A thread for discussion of the US presidential debate as it happens. As with last week’s vice-presidential debate, I won’t tell you shut up if you indulge in partisan name-calling. The other thread remains open for those wishing to discuss the presidential race more broadly.
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180 Comments
obama wins the coin toss and goes first ….
SO EXCITED!
Morning Bludgers,
I notice red ties seem to be the thing in the hall tonight
first question is from a guy who wants to know the fastest way to bail people out of the economic ruin that they are facing (to obama)
worm likes obamas answer to this question … my 10yo says ‘mum, look at how high the worm is for obama’ …..
What channel has the worm?
Yeah, they just crashed a meeting of the Associated Communist & Republican League of Tennessee.
again from the 10yo, ‘mum, the worm doesn’t like mccain when he tries to answer the same question’
……
Oz, CNN ……
I simply don’t think proposing another round of tax cuts will be seen as an adequate solution to this problem.
Channel 9 with the pirate feed? =P
Will McCain nod off into a “nanna nap”?
mccain tries to make a bad joke at brokaw’s expense ……
ShowsOn, I think you give the American voter far too much credit.
obama is asked for who should be or would be his treasury secretary … he won’t commit to a full answer to the question but says warren buffett would be a good choice …
btw, the worm is also monitoring today uncommited ohio voters, same demographic but different people, as the VP debate …
mccain answering a question about the bailout plan and tries to play semantics and says it is NOT a bailout plan it is a rescue plan. apparently rescue has better connotations than bailout? …..
Worm didn’t like “Senator Obama’s cronies”.
mccains answer (re q in #17), worm doesn’t like it at all, flatline or slightly below the line …..
Everytime McCain has gone negative the worm has tanked, but 3:2 men to women – the exact opposite ratio from the VP debate.
Obama correcting mccain’s version of events from things that happened 12 mos ago
If the Government goes out and buys up bad home loans, then that just increases the exposure of tax payers to the bad debt. Which in the longer term will require higher taxes to cover the debt.
The blokes on the worm dont seem to believe a word that either of them are saying!
mccain is trying to tell people he has been fighting for the little man, i.e. the “maverick” argument … the worm doesn’t buy it, worm is flatlined ….
How did the worm go when McCain said Obama supports tax increases and pork barrel projects?
Sensible chaps.
McCain’s war on earmarks looks like worm Serapax
Didnt really move at all ShowsOn
“Some of this 700billion ends up in the hands of terrorist organisations” says McCain.
WTF?
Obama ought to be buying fuel at our prices, just mentioned nashville folks pay $3.80 US gallon for their fuel …..
I thought this debate was meant to be more impassioned according to media hype.
Obama is making sure that every time McCain attacks one of his position he responds. He doesn’t let anything go by. He doesn’t want to look weak.
Wow, lucky that McCain is a Republican, it is political death for Democrats to attack the defense budget.
What!? He says there is lax spending in defense, but then says he will exclude defense from a spending freeze!
A lot of you will remember the tragedy of 9/11?
If they go over their time limit for an answer why don’t they just turn off their microphone?
Yeah, or why doesn’t Brokaw just interrupt them, which they will try to avoid because it sounds bad.
Begs the question: who’s forgotten?
Also: “How to safely store nuclear energy” … ?
Yup …. 9/11 is one of those days that you don’t forget where you were and what you were doing. Challenger explosion in 1986 is another one for me.
Can they get someone to help McCain onto that really high stool?
And then he’ll bitch at them afterwards, MAN UP BROKAW.
McCain talks about Obama’s tax policies and the worm goes below the line ….. talks about refundable tax credit for health insurance but doesn’t mention that he will tax their health insurance benefits …..
Warning: “Shameless tax bribes”!
(JWH would blush.)
Worm likes Obama talking about CEO’s who should NOT get tax cuts (i.e no tax cuts for the rich) and no golden parachutes either ……
I’m watching it without the worm
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
For those of us without a TV, how’s it seeming so far folks?
McCain is getting killed by the Worm in about 90% of the debate so far.
sif “tv”
im using teh interweb
:O
Nil all draw.
However, McCain has lowered his patronising tone from the last debate, it seems he realises that didn’t go down too well.
Have there been any “game-changing” moments so far?
My guess is about the same as the first debate. McCain hasn’t knocked anything out of the ball park but neither (being fair here) has Obama. That having been said, these two are not nearly as polarized as the VP debate was. Palin is a magnet. In a bad way
…….
No major gaffes by either side that I’ve noted so far.
He is talking about Leibermann as if Leibermann were his running mate …… see what happens when you give into the extreme right wing and ignore your own ideas?
The Nuclear Revolution! (Due to begin circa 2020-2030. Stay tuned.)
Obama talking about something that he and McCain agreed up on and the worm rises from the dead
McCain admits he can’t see the lights.
Obama: “Washington’s done nothing on energy for 30 years and McCain should know, he’s been there for 26 of them.” hehe
LOL! McCain calls Obama “that one”.
29
Was McCain implying that Obama will syphon some of the bailout money off to smuggle into the hands of his alleged terrorist cronies?
McCain talking about fundamental economics and trying to tell people that we need to Drill baby drill off shore now and the worm doesn’t like it ……
“My friends”……….does Mccain sell Amway on the side?
What buzzwords would be the worst to have in a skulling competition?
Ha! At the end of that answer McCain said that Obama SUPPORTED processing of spent nuclear fuel.
He meant to say he DOESN’T support it.
So glad they’re actually talking about health care.
Senator, health, energy, economy, wall street, washington, dollar, billion, tax
worm likes obama saying that he will make sure health care companies can’t refuse you for pre existing conditions ….
buzzwords – both candidates will say “god bless america” at somepoint in their closing statements
OK McCain, if you are talking about your $5000 health care insurance tax credits, you had better tell people that you want to tax their benefits on top of that, hope Obama doesn’t let that one go …..
He should’ve mentioned it in his initial answer.
is health care in america a priveledge, right or responsibility? mccain says there is a responsibility to provide it …… obama says health insurance should be a RIGHT …..
go obama, mentions his mother died of cancer at 53 and that she couldn’t get health insurance because of preexisting conditions …….. shows his motivations, good man
McCain has said “my friends” eleven times already. His dementia is really kicking in.
I agree JulieM, the anecdote about his mother was strong.
Women are loving Obama’s spiel on health care.
obama talks about insurance companies who cheat their customers and the worm LOVES it ……. says he will crack down on the insurance company cheats …. says deleware gets all of the banks because of their loose banking laws there, and says he will close those loopholes so that insurance companies can’t do similar ……
McCain is still singing the same old tune – the private sector will solve everything, including the health system.
Will this man ever learn.
McCain: THAT ONE didn’t tell us the SIZE of the FINE.
By which I mean the worm.
Billbowe – earlier in the debate you might have noticed that Obama threw in the words mammary tests and maternity. Big spike.
We know you’re the voice of modern women everywhere William – no need to be coy
“We have gone to the four corners of the earth”
Newsflash! McCain thinks earth is flat.
Did McCain just point to the questioner at the end of his answer?
Is it just me, or does anyone else think McCain sound more and more like a used car salesman?
Obama sounds like a used car salesman to me. McCain sounds like an old fogey.
Obama talking about the strain that the Iraq war is putting on the US budget and the worm is topped out, men and women …..
notes that mccain has also said we should do these things (put people back to work, etc.) but hasn’t said how to pay for it. Says part of the way we will pay for it is stop throwing money away in iraq, worm loves it …. 
The blokes worm starts sliding down whenever Obama says “When I’m President”
82
I guess it’s all subjective itep
The biggest moment according to the blogs is McCain referring to Obama as “That one”.
Diogenes what is the “my friends” count up to now? If you had picked those words in the various McCain cliche on-line drinking games you would be pretty drunk by now.
I think so too, I think it is disrespectful. It is like how McCain refused to even look at Obama in the first debate.
A pretty uneventful evening if so.
I agree.
Which means Obama wins. Having dead heat debates won’t help McCain come from behind.
“Victory with honour” in Iraq says McCain. Straight out of the Nixon handbook, just before the US was unceremoniously kicked out of Vietnam.
It’s closer than the first one.
Ahaha “Crush, kill, destroy!”
Socrates
I’m not watching the debate (I haven’t watched any of them). I’m trying an experiment of only “watching” through other peoples comments on blogs. It makes it less boring and more objective. Dunno how “my friends” is going.
The shit is going to hit the fan aboiut “That one” from what I’m reading.
McCain said his hero is Ronald Reagan, then in the next question changed it to Teddy Roosevelt!
The zig-zagging McCainian logic at work.
Mcains hero is Teddy Reagan
or is it Ronald Roosevelt
Basically Obama was sitting on his stool, and McCain was standing a few meters to Obama’s left. Instead of saying “Senator Obama voted for it”, McCain kept looking a head and pointed to him while saying “that one”. So it was kind of the same as the first debate where McCain refused to even look across at Obama was speaking.
People say you’re green behind the ears Obama? Really?
Diogenes
I have only been watching for the past 8 minutes (two McCain quotes) and the count is 3 My friends.
McCain is standing there fuming over what Obama just said on the bomb bomb Iran quip.
McCain’s suggestion for Treasury Secretary Meg Whitman is the former CEO of eBay. eBay just announced that it was firing 10 percent of its work force!
“Talk soft but carry a big stick.”
Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran!
McCain wants eaqual time.
brokaw just gave mccain right to respond to something obama said and think earlier, obama didn’t get that same reply in turn …… haven’t been watching every minute though.
is brokaw being fair so far in this debate? (from anyone who hasn’t missed any of it)
“I’m not going to telegraph my punches.”
Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran!
How does McCain know about sending American troops to war?
Was he President in a previous life?
Is the reincarnation of Teddy Roosevelt?
showson, don’t think mccain subscribes to rolling stone [ought to though so he can read about what really happens in a war time theatre] LOL ……
question – how to organize strategy in afghanistan? worm flat lines during his answer …..
sorry – talking about mccain’s answer in #108
Worm likes McCain talking tough on Russia.
Hahaha, this is a good one someone has already picked up on the debate…
Men especially.
McCain: “I looked Putin in the eyes and saw the letters K, G, B there.” Has he been getting debating coaching from Sarah Palin?
McCain has tried to sound strong but in doing so has used words and phrases which have given the impression of him being condescending.
if anyone out there can’t get live tv feed for this, apparently SMH has live feed via their website, checking in on SMH news articles now and that is what they advertise ……
The GOP is complaining that this debate is “not really a townhall”. And the Dems have sent out an email to the reporters saying
He said that in the first debate.
juliem, the bloggers @ the Daily Kos are going off over how biased Brokaw is to McCain.
And a lot of aggro over ” that one” jibe.
Are the audience asking any questions?
Don’t know if it’s a good idea for Obama to be talking about rebuilding other people’s economies in the present climate.
I don’t have the worm. How did it respond to that?.
They’ve asked most of the questions. But there is one question then 6 minutes of answering, so it doesn’t seem like they’ve asked much.
juliem, of course bloggers could go to the ABC website for the feed. Choose ABC over commercial people.
“We will bring our troops home with honour and victory, and not with defeat.”
- Dick Cheney (referring to army reserve soldiers during the federal response to Hurricane Katrina)
Good question about Israel ……. IF Iran attacks Israel, would you commit troops unilaterly or wait for a UN Security council resolution?
John McCain calls General David Petraeus the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He actually heads up U.S. Central Command.
McCain should know this. Everyone expects him to know this.
no worries 122, i’ve got tunnel vision at the moment
……
Then they should shut the hell up ffs
McCain answered the question but beat around the bush so bad that I can’t remember if he said he would wait for the US Security council or not?
Should be UN Security Council ……
McCain: WE CAN NEVER ALLOW A SECOND HOLOCAUST, THE FIRST ONE DID NOT HAVE GOOD RATINGS, SO THE SEQUEL CAN NOT GO AHEAD.
guess that they both said they would support israel but don’t think either one answered would they wait for the un security council or not ….
michelle obama in the audience tonight
The “what don’t you know” question goes first to Obama.
question – what don’t you know and how will you learn it? (to both candidates)
The Repugs are really whining about Brokaw’s format not helping McCain. They’re very unhappy.
That’s a fail on the last question.
135,
diogenes, if they are whining about the format, they apparently can’t wine about the moderator ……
“What I don’t know is what the unexpected will be.”
A textbook example of a platitude.
mccain rambling on about serving the country …… right, now that we’ve all read the real story we know better …..
Dio @ 138: I thought the Repubs, and McCain especially wanted to do “Town Hall ” debates, as McCain reckoned they were his strong point.?
sondeo
They’re complaining that it wasn’t a real “town hall” debate, where the format is very loose and there’s lots of interaction between the debators and the audience.
Well it is one of those job interview questions “name your greatest weakness?”
And to answer it you have to turn it into a strength “Sometimes I work TOO hard” “Sometimes I am so well organised that I don’t consider alternate approaches”.
Drudge’s online poll obviously says McCain won but Matty has a one word headline “BORING”. That’s a win for Obama in my book.
His poll said Palin won 75/25
McCain clearly won the debate, Obama was out of his depth especially wanting to trash the rules half way through he looked like a deer in the headlights.
Obama 1
McCain 1
The next debate is the decider!
CNN scores as of 1:30pm AEDT has Obama in front by all 6 analysts
http://img55.imageshack.us/my.php?image=90668d1223433102septembnk0.png
blah blah blah, blah blah, blah blah blah blah
Personally I think my comment made more sense
Wow who didnt pick that its CNN Dario god wake up!
Evidently McCain said “my friends” twenty times.
Pretty boring debate. I thought the only really interesting moment was McCain leaving Obama hanging afterwards when Obama offered a handshake.
LOL ShowsOn. And thanks. I’ve jotted these down:
“Sometimes I work TOO hard”
“Sometimes I am so well organised that I don’t consider alternate approaches”
145 Glen, these debates won’t decide anything. They are only fun to watch, occasionally informative. The amounts of people that McCain needs to convert to win (millions and millions) – that volume of people won’t be turned over by this performance. No one hit anything out of the ball park on either side.
I know you prefer Drudge Glen, but here we post results of all polls
Claims Obama offered to shake McCains hand and McCain refused. They are going ballistic on the US blogs. Is it true.?
I think so, sondeo …. I saw mccain walk away from him but didn’t see what precipitated it ……
CNN will be on for the next 75 minutes until 3pm local time with post debate analysis …..
going now to the focus “worm” group of voters in Ohio ….
Yes, a rebuffed handshake gesture is not good form. What if it were Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-il or Warren Buffet extending the hand!
I’m not sure that having debates mediated for you by “the blogs” is all that good an idea.
i think the onething everyone will agree with is that brokaw was crap
He should have just accepted the handshake, but what he did instead was sort of say “hey, meet my wife”.
Apparently McCain’s plan to buy up bad mortgages would cost about $2 trillion.
Maybe we should send over Mark Latham and show Mr McCain how to really lay on a handshake.
Ooh, CNN focus group. Should be interesting.
Glen thinks McCain won? Wow, surprise , surprise, surprise.
It was either him or exhume Tim Russert.
I thought the bits of the debate I heard were fairly even, but the real question for me went unanswered: how will McCain pay for what he promises? The US is broke, so the money has to come from somewhere.
McCain just sounds like a grumpy old coot. He won’t win many undecideds that way.
worm group in ohio almost evenly split-
mccain – 10 people said he won
obama – 12 people said obama won
Obama back over 70 on Intrade. He was in the high 60s during the debate.
McCain back below 30.
Sorry, false alarm – not interesting at all (so far). 10 say McCain won, 12 say Obama.
they claim that the focus group was randomly picked by a research group BUT the man they are talking to now was also in the studio for the first debate ….
He would get the Treasury Secretary to sell more Government bonds to China and Japan.
That’s how they got the $700 billion for the bail out.
barack and michelle still working the post debate crowd of people in the auditorium ……
$2 trillion eh? Not bad for a bloke who says he wants to reign in government spending and sees government intervention as ideologically bad.
All the signs of someone who knows he’s in deep doo doo.
Look at you on first name terms with the Obama’s.
What are John and Cindy up too.
Anyone see Jon Stewart yesterday. Juxtaposed Palin’s comments about government.
“Government get out of the way!” “Government, you are the problem!”
…
“Federal government just isn’t doing enough!” “The Government has let the people down.”
Jon Stewart: “Government go away…. come back!… go away… come back!!”
That was his latest stunt.
And remember, these are BAD DEBTS, so this effectively means tax payers would never get anything back, and would be subsidising the homes of people who can’t afford to pay back their home loans. It is a huge Federal Housing Scheme. McCain should’ve said his hero was FDR.
and CNN have just noted the McCain and his wife left the room straight away ….. showed that Obama wants to listen and talk to voters … McCain pissed off and didn’t hang around
CNN poll: Obama 54, McCain 30. On that note, let’s take it back to the other thread.