Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
(Delayed) Final Debate Liveblogging
8:00 — Bob Schieffer intro, debate rules.
8:02 — candidates appear onstage
8:03 — First question: Why do you think your economic plan is better than your opponent’s? McCain goes first — blames Fannie/Freddie; use $300 bn to buy up bad mortgates…yada yada yada…this is nothing new from what he’s (scrambled to) propose in the last week.
8:05 — Obama’s turn: also sticking to the talking points, but in general Obama’s plan is better than McCain’s.
8:06 — As per last debate, Alex Castellanos is giving everyone lots of positive and negative points, but Roland Martin’s giving him a run for his money; meanwhile, Begala took a lot longer to give Obama any points than last debate.; I notice that the line graphs for the uncommitted voters have stayed relatively flat for both candidates.
8:09 — Squiggly lines just went up for Obama’s talking point about his tax policies, then plateaued.
8:11 — McCain’s spouting nonsense about Obama causing class warfare. Crowd at Scholz is laughing every time McCain mentions "Joe the Plumber" — maybe that should be a drinking game item.
8:12 — McCain’s lying about corporate tax rates again. 2/3s of corporations in America effectively pay no taxes.
8:14 — Castellanos: McCain +8/-0, Obama +6/-0, Martin: McCain +7/-1, Obama +11/-1
8:15 — Obama argues that investing in health care for all will cut costs, improve productivity. good stuff
8:16 — McCain thinks that only nuclear power and offshore drilling will end Amerca’s dependence on foreign oil. Alternative energy is at best 99th out of 100 on his priorities list, as far as energy is concerned.
8:18 — McCain brought up the Adler Planetarium projector bullcrap again! Hey, John, why don’t you talk about all the pork you brought home to AZ, huh? And why not talk about all the pork Caribou Barbie brought in, including the ill-fated sports complex with its huge cost overruns from getting the Three Stooges to do the permit process?
8:20 — Begala: McCain +3/-0, Obama +3/-0
8:21 — McCain gets testy about Obama tying him to Bush. If the shoe fits, Grampy.
8:22 — Sen. McCain, NTU and CAGW are far-right orgs. Not exactly trustworthy, dude.
8:23 — Obama QOTN: "Even Fox News disputes [McCain’s claim that Obama would raise taxes on those making $42K/year], and that doesn’t happen very often when it comes to accusations about me."
8:24 — You don’t need to reach across the aisle when your party has been right 99.9999% of the time, Grampy!
8:24 — McCain plays the POW! card and lies about being against torture
8:25 — Question about nasty tone of campaign: Would you be willing to say to your opponent’s face the crap your campaign has been spewing? McCain blames nasty tone on Obama’s refusal to do a lots of townhall meetings, lies about repudiating cheap shots, lies about negativity of Obama campaign, lies about Obama’s position on public financing of campaigns.
8:29 — Obama brings up swiftboating from McCain 527s. Quotes McCain staffer on nasty tone.
8:30 — McCain keeps lying about Obama’s ads.
8:31 — Obama brings up ugliness at Gov. Mooseburger rallies
8:32 — I’m not even sure that the focus group is paying attention anymore.
8:33 — McCain QOTN: "Let me just say categorically I’m proud of the people that come to our rallies." Really?! Even the lynch mobs?
8:34 — McCain brings up alleged negativity at Obama rallies. And your evidence is…? Put up or shut up, Grampy!
8:36 — McCain smears ACORN.
8:37 — Obama did an adequate job of defending Ayers angle, but I wish he’d brought up McCain’s chumminess with Marilyn Shannon, the woman who praised an anti-abortion terrorist, or his chumminess with G. Gordon "Head Shots" Liddy.
8:39 — Obama QOTN: "And I think the fact that [smearing Obama over Ayers and ACORN] has become such an important part of your campaign, Sen. McCain, says more about your campaign than it says about me."
8:40 — Audience at Scholz laughed derisively when McCain claimed to make economic issues the centerpiece of his campaign.
8:41 — Question: How would America be better off if your running mate had to step into the office of POTUS? Let’s see McRove answer THAT one!
8:42 — SENATOR Palin, Grampy? Time to adjust the meds!
8:43 — McCain: "[Palin] understands special needs children." Really, is that why she slashed their funding?
8:44 — C’mon Obama, bring up her husband’s membership in the AIP!
8:46 — Next question on energy and climate change: Would you give us a specific number of how much you plan on cutting our foreign oil imports?
8:47 — McCain said "nuclear power pants!"
8:49 — Obama mentions "Use it or lose it" policy. "We can’t drill our way out of this problem." Indeed. Would that Grampy McRove figured that out.
8:50 — Obama: "We invented the auto industry and the fact that we have fallen so far behind is something we have to work on."
8:51 — Newsflash, Grampy: New oil production begun now doesn’t enter the marketplace for another decade, and even then, doesn’t necessarily go immediately into our market!
8:52 — McCain: Obama never went south of the border. Like when you had your little affair with that Brazilian beauty pageant model?
8:53 — McCain did a O’Reilly-esque drawing in of his breath.
8:54 — Obama: "Detroit had dragged its feet too long" in producing fuel-efficient vehicles. Indeed. And we wonder why we can’t compete anymore, when even China is producing more fuel-efficient vehicles than we are!
8:56 — New topic: health care. Would either of you now favor controlling health care costs over expanding coverage?
8:58 — Focus group seems to like Obama’s health care plan…
9:00 — And they were receptive to McCain up until "tax credit."
9:01 — "Joe the Plumber" is the new "My friends"!
9:03 — Two words Sen. Obama: Nataline Sarkisyan.
9:05 — "Senator Government"
9:05 — Shorter John McCain: "We’ve got to get the government out of government!" Natasha, that IS Goof Gas™!
9:06 — Abortion: Could you ever appoint someone to SCOTUS who disagreed with you on Roe v. Wade?
9:07 — Okay, Sen. McRove, how come the Rethugs used every trick in the book to obstruct appointments of a majority of Clinton judges?
9:08 — Rethugs DO have a litmus test on judges: any judge to the left of Torquemada either doesn’t get nominated, or gets blocked!
9:10 — W00t! Obama brings up Lilly Ledbetter! But doesn’t mention McCain’s quote re: Ledbetter case. Damn!
9:11 — McCain lies about "Born Alive" bullshit, demagogues on "partial-birth" abortion crap.
9:12 — You voted to protect anti-abortion terrorists, Grampy!
9:13 — Another O’Reilly-esque heavy breath from McRove.
9:16 — Last question — education.
9:17 — Focus group generally likes Obama’s response…
9:19 — and is unresponsive to McCain’s proposal.
9:23 — Vouchers haven’t exactly helped DC schools, have they, Grampy?
9:24 — by "reform," McCain and the Rethugs mean "eliminate."
9:26 — Shut up about the vouchers, McRove!
9:30 — Final pundit tallies:
Paul Begala: McCain +7/-4 (+3), Obama +15/-1 (+14)
Bill "Bookie of Virtues" Bennett: McCain +15/-1 (+14), Obama +6/-3 (+3)
Alex Castellanos: McCain +39/-7 (+32), Obama +31/-4 (+27)
David Gergen: McCain +4/-2 (+2), Obama +4/-0 (+4)
John King: McCain +18/-1 (+17), Obama +15/-0 (+15)
Roland Martin: McCain +54/-23 (+31), Obama +62/-15 (+47)
Liveblogger QOTN (via Crooks and Liars):
10:17 EDT: [Sean] Who’s in charge of toweling off Roland Martin after this debate? He’s hitting that button like he’s fighting Mike Tyson at the end of Punch-Out.
‘Night all!
