Debate Live Blog

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While waiting for the debate to start — will Palin be on the GOP ticket in November? Or will she decide she needs to spend more time with her family?

McCain really is one of the whitest guys on the planet, isn’t he?

McCain isn’t being specific about what he wants to do with the fiscal package.

Did McCain just say he was going to vote for the plan?

Why is he talking about D-Day?

McCain: Heads will roll.

Is there a connection between Washington spending and the financial crisis on Wall Street? It’s all earmarks’ fault.

So far McCain is not addressing the questions he’s been asked. However, I’m not sure if the average viewer would understand that.

McCain is smirking.

How do you think the two are coming across? McCain isn’t being honest or on topic, but would a less informed viewer know that?

Oh, please, most liberal voting record in the United States Senate my ass.

McCain is just talking about cutting costs, but not what he would do.

Spending freeze?

McCain is thinking old technology.

He’s still going on about the taxes. How many times does Obama have to repeat his tax policies?

We owe China a lot more than $500 billion, btw. It’s closer to a trillion, I believe.

Lessons of Iraq!

Please, ask McCain what “victory” in Iraq means.

I’m still not sure if a less well-informed viewer would be able to pick up on the problems with McCain’s answers.

McCain is repeating W’s talking points. “Central front in war on terror.”

Does McCain know that we’re having some, um, issues with Pakistan lately?

Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb

Sending marines into Lebanon. Yes, John, remind us how old you are.

Do most Americans give a bleep about “victory” in Iraq?

We don’t like the UN, so we’ll create a counter-UN.

McCain is just about to explode.

McCain: Let’s do stuff just like W did!

McCain’s getting a bit worked up. Blow your stack, John.

McCain keeps saying Obama doesn’t understand this and that.

McCain doesn’t want to go back to the Cold War. He wants to battle the Old Russian Empire. Czar Putin?

McCain is claiming credit for the 9/11 Commission?

Largest re-organization of government. If McCain thinks that was done well, he’s nuts.

John, dear, al Qaeda doesn’t need Iraq to establish bases.

I believe Obama is correct that China is holding $1 trillion of our debt.

Good; make connection between $10 billion/month in Iraq and lack of money for domestic needs.

McCain is trying to connect Obama to Bush?

Hasn’t McCain voted against money for vets?

The fact checkers will be working on this for a week.

McCain was a POW? I didn’t know that!

Re fact-checking, Think Progress already has a lot of stuff up.

Post Game Show:

Matthews says that Obama seemed more presidential.

However, we’ve got Pat Buchanan and Norah O’Donnell saying McCain won. What’s going on on the other channels?

However, Buchanan admitted McCain seemed mean.

Joe Biden is on all the cable networks. Sarah Palin has been locked in her motel room.

60 thoughts on “Debate Live Blog”

  1. My poor Mom lives in Arizona. She called me earlier this week completely freaking out that Palin was polling so well, and that her co-workers were giddy with how great she is.

    I had to send her blog posts about her to calm her down.

    Now I am truly amazed to hear that the National Review’s Katherine Parker is saying she should leave the race.

  2. HA HA HA! McCain: “I warned about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I saw this train wreck coming…. Eisenhower on the night before the Normandy Invasion blah blah blah…. Reward people” huh?!! what part of “golden friggin parachutes” don’t you understand?!

    Jim, dude, give it up. This isn’t a pie fight, and you ain’t Jerry Springer. Let them talk to us, not yell at each other.

  4. Jiminy Cricket! Again with the earmarks? Again with the runaway spending? Excuse me, and whose party just asked for a $700 billion bailout, on top of a trillion dollar war?

    OMG, the veto pen stunt? Has he actually done that in every speech, or does it just seem that way? What? Not the bears in Montana line? (Dang, Barack, he set you up to come back with the salmon in Wasilla, but you wiffed it.)

    Wait, the Keating 5 guy is talking about money corrupting people?

    I’m afraid low-info people are going to buy this BS.

  5. Before I forget, didn’t McCain say that House Republicans had decided to be part of the solution to the financial crisis? I thought they’d scuttled it yesterday.

  6. Obama has the most liberal voting record? Does Russ Feingold know?

    Apparently, McCain would pay for the bailout by cutting everything.
    Including, I guess, things he was already responsible for cutting?

    He confuses me.

  7. How do you think the two are coming across? McCain isn’t being honest or on topic, but would a less informed viewer know that?

    The fact-check on this is gonna be like the Manhattan phone book. McCain’s clearly had his meds, he seems wide awake. That counts for a lot with some voters, unfortunately.

    So far I’m most disappointed in Jim Lehrer.

  8. O needs to take some digs at McGrumpy’s supposed reformer cred.

    Keating, his earmark-lovin’ running mate. Something. Jab, dammit!

  10. Obama is being too polite. Doesn’t he remember Jim egging him to interrupt McCain? He needs to call bullshit on this stuff.

  12. …And then Obama calls bullshit… and did I hear the old man giggle??? Did he actually giggle?

    Ohhh… yes, old man, let’s talk about your mavericky running mate!

  14. McCain is doing very well. Most of it is nonsense, but Obama isn’t hitting him on it, and doesn’t sound as confident, and keeps pausing. McCain goes on a forceful, nonstop spiel. Sure, it makes no sense, if you know what he’s talking about. But lots of people will react to style, not substance.

  15. Obama on Iraq: “I wish I had been wrong, for the sake of the country, and [McCain and Bush] had been right. But that’s not the case.”

    OK, O, now call him on this surge bullshit!

  17. Biggerbox, think you are accurate. McCain refuses to address BO directly and surely that can be exploited on camera. The pressure is great, but this is a baptism under fire.

  22. Good to know that McCain won’t leave Afghanistan either. Where are the troops coming from? Who knows. But he won’t cut aid to Pakistan, (though wasn’t he just saying a few minutes ago that he would cut aid to countries that don’t like us very much? Hello?) Wow, McCain is old enough to have had conversations with George Schultz as Sec. of State!

    Damn Barack, use simple, declarative sentences! Stop pausing between clauses, and chopping up your intonation. It sounds like you don’t know what you are talking about!!! Even though, for those of us able to follow you, you make sense. (Was Kerry one of your debate coaches? Gack!)

  25. If there was this League of Democracies McCain is talking about, would they let us in? What with our wars of aggression and our torturing prisoners and what-not?

  26. OMG this old man is totally trapped in the 1970s….

    I remember when rock was young,
    me and Susie had so much fun
    holdin hands and skimmin stones….

    In response, Obama talks sense. But are his sentences too long and complex for most Murricans?

    Booyah! The Spain snafu!

    Dr. Kissinger…. Wha?

    Ah, Israel, the 51st State. Last I checked, they can defend themselves, John.

    OK, did he just start babbling about the height of the average Korean? Did I mis-hear that?

  27. McCain certainly is certain about the things that Obama doesn’t understand. Sadly, it’s usually things on which McCain doesn’t (or won’t) understand Obama’s position.

  28. A couple things I really wish Obama had said:

    1) when McCain got into the business about fixing the financial biz, Obama should’ve mentioned that McCain’s financial advisor is the guy who wrote the deregulation law that started this whole mess in the first place, and that even the Wall Street Journal has mocked McCain’s rants against lobbyists, saying that if McCain wants to get talk tough to the lobbyists who are at the bottom of this mess, they’re right there on his bus.

    2) when McCain brought up the grizzly bear DNA study as a prime example of something wasteful and frivolous, there are two points: one is that this study showed that our conservation efforts have worked out well and therefore we can open ip areas of Montana for ranching and energy exploration, which means that the couple million for the study yeilded tens of millions in future revenue. But McCain says it was frivolous and wasteful, so why did Senator McCain vote for it?

  32. I wonder if McCain’s condescension isn’t going to hurt him, though. He comes across as such a snot when talking about what he says Obama does and doesn’t know. (Which has no link to reality.)

  34. Here comes more snottery, more blatant BS about Obama’s position, more of what McCain did 30 years ago.

  35. McCain is claiming credit for the 9/11 Commission?

    Pretty much, yeah. Him and his good old friend Dr. Kissinger.

  36. McCain is doing very well. Most of it is nonsense, but Obama isn’t hitting him on it, and doesn’t sound as confident, and keeps pausing. McCain goes on a forceful, nonstop spiel. Sure, it makes no sense, if you know what he’s talking about. But lots of people will react to style, not substance.

    This is, BTW, yet another example of how the rightwing’s tactics echo those of psusdoscience. The above is classic creationist “debating” tactics.

  37. Reagan’s Star Wars ended the Cold War? Really? That’s not how I remember it.

    If we “lose” in Iraq, al Qaeda will take over? Tell it to the Sunnis of Anbar province, buddy. There were no ‘surge’ troops in Anbar, John.

  39. McCain’s last words: “Senator Obama still doesn’t understand.”

    Must win in Iraq! Must make Iraq the 52nd State!

    Yeah, whatever. I’m switching off the TV now.

    I give them the following grades:
    Obama: B-
    McCain: C+
    Lehrer: D- (Jeez, I hope Gwen Ifill is better!)

  42. McCain on POW issue: he says he resolved it, but what he did was block the release of info about it, both here and in Vietnam over the objections of POWs’ relatives (including the woman in the wheelchair he shoved aside). There’s a Brave New Films video on it (which can be seen either at Robert Greewalds site or on Youtube).

  43. Is it unpatriotic to feel gleeful that Lehrer just said we’re almost finished?

    I believe he was referring to the possibility that McCain/Palin could win.

  45. Still wishing Obama had mentioned McCain’s economic advisor is the one that said we are whiners and the one that deregulated the banks and savings and loans.

    The tv isn’t in the room with the computer so I am getting here late. I think Obama was too nice. He needs to stop saying nice things and start pointing out the lies.

  46. Seems to me McCain did pretty well, better than I had hoped, but still this was always supposed to be his debate to lose, what with the national security and all.

    Thing is, I think Obama did very, very well as well. I think he came across as cool, collected, presidential, and very, very knowledgeable. So, all in all, I’d give the edge to Obama, but I don’t think many, if any, minds were changed tonight. And as Obama is winning, that’s as good as a clear win.

    -me

  47. I wish Obama would stop saying that McCain is right about things. Even if it’s true, he just needs to stop saying it and move on to his point. A guy on Charlie Rose just said the McCain campaign’s already spliced together an ad with all those “Senator McCain is right about X”s–talk about handing him an ad! He did seem almost to manage to get the old man to blow his stack, though–he needs to keep it up next time and push him just far enough. I suspect that’s why McCain refused to look at Obama, though, even though his body language was unbelievably negative if not downright antagonistic.

  48. I wish Obama would stop saying that McCain is right about things.

    seconded.

    Here in Canada on CBC Newsworld they figured it was more or less even, with “no knockout blows”. They figure it’s hard for anyone to win a debate like that, but you can lose one, and neither one really lost it. That’s really the problem with the debate setups we have, you can’t win. So it promotes the horse race narrative and doesn’t give out much info to voters. Just the way the media likes it, cause it keeps them in business by making it hard, maybe impossible, for regular folks to determine who actually knows what they’re talking about. So it’s up to the media to tell them.

    And that’s a yikes, considering what our media consists of. BTW, that’s another thing the Canadians do better; when Peter Mansbridge gets his usual panel; together they make snese and actually tend to provide some info.

  49. All hail Petraeus!…First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of of his countrymen…Now it’s on to another glorious victory in Afghanistan for the mighty Petraeus.

    And to think that that bum Obama refused to do obeisance to the exalted General…How unAmerican can you get!

  50. I strongly suggest people get a transcript. Lots of the usual BS from McCain. Here’s one place where McCain out and out lied. He said: “Back in 1983, when I was a brand-new United States congressman, the one — the person I admired the most and still admire the most, Ronald Reagan, wanted to send Marines into Lebanon.

    And I saw that, and I saw the situation, and I stood up, and I voted against that, because I was afraid that they couldn’t make peace in a place where 300 or 400 or several hundred Marines would make a difference. Tragically, I was right: Nearly 300 Marines lost their lives in the bombing of the barracks.”

    Reagan sent the Marines into Lebanon in 1982, BEFORE McCain became a member of Congress. I haven’t traced it yet but I believe there wasn’t a vote in Congress in the first place. Reagan simply sent 800 troops. There might have been something in 1983 but that was long after the fact.

    Readers of blogs are generally well-read but I wonder how many Americans sense that McCain can’t keep track of the stuff he makes up on the fly?

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