Just as Obama and McCain got hung up comparing bracelets from deceased soldiers in their first debate, Biden and Palin seemed intent on out-hometowning each other last night.

“I think we need a little bit of reality from Wasilla Main Street there brought to Washington, DC,” Palin said at one point.

Biden immediately played the same card.

“Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie’s Restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me, where I spend a lot of time, and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years,” he said.

A few minutes later, he town-dropped again. “Look, the people in my neighborhood, they get it. They get it. They know they’ve been getting the short end of the stick. So walk with me in my neighborhood, go back to my old neighborhood in Claymont, an old steel town, or go up to Scranton with me. These people know the middle class has gotten the short end.”

The rest of us, though, are getting the long end. Enough about your quaint little towns with those darling little restaurants and charming big-box stores! We get it; you’re just like us. (Except we don’t go on and on about our hometowns. And we don’t think our presence at a Home Depot proves we’re normal.)

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Some Wilmington folks are setting the record straight, shattering Biden’s illusions.

“I used to be a waiter at Katie’s Restaurant, and I picked up on Biden’s mistake right away,” someone named Rod wrote online this morning. “A Wilmington institution renowned for its homemade pasta, the restaurant was sold about 20 years ago. Biden used to come in once a month or so. It was on 6th and Lincoln Street.”