Usually if you're going to liveblog something, you announce it beforehand. But whatever. I'm watching it, and there's no reason not to include some commentary. So here goes.
Final thoughts - Meh. Too scattershot in the end to really say there's a "winner" in real terms. McCain needed to do something amazing here and that put him in a bad place. His clear need to stir things up didn't do much to help on the "erratic" meme with all his interruptions and smirking and aggression. He looked like a guy who was losing and was incredibly frustrated about it. And at times like a petulant child. And I think that general feeling will overwhelm the various particular places where he actually was quite strong.
Probably Obama's weakest performance, and perhaps McCain's strongest (in some respects), but I can't see it being distinct enough from the others that it will change the narrative in a way that helps McCain.
Alright: that was fun. I'm off to Berkeley!
7:30 - Obama's closing remarks. Both of them talk about the last 8 years. I can't see how McCain wins that race. People don't think he's Bush, but they also think he's unpleasantly close. Obama's remarks are a little more policy-oriented, but nothing spectacular. His goal was clearly to just hold serve, maintain the impression that he's someone the public can trust. I think he succeeded at that, if he didn't do a lot to broaden his support.
7:28 - McCain's closing remarks are pretty boilerplate. It's good, but this is his last chance to establish a theme for the debate. And I don't think he did anything to recover for all the ways that's he's in trouble.
7:26 - And McCain's final (pre-closing) thoughts are a sarcastic sneer about vouchers. Pretty definitive, huh?
7:23 - Oops. Spoke too soon. McCain snarks it up!
7:22 - The education debate is actually pretty good. Some real differences, some places where both of them have decent ideas. Some places where they both get some shots in. But it's at least a gesture toward a decent, reasonable discussion without the snark.
7:17 - I wish Obama had been better on abortion. He tried to walk the middle but didn't do a great job of it. He failed to exercise the pathos of "these people want to treat women like they're not equal" but also didn't do enough to neutralize the outrage from the other side. I obviously still think he won the issue because I am appalled by McCain's idea that people who believe in health exceptions are "extreme." But Obama could've really done some damage here and he didn't make it happen.
7:16 - McCain again brings up "Obama talks pretty" as if that's a bad thing. Is there anyone out there who honestly thinks that of the two guys up there,
Obama is the one who is avoiding getting into the details of the questions?
7:14 - Voting present. Infanticide. All the muck is showing up now. There's the old adage "if you're explaining, you're losing" and maybe that's the case here. But I think people have to recognize that this is a desperation ploy by McCain and will notice that he is just raising idiotic points and that Obama is knocking them down with ease. At some point that has to click in a "one of these guys isn't very interested in the truth" sort of way.
7:11 - Ledbetter! Too bad it's a little too complicated to really get into the details. Or, too bad that Obama hasn't made a bigger deal of this so he could quickly reference the issue.
7:09 - I think it's interesting (and maybe very important) that it's the
Democrat who's making abortion an explicit issue. Hear hear! Don't run from this my Blue friends - the public is not in favor of making it impossible for women to exercise their human rights.
7:08 - McCain's answer is self-contradictory. He says elections have consequences and then pretends that a hypothetical judge exists out there who is "qualified" but has no "political" meaning. Elections have consequences insofar as the president picks people who align politically with them.
7:06 - Litmus test question about Roe. What a stupid way to get at the question. The Supreme Court matters a lot and we're going to let people get away with saying "no litmus tests" rather than talking about what the Court will look like if they were president.
7:05 - "Senator Government" - at first I thought it was an intentional jab instead of a Freudian slip.
7:02 - In previous years, I'd be worried that Obama is being too academic on this health care discussion. McCain is demagoguing and Obama is trying to respond to reasonable objections. But this year I'm not so sure. People really care about this stuff. I think they're interested enough to notice that there's only one guy up there who clearly cares about
the issue rather than just trying to score points.
6:59 - And we've got Joe the Plumber again.
6:58 - Going back to the "energy" discussion: throwing it all against the wall isn't just a thematic description of McCain's approach tonight, it's what he's doing in every answer. Energy! Drilling! Chavez! Trade with Colombia! Taxes! One of these surely appeals to you, right?!
6:56 - McCain cites Hoover as an argument against Obama?!?!?! What? He also brings up taxes again, which he's done about 6 times in completely unrelated responses. I think they've decided that winning back the "who will raise taxes" spin is their only chance to win.
6:53 - McCain is smirking again. What is the deal with him on the idea that if you haven't traveled somewhere you categorically are impossible of understanding it? And Obama comes back with a measured and intelligent response. That's a win for him.
6:50 - Obama sees a chance to bring up the trade issue. I don't really like the protectionist strain in the Democratic Party, but Obama's case here is pretty steady. We need environmental, labor standards, etc. And we can't just believe that an agreement is "free" because it's called that.
6:49 - To be fair, Obama adopts the same trope of talking about solar and wind in response to the "oil" problem. But he then mentions biodiesel and (much more importantly) fuel efficiency.
6:47 - "We can eliminate our dependence on foreign oil by building 45 new nuclear power plants." I'm sorry, but how can I take this guy seriously as a candidate for president when he appears completely unaware of basic energy issues like: what kind of fuel do cars burn?
6:44 - Obama has a nice pivot on "if you care about autism, you'd probably have to spend some more money on it" which avoids him having to say what everyone on the planet knows to be true: that she shouldn't be allowed within a mile of the Oval Office, much less running the show.
6:42 - Obama's answer on Biden could be better. A few more pointed references to how much Biden knows about stuff would be more useful than just saying that he agrees with Obama on big issues. That's one place that McCain might be able to try and spin Palin. Trust me, she'll just do exactly what I would do. She won't act like the crazy person you've seen.
6:38 - There's no way McCain can come back at this. There's no there there on this Ayers stuff. Is he really going to actually try and DEBATE this issue? "All the details need to be known" - but as I have
mentioned before, he can't actually LIST any details.
6:35 - Ayers AND ACORN. 35 minutes in is the winner. I am close to throwing something at the TV. And McCain goes after it by saying he doesn't care about Ayers. Then why are you bringing him up?!?!
6:33 - What in the world is McCain talking about now? He's sure not acting presidential, that's for sure.
6:32 - Maybe I'm biased but this Lewis debate is an absolute crush for Obama, as far as I can tell. McCain is acting like a child.
6:30 - Attack ads on healthcare. What in the world is the problem with that? They are about issues! Obama is spending unprecedented amounts...so now Obama raising TONS more money than McCain is a strike AGAINST him?
6:29 - Obama pivots to "what we really need to be focusing on is the economy." He could be better on this, but it's such a powerful message that I think it'll do alright.
6:27 - This is just awful. Obama has spent more on ALL ads than any other candidate ever. And there's a serious difference between "negative" ads and "smear" ads. Yet more false equivalencies. And the idea that McCain can sit there and claim to run a truthful campaign is just silly.
6:25 - And McCain opens with this ridiculous "I was forced to do it because he wouldn't do a bunch of Town Halls." And then he goes after John Lewis, and tries to make the question about "being nice in the campaign" into a character attack on Obama. Question: what percentage of people even know what remarks McCain is talking about?
6:24 - "Both of you pledged to take the high road." And here it comes. Blech. Talk about false equivalencies... He even explicitly brings up "say it to his face."
6:23 - Obama points out that even Fox News agrees with him on this spurious tax cuts claim. Which is alright, but he really ought to be even stronger. And Obama says McCain has shown independence on torture, which is infuriating.
6:20 - McCain is all about the smirking tonight.
6:18 - McCain mentions an "overhead projector" and all the good will he generated with me on ethanol dissipates. It's
science! It's about
teaching kids science! That's really really important!
6:17 - Check that, McCain AGAIN says "across the board spending cuts." Is Obama going to point out ALL the stuff he's already excluded from such cuts. McCain does mention ethanol which is one issue he's completely right on.
6:16 - "What will you cut? What will you cut? Answer the question! Why won't anyone answer the question?" You wonder why you keep asking the same stupid question and people won't answer it. Hmmm....
6:14 - And they continue with this
insane neo-Hooverism. Deficits! Deficits! Deficits! Ugh.
6:12 - Wow, I guess the "let's throw everything at the wall" strategists won in the McCain camp. "class warfare," "why would you want to raise
anyone's taxes?" he's smirking and blatantly lying about these things and interrupting, too. To be honest, he reminds me of Bush right now. That can't play out well for him.
6:10 - And McCain rebuts: taxes, taxes, taxes, Obama would raise your taxes, why does Obama want to raise your taxes, I won't raise your taxes. I understand why they're doing this, but they've been losing this spin for months. McCain's premise is "Joe believes Obama will raise his taxes" and Obama responds "then he's been listening to Senator McCain's ads - let me tell you what my plan will really do." Which is why Obama is controlling the spin on this. Moreover, McCain didn't do anything to explain what this has to do with the financial crisis.
6:07 - Obama takes the question, lists a bunch of his own policies, explains why they'd work AND manages to toss in an attack on McCain's proposal. If anything, he's talking too quickly here and including too much information.
6:05 - First question is about their competing plans to deal with the financial crisis. McCain starts by saying that the cause of the crisis was Fannie and Freddie, which is...inaccurate at least, if not outright false. And then he moves onto his plan to buy out a bunch of the mortgages, which they've still failed to convince me is even
allowed given the package that he voted for.
6:02 - It's about to start. Countdown until the first Ayers reference? I'm guessing 27 minutes.
Casual
Okay, kids. ‘Tis the day before Christmas and we’ve had fun, right? Okay, I didn’t blog anywhere as near as I intended to this year. I never wrote that analysis of 
i recently got a hold of a new 7" from 
