Whew! I fell asleep and just woke up in time. Here we go.
First question about economy. Fastest solution to bail out retirees?
McCain wants to buy and renegotiate all bad home loans. He’s going to pay for this?
I think Obama is going to have to be careful not to get sucked into spending all his time defending his past record from McCain’s, um, imagination.
McCain has figured out that the financial crisis has something to do with bad mortgages. Swift.
Now he is going on about how great American workers are. So get them jobs, John.
McCain a “consistent reformer”? Please. Does anyone believe that?
I’ve just switched to CNN to watch the wiggly lines. McCain is speaking. The line is flat.
Will McCain please be asked to explain his health care “plan.”
Obama is speaking, and Miss Lucy (my feline roommate) just went crazy running around the room. I think she is an Obama fan.
Someone asked which sacrifices citizens can make for their country, and McCain goes on about earmarks and cutting government programs.
Obama speaks up about a call to service. The American people want to engage in meaningful change. Save energy in your home. Fuel-efficient cars. Peace corps.
Revealing, I think, that McCain only thinks in terms of what Washington does, not what Americans can do.
McCain comes on and says Obama is going to raise taxes.
He wants a commission on Medicare. To do what? He’s not making sense.
Climate change — McCain says the best way to fix it is nuclear power? That’s it?
Obama — calls climate change an opportunity; new technology can help grow economy. Government working with private sector.
I never know how these guys are coming across to undecided voters.
Obama brings up McCain’s health care “plan.” I think most people understand that $5000 for a family can’t buy health insurance. Ooo, he brought up “gold plated” health care.
Obama – we need the money we’re spending in Iraq here in the U.S. This needs to be repeated, repeated, repeated.
McCain is going on about Iraq and Petraeus and the line goes flat.
Now McCain isn’t making sense. Obama didn’t say he would attack Pakistan. We’re going to succeed in Pakistan the way we succeeded in Iraq. I’m not sure he understands that most people don’t consider Iraq a “success.”
He keeps saying Obama is going to attack Pakistan, which he clearly didn’t do.
Once again, McCain talks about General Petraeus. General Petraeus is beloved on the Right but I don’t think the majority of the American people feel anything about him one way or another. Throwing the name “Petraeus” around just doesn’t sing for most people.
The BooMan: “McCain sucks harder than a vacuum.”
McCain’s “league of democracies” idea is just surreal.
Passing on the American Dream to the next generation. Good closing statement. Not exactly answering the question, but good closing statement.
McCain is talking about a “steady hand at the tiller.” That would be Obama.
OK, it’s over. Now we’ll hear the bobbleheads talk about how McCain was so much better this time and probably won the debate.
Rachel Maddow: McCain was swinging and missing. Obama seemed more relaxed than McCain.
Pat Buchanan thinks McCain won the debate. Big surprise.
Update: The CNN quickie poll is coming through — Obama won.
I’m so disgusted w/ McCain embracing his inner Klansman, I can’t bear to see or hear him. So the TV’s off and I’ll just follow along w/ Maha.
And maybe post some snarky replies to the questions, e.g.:
Fastest solution to bail out retirees?
Soylent Green is people. BTW, aren’t you retired, Mr. Brokaw?
Getting some pretty word pictures from the commenters over at wonkette:
Obama stood in front of the voter who asked the question and spoke to him. Why did McCain wander around the stage like a drunken Roomba?
If your drinking-game phrase is “My friends,” you now officially have alcohol poisoning.
This is sounding like Debate I all over again, but with occasional choreography.
Is Brokaw really getting pissy with the candidates? Or maybe he came in that way.
Just for the record, I am not John McCain’s “friend.” I’m getting pretty annoyed about that verbal tic.
Half the time McCain seems to be an angry liar, the other half a crazy old man, babbling about magical nuclear energy that will somehow reform credit default swaps, and other fantasies.
Brokaw complaining about the candidates not observing the time limits when he is doing nothing to interrupt them or call them on time is pretty old, tool.
OMG, he just said offshore drilling now will “bridge the gap.” And what will bridge the gap for the 10 years until those wells start producing, John?
Obama really needs to give more concise and punchy answers.
I guess he was listening. That was a good answer on health care.
Yes, John, every parent in America would acquire health insurance for their family if they could.
So, why aren’t all families insured? And do you seriously think giving them $5000 is going to fix that?
Oooh, good one. Barack brought out the dying mom arguing with the insurance company story. Eat that one, McCain. And Obama goes on to wipe the floor with McCain’s plan. Sweet.
I think McCain just forgot Obama’s name there. “That one.”
You! Boy! Bring me a martini! Chop chop!
Dammit! I am NOT your friend!
If McCain is going to bail out homeowners I want a piece of that action. Everyone is getting bailed out but the middle-class and I am sick of it. Frankly, why don’t they understand you cannot have a democracy without a healthy middle-class. If it is only the haves and the have nots rebellion will overtake the country.
Wow, and I thought Nixon was dead. McCain promises peace with honor in Iraq. Awesome. Worked so well the first time. McCain is still fighting his war, I guess.
McCain: When you want to get something out of a country, you don’t want to announce that you want to attack that country. Right.
Unless that country is Iran?
The same strategy that succeeded in Iraq, only very, very different.
Talk loony, and carry a big lie.
Over on dKos, they’re liveblogging under the title, “The ‘Get Off My Lawn’ Variety Hour.”
It makes me think of Andy Griffith, except Andy Griffith is cool. McCain is just constipated and disoriented. And very, very mean.
Awesome. Barack wrestles a follow-up from Brokaw, and wipes the floor with McCain. Then McCain claims he knows how to get bin Laden. Sure, old man, sure you do. Here, why don’t you sit down here in the shade and have some lemonade.
Throwing the name “Petraeus†around just doesn’t sing for most people.
They probably confuse him with some old, dead, toga-wearing Roman. Et tu, Petraeus? Kinda fits.
McCain flubs the answer on the Evil Empire question. He’s not definite enough to appeal to the righties, and he’s not detailed enough to outclass Obama’s answer.
Are you kidding? Brokaw really took a question on the hypothetical of Iran attacking Israel?
John McCain is still trying to get approval from that daddy who was away at sea all those years….
Oh, thank goodness, it’s over. HA! They stood in front of Brokaw’s prompter. Brilliant metaphor. The candidates getting in the way of the TV show.
Man! If you read CNN’s running transcript, McCain says “My friends” about every other sentence. How incredibly, vomitously hokey.
He was supposed to be the King of the Town Hall Thing, and I get the sense he’s blown it big time. Phony, smug tone; outbursts of crankiness; horribly unfunny jokes; those beloved references to Bygone Days; policies that would sound nuts to any sane and honest American.
Plus I think there’s going to be major backlash from the recent Palin-KKK rallies. They’re done, toast, finito, buh-bye.
Jan. 20, 2009 cannot get here fast enough.
Another great night for Obama. It’s a good thing Obama didn’t agree to the town hall meetings McPain wanted. Obama would have been way out in the lead a lot earlier.
If the take-a-drink phrase was “my friend” I wouldn’t be able to type right now.
McCain used the phrase “steady hand on the tiller” a few times, closing his speech with it. This was at odds with his message of change and with the fact that he’s in his 70s, and gimping around on that stage does him no favors. It evoked evil Queen Sarah, Spice Bible, snatching the tiller away when the old man falls.
Not surprisingly, Pat Buchanan says McCain won on points, but admits that Obama was presidential, and gives him props for his response about bomb, bomb Iran.
Rachel Maddow says Obama won because he basically conducted himself as if McCain wasn’t there.
McHothead says we need a cool hand on the tiller.. was that his endorsement for Obama?
It’s pretty rich for McCain to go on about no on-the-job training for Obama considering his choice for running mate. And I can’t possibly be the only person who reacted that way to his idiotic comment.
Good to see St.Ronnie was properly venerated.
What the hell happened to Pat Buchanan? I have red many stinging commentaries penned by him at Antiwar.com and Lewrockwell, he has been very critical of the Bush Admin and the neocons in particular. He seems to be infatuated with Palin to the point that his brain has turned to a slushy.
I fell asleep about a half hr into the presentation……
JR16, you crack me up, ‘Love your comments.
Swami, the “cool hand on the tiller” comment, ahem,well I won’t go there……( an old man’s fantasy?)