NYTimes.com -- you can see it here, accompanying their story about last night's Al Smith Dinner. Cardinal Egan in the middle, with Obama on one side and McCain on the other, and they're all laughing. What country, friends, is this? (The formalwear just adds to the weirdness: white ties and tuxes for the candidates, and a bright red cape for His Eminence. Not a flag pin in sight.)The NYT story has some highlights from their speeches, including a few cracks that would have made me laugh, too. My favorites:

Mr. Obama, noting his age, said he did not have the pleasure of knowing Al Smith, but added: From everything Senator McCain has told me, he was a great man.Then, he gave a shout out to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. The mayor recently announced some news that he would be rewriting the rules and have a third term, which prompted Bill Clinton to say: You can do that?

Mollie Wilson O’​Reilly is editor-at-large and columnist at Commonweal.

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