MANCHESTER, N.H., 10:04 p.m. — Charles Gibson just mentioned to Senator Barack Obama that he had mentioned the Illinois senator during the Republican debate earlier in the evening. Obama admitted he didn’t catch it — he was flipping between football and the debate, he said.

For the hour before the debate, an ABC News broadcast was piped into the filing center. We bet most of the journalists here — if the reporters in our row are any indication — would have preferred to watch the football game.

Why didn’t we just go online and check the score? Because the Internet was broken. Sweet.

Oh, and the Redskins — the Washington Redskins — lost. Could that be a harbinger for the Washington insiders here in New Hampshire?

— Thomas Kaplan