Third Presidential Debate: Live Blog

First off, let’s stop thinking about a landslide. The remaining “undecided” voters are mostly older, less educated and white, I understand. It’s like a majority of them will move to McCain and tighten up the race in the last three weeks. No complacency.

Here we go.

Jeez, McCain is being friendly to Obama. The nice and calm McCain showed up tonight.

So far we haven’t heard anything new, except that McCain apparently has decided to be soothing rather than angry.

OK, McCain is back to taxes.

McCain indeed is planning to cut corporate taxes.

Class warfare! Yes! Grumpy McCain is coming back!

Why increase taxes? Because we’ve got a kajillion dollar deficit, you creep.

McCain the asshole is coming back. You can’t keep him down for long.

Does McCain understand what “spread the wealth around” means?

Invest in America. Yes! Obama said “Invest in America.” This should be a campaign slogan.

Wow, the moderator wants McCain to answer the question that was asked. That’s new.

John, we owe China a lot more than half a trillion dollars.

He can save billions by eliminating the tarrif on sugar from Brazil? I think I missed part of that.

Earmarks! Pork! boogaboogaboogabooga

Balance the budget in four years? That’s insane.

We’re going to balance the budget by job creation and energy independence?

I mean, is it me, or is McCain an asshole?

Here we go … say it to his face.

Town hall meetings? The negative campaigns are Obama’s fault for not doing town hall meetings?

Whine whine whine. Oh, McCain has not repudiated nasty remarks. He repeats them.

He’s not bringing up Ayers. Coward.

Yes. The American people are not interested in our hurt feelings. Perfect.

Comment about Chico and the Man — LOL! Chico and the Man in the Twilight Zone.

Yes, John, keep whining.

John is angry.

Oh, Obama brought up the “pal around with terrorists” line.

McCain didn’t take the Ayers bait.

Oh, yes, Ayers, ACORN, the whole thing. I think McCain is giving in to his temper. I wonder if this was the plan.

McCain is losing this debate worse than the other two. People don’t give a bleep about Ayers and ACORN.

I forgot about CNN’s squiggly lines. I just flipped to CNN.

At the name “Sarah Palin” the squiggly lines dropped like a rock. Flatline, folks. Oh, the “men” line is up just a tad. Well, men. You know.

Iraqis united? People are being killed for returning to their homes.

I swear, McCain is losing this one worse than the other two.

Three Mile Island. Chernobyl. Very safe.

Easily eliminate dependence on foreign oil?

Obama is being realistic. Talking to the camera.

Does John think NAFTA is popular?

Community colleges have what to do with free trade?

I think McCain is right on the edge of blowing a gasket.

Oh, I love the split screen. McCain’s inner asshole is there for all the world to see.

Here Obama is presenting a clear and sensible plan for health care, even though it doesn’t go nearly as far as I’d like. Now McCain will lie about his plan.

Yeah, John, blame it on fat people.

He’s going to repeat the lie about fining small business again.

I mean, is McCain is an asshole or what? He’s not even making sense. The fine again.

That mean old Obama is going to make employers provide health benefits. For shame.

Oh, the gold-plated insurance that no one has. Yes, John, show us how out of touch with reality you are.

Senator Obama wants government to do a job. Well, yes.

Roe v. Wade. Somebody finally brings it up.

“Strict adherence to Constitution” = anti-choice.

“We have to change the culture of America.”

The “present” vote is a procedural thing in the Illinois Senate. It sounds weird but is no big deal, I understand.

Keep smirking and smiling, John.

We can’t have healthy mothers. “Health of the mother” is an extreme position, according to John.

“We have to work together” for John means abortion gets banned.

Make college affordable. It is a disgrace that there is such a barrier for people to get an education.

McCain begins to speak, the squiggly lines drop. “School choice” has not been “proven” in New Orleans, John.

“Competition” doesn’t help schools, John. Now he’s repeating the old right-wing canard that some of the best schools cost the least money. Those are the exceptions, not the rule.

Vouchers = yesterday’s issue. Even the wingnuts are abandoning it.

Sarah Palin has an autistic child?

Vouchers have not been proven. Where they’ve been in place a long time they haven’t done squat.

Almost over.

John, I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you.

Invest in the American people. I like it.

Sacrifice, service responsibility. We can do it. Work for you.

_______

I sincerely think McCain sucked at least as bad, if not worse, than he has in the other two debates.

David Gergen is saying that McCain got over-emotional and angry in the middle of the debate. Obama won the last half hour, he said.

I agree with Gergen. I think that when McCain would not let go of his personal hurt feelings about being insulted, he was losing big time.

I’m going to guess that this debate won’t change the trajectory of the opinion polls. I think the polls will tighten up at the end for reasons explained at the top of the post, but this debate won’t change the polls.

Just picked this up at Huffington Post:

Watch the eye roll.

I also am not sure the “I am not George Bush” line will help McCain much. Right now his biggest problem is that he is John McCain.

39 thoughts on “Third Presidential Debate: Live Blog

  1. The nice and calm McCain showed up tonight.

    Don’t fall for it, Obama! Rick Davis hid a gun in the men’s room! And just before airtime, he leaned over and whispered in McCain’s ear, “It’s in the tank.”

  2. Who is that rambling old man sitting across from Obama, and who the heck is Joe the plumber? And if he’s able to be buying a business, why shouldn’t he be paying taxes?

  3. McCain would never have an opener if not for filthy-rich old folk who were recently hospitalized. i.e., his contemporaries.

  4. So, tonight we have the calm, practical Obama versus the cranky, stingy old man.

    Funny to hear McCain complaining about class warfare, after what his class has done to the rest of us over the last 8 years. Talk about warfare!

  5. Does McCain understand what “spread the wealth around” means?

    What did Palin call that? “Redistribution of wealth”? Or as we say around here, “Boogaboogabooga!”

    She declares class warfare, and McCain bitches about it. Great teamwork.

  6. McCain is freaky tonight. It’s like he’s on some of that sugar-based alcohol from Brazil.

    He’s scary. The Planetarium came up again. That’s the lamest thing I’ve ever heard of. I read about the actual projector and it sounds awesome. Leave it to McCain to put an ugly spin on science.

  7. If you have a preference for someone who actually sounds like he knows what he’s doing, instead of just loudly asserting that he knows how to do things, you are already an Obama voter. If you like old white guys who are cranky and claim expertise they don’t have, you are a McCain voter.

  8. You know, spreading the wealth around is not only unAmerican, but very unpopular with Americans. Well, the rich Americans who John McCain knows. Cindy hates it… just hates it.

  9. Oh, yeah, McCain has really been a thorn in Bush’s side all right. That famous hug left Bush bleeding for days. And I’m sure W always brings birthday cakes to his enemies. HA!

    Oh, hooray! McCain is back to blaming his slimy campaign on Obama refusing town halls. What a crock. OMG!! He’s complaining about John Lewis’s Wallace comment! Say, McCain, didn’t you refer to him approvingly in one of the earlier debates?

  10. It’s turned into yet another wacky episode of Dennis the Menace, or maybe Chico and the Man.

  11. So, McCain thinks that it’s OK to say Obama has been “pallin’ around with terrorists”, I guess.

    The “full extent” thing is such an evil ploy – as if the full extent hasn’t been completely documented long ago.

    Finally, they get down to Ayers.

  12. That was so funny! After spending all that effort on the Ayers/ACORN crap, McCain says his campaign is all about the economy, etc. Did he throw his neck out changing directions so fast?

  13. Why can’t we have special magical autism programs that cost no money, John? We’ve got to reach out to those poor families and do something about it, but not if it costs anything? Is that what you are saying?

    Nuke!!! Nuke! Tell the people around Yucca Mtn that we can store that waste with “no problem”, John.

  14. Well, actually, John, we CAN’T drill now, because there aren’t enough drilling rigs in the world. We could build more, but it’ll take a while.

  15. I grew up in York, PA, 20 minutes as the crow flies from TMI. We evacuated. I was in 2nd grade.

    Every time I hear John McEgo go on about how ridiculous it is to make nuclear power safe, I want to throw things. Does he have NO IDEA how close we came to a Chernobyl? We had a partial meltdown!

    The man is a self-serving idiot, and anyone who doesn’t see that needs new glasses. Badly.

  16. I think McCain is right on the edge of blowing a gasket.

    Well really, what does he have to lose at this point?

    Go for it, Johnny.

  17. Is there anyone in America for whom the Colombia free trade agreement is a voting issue?

    OMG, the “without precondition” thing again.

    McCain thinks he’s being tough. He’s coming off like an ass.

  18. Did you notice how McCain said we need walk-in clinics and all sorts of things including exercise programs? Does he think that will all happen with a $5000 tax credit? Or is that yet another wonderful “pony” he’s promising with no intention to put any money behind it?

  19. John, Obama just explained that Joe wouldn’t have to pay a fine. Were you not listening?

    Oh, and by the way, no insurer in America in any state will sell me medical insurance at any price. McCain wants me dead.

  20. I went over to the CNN website to check out the running transcript. It’s amazing… McCain stammers and babbles in disconnected phrases, his thoughts impossible to follow. Then Obama steps in with a paragraph of complete sentences that read like a well-written, insightful college textbook. The difference could not be more obvious.

  21. Hey, maha, be fair. For McCain ‘working together’ doesn’t just mean banning abortion, it also means putting all those babies into orphanages until they are adopted. Not that he’d want the government to pay for those orphanages, of course.

  22. McCain wants to be a good steward of our tax dollars, and thinks we should trust him.

    Obama wants to build a future for our society and our children, and wants us to trust in ourselves and America.

    I know which way I’m going.

  23. Man, this last debate has been quite the retro 1990s flashback, and not in a good way like The Simpsons monorail episode. “School vouchers,” “litmus test,” “NAFTA.” Why didn’t Schieffer and McCain discuss “Vince Foster” and “Waco” and “Rose Law Firm” too? Old farts.

    Speaking of flashbacks, I hear that “Joe the Plumber” guy was quite the tripped-out, bomb-making hippie back in the day. McCain should research these Everyman icons a bit more thoroughly next time.

    Oh, wait… there is no next time! YAAAYYY!!!

  24. Tweety Matthews thinks that McCain really blew it by belittling the health exception on abortion. Says it blew any chance at the Clinton voters.

  25. I’m very biased, and McCain’s voice really grates on me. I don’t think I could possibly watch/listen to him and Sarah for four years. Hopefully the rest of the public has had it with them too. Thank goodness the debates are over – I think everyone got a good look at both men over the last month.

    Sarah is the deal-breaker for anyone with a brain, even Republicans. Schieffer posed the perfect question about running mates, and Obama was too nice about it. The guy is very unflappable, although I noticed he muffed a few details, eg a $200K threshold for his tax plan instead of $250K and so on.

  26. moonbat, everytime McCain doe that nodding thumbs up thing he does he looks exactly like Nixon did only Nixon held up peace signs.

    McCain also has a snicker just like Bush.

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