tonight is the last night of my mini-stay-at-home vacay. so i’ll be keeping this short and posting early because i can’t stay up all night and listen to post debate analysis. but i offer you some of my thoughts.... as they happen. a live blog for you, my loyal readers... on this, the occasion of the final presidential debate of 2008.
the third and final debate
ah....we’re sitting this evening.
mccain begins with a shout out to nancy “just say no” reagan. then launched into: “they’re [i.e. the american people] hurting and they’re angry. that’s important so i’ll say it again. they’re hurting and they’re angry.... they’re angry.” the key word here is “angry.”
mccain is hitting this very unpopular idea of buying up home mortgages. you know.... his idea.
obama immediately starts speaking directly to the middle class. tax cuts for anyone making less than $250,000. also – access to retirement/401(k) plans without penalty.
GREAT answer to mccain’s idea for buying up foreclosures. could be a profit-making venture for the banks.
wow...look at john mccain looking directly at obama as he attacks about the plumber. this is new....
mccain...the camera is on you. stop looking so itchy.
“joe the plumber” and “we need to spread the wealth around.” i just heard these talking points on the o’reilly factor as i was momentarily humoring my older, conservative brother.
mccain needs to get less advice from o’reilly and rush and listen to smart conservative like mike murphy.
is mccain really revisiting his america vs. ireland argument?
let’s see if bob can finally get an answer about the WHAT will you cut in order to pay for these economic stimulus packages?
well, obama once again danced around the question. mccain pulled a sarah palin and decided to talk about something completely different. nope, wait... he just said he would start a spending freeze.
hmmm....mccain would eliminate subsidies on ethanol. did he just write off illinois, iowa, wisconsin and indiana?
“i’m not president bush. if you wanted to run against president bush you should have run four years ago.” a nice line from mccain. obama needs to hit him back with: “well, then you shouldn’t have voted with bush over 90% of the time.”
“record, record, record...” yes, johnny boy. we get it.
“if i sometimes mistake your policies for bush’s policies...” it’s because they’re so similar. a nice response obama.
but holy shit. mccain is really hitting hard tonight. he is on the attack.
8:25pm: bob schieffer brings up the nastiness of the campaign and will you address the negative attacks to each other.
i can’t believe mccain is really trying to blame the ugliness on obama’s unwillingness to sit down for 10 town hall style debates.
look at mccain playing the victim. poor me.... they found out i’m a racist and they called me on it. boo-hoo.
“you didn’t tell the american people the truth because you didn’t.” what?!?
there’s the answer. says obama (in a nuthshell): the american people care less about our hurt feelings and the nastiness than the real issues. that’s what they want us to talk about.
i’m so fucking happy that obama is hitting mccain on he and palin not addressing the shouts of “kill him” and “terrorist” at their rallies. they’re also yelling shit like “off with his head” and “treason.” that shit is scary. the kennedys... MLK. that is not the distance past.... this type of language is horrifying.
mccain’s lines of attacks just go so far off the beaten path sometimes.
obama’s point that we can’t paint each other as “bad people” is a nice line. and then off mccain goes on ayers and ACORN which is all such bullshit.
i love that the word “terrorist” is oh-so-slightly dropped whenever mccain brings up ayers.
obama has given some very nice, direct answers to the idiotic allegations by the mccain campaign and then gave a beautiful list of his advisors: buffett, biden, luger, jones... beautiful.
why is bob letting this debate descend into this idiotic, trivial dialogue? MOVE ON!
let’s talk about THE ISSUES!
oooooh… a biden v. palin question. this seems like a gimme for obama. “because palin is a fucking idiot!” game, obama!
the key word for palin is “reformer.” ummm....no: idiot. how can mccain really justify his stunt known as sarah palin with a straight face?
awww....the victim card again! “she understands special needs families.”
when asked if sarah is qualified to be president, obama gave the stock hillary answer: “that’ll be up to the american people.”
oh snap! obama said we need to fund more research for autism if we’re gonna take special needs research seriously. and that can’t happen if mccain wants an “across the board spending freeze.” beautiful....
“tax and spend liberal.” this week’s republican talking point.
energy and oil. mccain: “drill, baby drill.” whatever...
allow me to digress for one moment: we all know that even if we begin drilling tomorrow, it’ll take ten years to see any oil from these new offshore drilling sites. exploration, construction, drilling.... ten years. but what nobody talks about is that once shell and exxon and everyone else drills the oil – it’s not american oil. the oil belongs to the oil companies. and they don’t have to supply it to america. they’re businessmen! they will sell it to the highest bidder. if china is willing to pay more for a barrel of oil, guess what? shell sells it to china. we won’t necessarily see ANY of it.
thank vishnu that obama spoke about wind and solar energy. why not spend all that money...the time over the next ten years....to explore alternative energy?!?! why not work to end our dependence on oil?!?
mccain finds a way to add “and he’ll raise your taxes” into any conversation... no matter how irrelevant. amazing....
fuck... over 30 minutes left and i’m already bored.
hit him, obama! clarify your plan for health care and the exemption for small businesses and “joe the plumber.” nice argument about young, healthy individuals may be able to afford health insurance for $5,000. but older, less healthy individuals probably can’t afford it for only $5,000 a year.
are you listening out there in pennsylvania?!?
“joe! i want you to do the job” mccain says. yeah...but joe can’t afford it! how can anyone really be against health care for everyone?!? should we just let our citizens die?
this amazes me! and i miss hillary....
oooooh! a roe v. wade question! mccain says he thought it was wrongly decided. “i think a lot of cases were wrongly decided.” really? can you name one? because sarah can’t...
i get so annoyed with the term “litmus test.” why can we not apply a fucking litmus test? we need judges that will uphold a woman’s right to choose!
carey – are you listening? obama just said roe v. wade was rightly decided. and he upholds a woman’s right to choose (under the safe guise of “right to privacy.”)
oh! and i’m so happy obama keeps bringing up equal pay for equal work.
education: obama thinks the children are our future. just like whitney houston.
well, hell.... we’re starting to repeat ourselves. let’s move on to my quick hits for the debate.
quick hits
--cnn’s newsroom is as busy as their graphics during the debate. 12 pundits and three moderators. i find it difficult to keep up.
--i think they asked bob shieffer to moderate in hopes it’ll make john ‘the cryptkeeper’ mccain look younger.
--mccain starts writing notes as soon as he sits down. is his memory that bad he has to write down thoughts before he forgets them? and then he just writes and writes and writes.
--i heard a great argument earlier today that mccain could’ve convinced people that he wouldn’t be a third bush term if he hadn’t decided to run a third bush-style campaign. it was nice.....
--“for all intents and purposes” is an empty fucking phrase. and WAY over-used.
--fuck! i wish i’d been counting how many times mccain brought up “joe the plumber.” by 9pm CST – it’s been at least four times... but about three or four times during each time he brings him up.
--mccain’s body language is better tonight. he looked at obama. he spoke directly to obama. but he still looks like a grumpy old man.
--obama looks presidential. he looks calm. but he looked (and was) ready to fight back on mccain’s attacks.
--do you know who obama’s number one surrogate is tonight after the debate? one hillary clinton. oh yeah.....
--on the final question of the debate, why is mccain suddenly so intent on interrupting obama while he speaks?
--thanks chuck todd on nbc. joe the plumber was mentioned over 20 times by mccain.
final thoughts
my final thoughts will also reflect the candidate’s final remarks.
my older brother (the conservative) thought mccain looked more choppy tonight than he has in the past. i think he’s uncomfortable on the attack but everyone had told him that he had to attack, attack, attack. it’s too bad.
and he did come out and attack. and he hit obama hard.
but i think obama was able to answer all of his attacks. and calmly.
the closing remarks were nice. mccain spoke of his service. obama spoke about the needs of the country. i dunno....?
i find it a bit of a draw (again) tonight. boring....(again) though maybe not as boring as last time.
but again...it was a draw. mccain can’t win with a draw. a draw means obama wins. and i just didn’t see anything tonight that changed the game.
another nice analysis from chuck todd: mccain’s performance will excite his base. but both candidates have their base. what did mccain do to garner votes from the center? from independents? i just don’t see it.
and to follow-up on a statement that chucky t. made about a month or more ago: we’ll know how this race will end november 4th on october 15th. well...look at the polls. look at the electoral maps: obama is up. and he’s up well.
i haven’t brought up realclearpolitics for some time, but let me revisit my favorite website. the RCP average of national polls has obama topping mccain by 7.3 percentage points: 49.8% to 42.8%.
and if you look at RCP’s electoral map. obama has 286 electoral votes in his column to mccain’s 158. that’s obama up by 128 electoral votes. of course, you only need 270 electoral votes to win the presidency and he’s already at 286 without toss up states.
add toss ups? obama 364. mccain 174. that’s obama in a landslide of 190 electoral votes over mccain.
again.... i’m cautiously optimistic.
well, it’s almost over. the debates are over. i can’t believe it’s a mere 19 days until election day.
and i leave you tonight with bob shieffer’s mother’s sage advice: “go vote now. it’ll make you feel nice and strong.”
obama/biden 08!
e.
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