Debate Live Blog

Join us here for group snarking of the first presidential debate. I’m making no predictions. The expectations game being what it is, if Romney manages to speak in complete sentences and not drool, at least some pundits will call it a win. And President Obama is not as strong a debater as he is a speaker. So fingers crossed. But it may be that nothing that will happen tonight will make any difference …

* While we’re waiting, what questions would you ask? I want someone to pin Mittens down on what tax “loopholes” he would cut.

* Here we go. Interesting that they’re the same height. Oh, cool, Mittens has a red tie and the President has a blue tie.

* Republicans did not have a plan. They had a stack of paper.

JOBS

POTUS: Worst financial collapse since the Great Depression. Things are better, but we need to do more.

* Economic patriotism.

MITTENS: Mittens is wearing his empathy face. Mittens is repeating his five-point economic plan that doesn’t say shit.

*Back to POTUS. Both candidates say that improving education is important to economy. POTUS is explaining what he would do.

*POTUS is talking about tax code.

*Now Romney is lying about his tax plans. He hasn’t proposed tax cuts for upper income?

*OK, on Mitt’s web page he says he is proposing a 20 percent across-the-board tax cuts on marginal tax rates. Now he’s saying he is not going to cut taxes for the wealthy? When did he change his mind?

*Romney is now saying he is not going to reduce the tax share for high income individuals. This is a complete flip for what he has been saying all along. See Think Progress.

*So, basically, Mitt’s debate strategy is to lie his ass off about what he has promised in the past.

* Richard Adams: “So far from Mitt Romney there’s been more waffle than zinger. But when you have a “no details tax plan” that’s what happens I guess.”

DEBT

* Mittens: Debt is immoral.

* Mittens says that raising taxes slows economic growth. Not during the Clinton Administration.

* Mittens plans to grow jobs by laying off government employees.

Some facts on Romney’s proposals.

Bill Clinton balanced the budget by raising taxes.
Bill Clinton balanced the budget by raising taxes.
Bill Clinton balanced the budget by raising taxes.
Bill Clinton balanced the budget by raising taxes.
Bill Clinton balanced the budget by raising taxes.
Bill Clinton balanced the budget by raising taxes.
Bill Clinton balanced the budget by raising taxes.
Bill Clinton balanced the budget by raising taxes.
Bill Clinton balanced the budget by raising taxes.

POTUS, SAY THAT!

* Frankly, someone watching this without a pretty solid background in current events might feel Mittens is winning. Mittens is lying his ass off, but if you didn’t know that, he might seem persuasive. What do you think?

* Oh, Medicare Advantage is doing fine, Mittens. People aren’t about to lose it.

* Yep, Mittens is smirking.

* The simple fact is that the private sector insurance has increased faster than Medicare.

FINANCIAL SECTOR

* Mittens is talking about Dodd Frank, POTUS looks very happy.

HEALTH CARE

WTF is Mittens talking about Obamacare insurance costing more? That doesn’t even make sense.

DEATH PANELS DEATH PANELS DEATH PANELS

There is no board that will tell people what treatment they will have.

* Mittens promises goodies without saying how they will be paid for.

* Mittens won’t tell us how he could keep his promises because he wants to wait until he hears from Congress.

* Isn’t this debate going over schedule?

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

Mission of the federal government.

POTUS: Keep people safe. Government has the capacity to open opportunity and create frameworks where people can succeed.

Willard: FREEDOM! He wants people to have the freedom to be taken care of by charity. Wow.

Well, I have to say Willard isn’t coming across as warm and human. He’s coming across as Willard.

POTUS: Making college affordable. Student loan crisis. Cut out the middleman.

Well, I’m going to have to say that people are probably going to say Mitt came out ahead, and he’s likely to get a bump, but I don’t see that Mitt is getting a knockout punch, and that’s what he needed.

* It’s also the case that the fact-checkers are going to have a field day with a lot of what Mitt says.

I missed this, but Moveon is saying that Mitt called the President “bro.”

* Well, the Guardian liveblog and my Facebook friends are trashing Mittens right and left. Maybe it’s a draw.

* Mitt is not being likeable, I have to say. He’s kind of harsh.

OK, it’s over. I’m watching MSNBC because I want Rachel Maddow to reassure me. But if you’re watching something else let us know what is being said.

* Steve Schmidt is saying this was a great night for Mitt Romney, and I don’t doubt Republicans really liked Mitt’s performance. But the question is, will this move the needle? Is this going to make much difference?

Chris Matthews is furious at the President for letting Romney dominate the debate. Where was Obama tonight? he says.

One more thing — people are griping that the President wasn’t more aggressive. I’m not sure that would have worked for him, because if he comes across as angry, he loses. I blame Jim Lehrer for being much too passive. We needed questioners to keep the format in control, and Jim Lehrer just plain failed. That worked in Romney’s favor.

Well, I’m tired and need to go to bed, but do keep commenting.

Party Tonight!

The virtual debate party begins here tonight at 8:30 eastern time, for the pre-debate warmup. BYOB. I’m taking suggestions for drinking games.

There are a number of articles out now that claim debates make no difference to elections, but Nate Silver’s analysis says that they often help the challenger. However, it could be argued that the post-debate spin was what made the difference, not the debate itself. For example, the numbers show that the Clinton-Dole debates in 1996 helped Dole just a little, and there’s no way. Dole was awful. I was embarrassed for him.

On the other hand, Nate’s numbers say that if the election were held today, Mitt’s chance of winning would be 2.7 percent. heh.

I’m not too worried about the spin. Why? Because righties are so out to lunch they couldn’t spin a dreidel on a turntable on a carousel. Right now they think they have a BOMBSHELL video of President Obama in 2007 telling an audience of black ministers that the federal government did not do enough to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Seriously. That’s their idea of a controversy. I guess we’re supposed to remember that Brownie did a heck of a job.

Righties say Obama’s remarks were racist because he ties the not-rebuilding of New Orleans to racial discrimination. Um, yeah, that was pretty obvious. Although I suppose it could be argued that it wasn’t so much racist as an attempt to finesse Katrina for political gain by making a Democratic governor look bad. And that the federal dollars eventually offered to New Orleans mostly went into the pockets of contractors with ties to the Republican Party and were not spent on, you know, rebuilding. And that was just good old-fashioned corruption. But it’s still not likely the Bushies would have played games like that if the neighborhoods that were destroyed were mostly white. I think anyone but a white racist can see that.

See also “Breaking: Obama Is Black” and “Right-wing Racial Panic.”