Debate Live Blog

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!