In case you missed it, Tom Brokaw asked this puzzling question Sunday on Meet the Press of Colorado Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall:

MR. BROKAW: Congressman Udall, we’ve been checking the statistics in the Denver area. I’m quite familiar with it. In the second quarter of 2008, one in every 95 households in the Denver area were in foreclosure. The United States average was one in 171. Colorado ranked fifth in the nation statewide. A lot of that was a result of speculation for profit, people going in and hoping to make a quick buck and turn it around. Why should other taxpayers across the country have to now bail out those Colorado mortgage buyers who just did the irresponsible thing?

Um, wasn’t the bill almost entirely focused on bailing out Wall Street firms whose balance sheets are loaded with “toxic” mortgage-backed securities? One of the primary critiques of the legislation was precisely that it didn’t do enough to help homeowners in danger of foreclosure.

Brokaw also failed to object when Udall’s opponent, former Congressman Bob Schaffer, promoted the dubious claim that tax cuts in the 1990s increased revenue and when McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt offered the misleading suggestion that Barack Obama voted to increase taxes on people making over $42,000.

All in all, it was a terrible performance on substance.