Let’s get ready to ruuuuuuumble. It’s finally upon us. The most hyped presidential debate in the modern era. You wish you didn’t want to watch it so badly, or that your excitement was at least loosely tied to the candidate’s opinions on key policies. Mostly, you wish you could turn away. But you can’t. Yes, we all have campaign fatigue. Yes, it has poisoned every dinner party conversation for months. And yes, if stress is bad for our health, then election 2016 is taking years off our lives. But we’re obsessed. And tonight our obsession will push the debate viewership numbers so high, the event planners will wish they hired a performer for a halftime show. It doesn’t even matter that we sort of know that debates rarely decide elections (especially first debates). It’s on like Donkey (and Elephant) Kong.

+ I don’t believe much of the pregame punditry. Most think that Trump has lowered expectations (in a good way) for the debate. I don’t buy it. He has raised the expectations that he’ll be entertaining and bombastic. That’s the whole reason behind the build up of anticipation.

+ I got so fed up with the conventional analysis leading up to the debate, I was driven to give some debate advice to Donald Trump. “Anyone who tells you that Trump needs to look presidential during the debate is making the same mistake pundits have been making all along.” Why Donald Trump Must Be a Jerk. I also offered my advice to Clinton: “She should leave the lowbrow personal attacks and cheap shots where they belong. In my Twitter stream.” The Matchup Hillary Can’t Win.

+ FiveThirtyEight: Your Debate Briefing Book.

+ Quartz: How to protect children from election stress disorder. (I’m giving mine 90 minutes of unsupervised iPad use.)

+ And if you need an antidote to tonight’s certain social media rage, take a took at this from the NYT: Michelle and George: The Embrace Seen Around the World.