Debate Live Blog

Posted on by

Join us here tonight for running commenting on the last debate.

Update: An omen? Romney blimp crashes.

Well, it’s time, folks. Wish us luck. I’m glad there aren’t any more of these. They wear me out.

* They are back to the blue and red ties, like the first debate. oh noes!

MIDDLE EAST

Part One: Libya

Mittens; Stuff in the Middle East is bad.

Ah Hah. Moderate Mitt is back. We can’t kill our way out of this.

The President: What we are doing.

Romney needs to be pressed to explain what he would do.

The President is recalling the stuff Romney has said over the last few months.

Yes, Mittens, he was accurate.

Mittens is lying about what he said in the past. He’s being the Mitt from the first debate.

Syria

NOW Mitt doesn’t want to go to war with anybody. He’s saying exactly what the President said. Please, ask him what he would do differently.

Mittens seems to think we can replace governments whenever and wherever we like.

I think Obama is hampered by the fact that he understands there are limits to what the United States can do. Mittens doesn’t get that.

Richard Adams: “Funny, for all the Republican rhetoric about what US foreign policy should be in the Middle East, here Mitt Romney is all about bringing everyone together in Syria, holding meetings and so on. Flow charts, maybe? This all sounds suspiciously milque-toast and leading from behindy. He’ll be going to the UN security council next.”

NEWS FLASH! Mittens is in favor of world peace! He’ll be competing for Miss World next.

OMG; he’s blaming American weakness on the debt.

AMERICA’S ROLE IN THE WORLD

Mittens is doing his best to bring the debate back to domestic issues.

OMG; he’s going through his five-point economic plan again. DRINK NOW.

How do you think it is going? To someone who really isn’t knowledgeable I suspect it’s just … confusing. A wall of words.

FYI: Massachusetts has ranked at the top of the education systems for decades. It’s a liberal state full of people willing to pay taxes to support good schools.

Here we go. Mittens is going to scuttle Obamacare to pay for a bigger military.

I think Obama is scoring on this section.

Mittens: Trust me. I’m a businessman.

Fewer horses and bayonets. We have submarines now. Hah! We’re not playing a game of battleship. SCORE.

It’s like the first debate but with roles switched. Mittens is saying how he’d do everything just like the President.

Mittens is struggling to keep smiling.

THE APOLOGY TOUR! Smack him down, Mr. President!

The centrifuges of death are spinning!

Smack him, Mr. President! I think Mittens just looks pathetic.

Mittens is getting irritated. Push him! He blows his cool easily.

AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN

NOW Romney is saying he will withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014. He is saying Afghanistan is successful.

Mittens: Pakistan is important! Brilliant.

Drones. Mittens won’t attack the President on drones, although that’s one thing he could be attacked on.

Is it almost over?

CHINA

Mittens, clue: Government underwrites most of the research that leads to scientific and technological breakthroughs.

Now he’s claiming he wouldn’t have hurt the car industry.

INTERRUPT HIM, DAMMIT!!!

This debate probably won’t help or hurt either candidate that much, but overall I think the President was sharper and firmer than Romney, who was flustered and, well, lied. And he’s going to be called on some of this stuff. Expect some scrutiny of what Mittens just said about the auto industry, which was a flat-out lie.

Now for what we’ve all been waiting for — what does Chris Matthews think?

I’ll say one thing — these debates have been moderated by two (old) men and two women, and the women KICKED ASS. The men appeared to struggle to stay awake. Bob Schieffer was a notch less passive than Jim Lehrer, IMO, but neither one did all that well, and the questions generally were lame.

Update: I see that Obama has won about four flash polls. So I’m going to bed; see you tomorrow. Keep talking if you’re up to it!

50 thoughts on “Debate Live Blog”

  2. OT, Chris Hedges’ McGovern: He Never Sold His Soul.

    The history books will tell you Richard Nixon won the 1972 election, that George McGovern went down to the worst defeat of any presidential candidate in history. But those who write history do not take into account the moral or the good, what is right or what is wrong, what endures and what does not. And even the historians have to acknowledge that Nixon’s victory was attained by lies and fraudulent propaganda, by dirty tricks, by state crimes and acts of theft and burglary. Nixon, as Hunter S. Thompson wrote, may have embodied the “successful” politician but he “was a foul caricature of himself, a man with no soul, no inner convictions.”
    “George McGovern, for all his mistakes… ,” Thompson went on, “understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Richard Nixon. McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose…. Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?”

    How it is even possible that this current election is close should scare anybody.

  3. Forget the live debate, they’ll just be spinning their wheels. I’m looking forward to Wenesday..The Donald is gonna drop a bomb, I can’t wait! I bet he finally proved that Obama was born in Kenya.. and Obama will be deported. It’s the big one, Folks.

    “I have something very, very big concerning the president of the United States,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Monday during a phone interview. “I will be announcing it sometime probably Wednesday and it’s going to be very big.”

  4. Obama is commenting on Romney wanting to import the foreign policy of the 1980’s, social policies of the 1950’s and the eoncomic polities of the 1920’s. …”everytime you’ve offered an opinoin you’ve been wrong”…no new nuke treaties with Russia…long recitation of Romney flip flops while comparing steady leadership to wrong and wreckless leaders that’s been all over the map.

    Score Obama.

  5. Romney talks aimlessly about middle east terror and how Obama is busy attacking him rather than addressing the problems. Since when has highlighting flip-flops not relevant? Romney would like to forget everything he said before and this is how he deals with it. Weak.

  8. At a high level Romney seems to be embracing the PResident’s policies despite not having done so in the past. Obama should keep hammering the shakiness of Romney’s flip-flop. Now Romney wants peace, but we need to be strong…empy platitudes without being specific. Stronger military is one specific, allies (but our allies are not embracing the Romney candidacy)…How quickly people forget the disastrous Romney “world tour”. “America must be strong” is his segue to economy so let’s see what Obama makes of this one.

  9. Romney claims Obama was silent during Tehran student protests… Did he? Obama is speaking to the alliances. Obama riffing on economy, education etc as a way to make us strong. “do it in a responsible way”… Romney cited for praise of Bush and Cheney. This is a lot of drivel on both sides, too vague.

  13. obama’s getting that “proceed governor” look as Romeny talks about Navy Ships. “We have these things called aircraft carriers….”

  14. So nice to see Obama pummel Mitt with that stupid 1916 Navy thing… Some might have found the elementary school explanation of aircraft carriers and nuclear subs was the perfect way to address how stupid that number of ships metric is.

    I’ve mostly been listening on the radio, and Mitt sounds like he’s bullsh*tting. But I realize that I have a finer tuned BS detector than many voters.

  15. Mitt’s got a very tight smile on his lips while Obama is telling him that the “apology” thing is the biggest whopper in the campaign, but his eyes are shooting daggers.

  16. Obama talks about last vs first resort on Iran. Then looking a little flustered and red-faced Romney “wants to underscore the same point the President made..when I am President of the United States…” That came off a little confused. Romney goes on to reiterate exactly what Obama said but basically says he would do more of it. Romney sounds like a slightly weaker kneed echo of Obama yet he’s sounded anything but that until today. C’mon Obama hit him on a few more flip-flops.

    LOL! Here it is — “I am glad governor Romney agrees with the steps that we’re taking. There have been times during the course of this campaign where it sounded like you’d do the same thin we did but you’d say them louder and that would make a difference.”

  17. OOohh, that last swipe at the ‘apology tour’ meme from Mitt woke the “Serious, Heavyweight Obama”!

    Every time Barack goes for that, he wins points and makes Mitt look like a stooge. Accuse him of not going to Israel and he’ll go all yad veshem on your butt, Mitt-y. HA!

  18. Good to know Mitt at least understands the danger of Pakistan as a failed state. Too bad he has a comic book level of the various competing factions there. Oooh, Schieffer, you scamp! “What is your position on the use of drones?” nice one.

  19. Incredible Obama riff including encounter with girl who was 4 when 9-11 occurred. It tied right in and did not seem strained at all. Squarely addressed Romney’s contentions and handily dismissed them.

  20. Romney is coming across better than he did in debate #2, but President Obama is more than holding his own, and reminding Romney of his contrary statements. I am glad I was able to vote early.

  21. Notice how mittwitt says “WHEN” I am president instead of saying “if I am elected” or something less assuming? He is not asking for your vote, he simply believes that he is entitled to hold the office. Am I the only one who is not comfortable with that attitude in a CANDIDATE of any party, any office? WHOOOA DUDE, hold up!

    Oh yeah and Obama should have asked mittwitt to tell us what a centerfuge is and what good they are alone. Most people probably don’t know and I think they may have heard OMG IRAN HAS THE NUKE (they just need to glue on the fuse as show in bibi’s cute little drawing.).. I think mittwitt is trying to sell fear here and I wish Obama would tell him “Well I am not as worried about Iran as you because I am more informed then you on the subject- I know a lot of shit you don’t” minus the potty mouth.

  22. Wait, has this guy who’s talking about how we can be partners with China spoken to that guy from the other night who was calling China threatening currency manipulators ? Oh wait, there it is.

    Wow, that’s is some rapid-cycling bipolar condition…. 30 seconds from friendly to hostile?

  24. hmmmm could the trade inbalance with china be because we don’t manufacture anything here anymore???Cause mittwitt shipped all our jobs there??

  25. And tell me this: What happens when china gets pissed over mittwitt’s power play and calls in the loan they gave bush to fund his wars? Then what??

  26. Romney : It’s not government that makes business successful

    Then where is the University of Chevron? Corporate America was asked to partner on public education when it began in this country and they took a step backwards and left it to government. They don’t want to be taxed on it either. That’s sheer hypocrisy and vague nonsense.

  28. Then they tighten the vise clamped on America’s family jewels…unloading US securities. That’s waht they can do. Romney’s talk is foolish on a trade war. How about taxing American corporations that send our jobs to China? No…that wouldn’t help. Then Romeny made the mistake of saying China can’t steal our jobs.

    Obama knocked that one out of the park….

  30. Leave it to Rev. Al to point out that Mitt is quick to support development programs in other countries when he’d cut such programs in the US.

  31. I think Obama was ready for this. He nailed Mitt several times for policies ‘all over the map’. Team Obama is pressing on Mitt the flip-flopper in the final days of the campaign. It’s a gut-level argument that Mitt can’t be trusted and the undecided voters who are left are almost all low-information voters who will vote on intuition. So Team Obama is firing that salvo last.

    What I haven’t seen yet is how the instant tracking polls during the debate went. A lot of low-information lemmings will want to be told what they think. *sigh* And this is how we select our leaders? The only justification for the democratic process is that it’s ten times better than any other system devised to date.

  33. “Apparently the new Romney foreign policy vote-getting strategy is to agree with Obama, but be white.”

    Worked for Elvis, but Mittens ain’t got “riddem”.

    I think the average independent, low-info voter who wasn’t watching sports will see the debate as a bit even– though Obama’s bayonet line was a pretty good “zinger”. So… my call is there will be little “bounce” one way or the other.

    Back to the “ground game”….

  35. Anderson cooper asks pundit “You didn’t mind the sweat?” speaking about mittwitt. Does it ever look good to sweat at a debate? I hope his sweaty mug is on all the front pages tomorrow. It will give my bird something to aim for.

  38. It seemed like a game of repeat back what I just said in different words. Mitt almost repeated back what Obama said verbatim. I got bored with it so I fired up a bone of Potpourri and then turned the sound down when Mitt was talking and imagined him trying to talk Ann out of her panties.Like on their first date. It was the guy who brought her home from the dance all over again, and he just wanted a little show of appreciation. I had a good laugh.

  39. Only one candidate is ready for that call at 3 in the morning. And it’s not Mitt Romney.

    Obama won the debate.

  40. Thanks for the commentary, folks. Yesterday’s 4 a.m. get up got to me, and I fell asleep about 5 min into the debate. It looks like I didn’t miss mutch, especially when compared to the Saturday Night Live skit Maha posted yesterday.

    Larry McDaniel / Justme–loved the comments;’specially the one about giving the bird something to aim at.
    Swami;I await The Donald’s bunker buster revelation. Perhaps the President is also gay?
    We could cpmpose a song along the lines of “a hole in the bottom of the sea” with all of Obama’s faults, like being a commie/ Muslim/ feriner/ black mystery man…. and now he is gay and murders his former lovers! (and snorts bath salts)

  41. Obama clearly won, because Mitt agreed with him almost all night.

    The line about horses and bayonet’s was a killer. Also the lines about aircraft carriers, subs, and the game of “Battleship.”
    Zinger-zee-zing-zing!
    Oh, if only President Obama had said, “And you can’t hire any more Hessian’s either, Governor, to help fight the wars you and your Bush NeoCLOWN team want to get us into. Wars today are fought by America’s young men and women.”

    Mitt looked tired, angry, and vacant.

    And WTF was that with Syria being Iran’s path to the sea?
    Maybe Donald Trump told him that Atlantic City was America’s only path to the Atlantic?
    Shorter Mitt : “When I’m President, regarding foreign policy, I’ll do what Obama’s doing – only more Caucasian.”
    WIN!
    Let’s see what Cup O’ Schmoe’s gang has to say. After all, it’s the Villagers most highly rated TV show.

  43. Erineyes, it would be too sweet to have The Donald fall into the loving arms of Orly Taitz! It would put Monsieur Coiffure right where he belongs: embracing fraud. The only problem is that the ones who want to believe such things would have a hot new talking point. Of course, they already believe whatever they want to anyway.

    The fact that all such records are digitized today, plus the fact that pre printed forms are filled out on a variety of typewriters (in those days) ought to be enough commonsense realizations to scuttle this crap as soon as there is a request for summary judgment, or whatever the proper courtroom maneuver would be.

  44. CNN Poll on the debate:
    Obama – 48%
    Romney – 40%

    CNN’s conclusion on the debate?
    IT’S A TIE!!!

    If you had Obama giving 8, go kiss you sister.

    Somewhere, Ted Turner is wishing he was dead, just to see if he can spin anywhere near as fast as the “news” network he created.

  45. Man, I am sorry I missed it. Not surprised Romney has a “blimp”– it’s how he intends to outrun the Spanish Flu and votes for women.

    Please proceed into obscurity, Governor.

  46. “You didn’t mind the sweat?” speaking about mittwitt. Does it ever look good to sweat at a debate?

    I didn’t watch last night’s debate, but that’s an encouraging sign. I do remember the Kennedy/Nixon debate (I must have been 5 years old), and Nixon looked like he was sweating. JFK was nothing but cool.

  47. I wonder which got hurt the worst in the beating they got when their master came home after last night’s debate?
    Bolton’s, or Kristol’s, poor dog?

    All those years and years of neoconning people, and Mitt turns into John Feckin’ Lennon last night.
    I was waiting for Mitt to start singing, “All we are saying… Is give peace a chance…”

  48. That’s what we saw from Mitt Romney in this debate. The kind of demeanor and the kind of temperament and the kind of leader we need,” Ryan added.

    Really? What I saw was proof positive that Romney is going to lose..There’s no way Romney can be seen as Presidential material. He’s not in command of his own mind. He constantly reverted back to rote information in an attempt to appear knowledgable, but through it all it became apparent he doesn’t have what it takes…He was hanging on for dear life because he was way way over his head…12 million jobs, “I saved the Olympics” I’d do what he says but only stronger and better..Give it up Mitt, you can’t buy the office of President.

    I hope Paulie pays a price for aiding and abetting an idiot. People of Wisconsin, send that fraud packing.

  49. I like Romney’s comment about the Air Force being older (and smaller) than when it was first formed in 1947.. That warrants a ..Well, duh?

Comments are closed.