In a stunning bit of poor planning, I'll be flying to California for a friend's wedding tonight while the debate is ongoing. So I'm asking you, the loyal readers of the Conservative Wahoo, to "LIVE BLOG" the debate in this thread! Open a cold one, fire up the laptop, and provide in-stream commentary while the debate is on. What lines were good? Which were terrible? Was our man on tonight? Did Senator Obama's FOUR DAYS of camp help him prepare?
I'll take a look at how it went once I arrive at my hotel in California, at about 1:00 AM their time....
Why don't we start w/an informal poll...how many times will Obama start an answer with 'uh, uh, uh' tonight?
ReplyDeleteOr will we witness Jim Lehrer suffering from the Obama-love the rest of the media is infected with?
He's answering his first question with one of his campaign speeches! Can this guy say anything new?
ReplyDeletefirst question: mccain sounds just like i used to when i had to do a book report having only read cliffs notes. and i'm a dyed in the wool republican. i want him to do well. he fell short on the first question in my opinion. i'm liking his recovery on the follow ups though. good job on accountability and drawing on the eisenhower lead in.
ReplyDeleteTell me I heard wrong and McCain did NOT use the bear in Montana story again.
ReplyDeletewish i could. but i'm sure it was in the cliffs notes.
ReplyDeletemccain just lost the corn belt. end ethanol subsidies? that loud noise you just heard was iowa jumping to obama's camp.
ReplyDeleteJoe Harrington here... i like the way Lerner is working it, but not sure if he is going to get it to where he wants to take it...
ReplyDeleteMcCain never had Iowa. He's always been upfront about his opposition to ethanol. I think that was a safe comment. When he was talking about the 2005 energy bill, I was hoping he would bring up the 2008 farm bill.
ReplyDeletejim lehrer is being rather russert-esque in not letting either of them off the hook: "hey you two. one of you will be president come next january. both of you are saying you would do nothing differnt than you did before this economic crisis once you are president. is that the best either of you can do? are you serious?"
ReplyDeleteI am so tired of hearing Obama talk about his courage in standing up against the war. The Illinois State Legislature is a pretty safe place to be courageous. Why doesn't McCain call him on that?
ReplyDeleteSally, it doesn't appear you are being open minded.... in fact i am one of those rare folks that is truly undecided. I know Bryan can't believe there are any of us out here..... fact is, there are lots of reasons to oppose both candidates.
ReplyDeleteMcCain is doing well talking about Pakistan. I am certain that one of Obama's central goals was to rile his temper but I think he's doing just fine. Probably a draw at this point. What is this smirk of Obama's as he glances off to the left?
ReplyDeleteBarry's pronunciation of Pakistan is just as annoying as the libs who insist on rolling their r when pronouncing Nicaraqua.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's just what happens when you learn your English in a madrasas.
Obama's 'I have a bracelet too!' comment after McCain related that story about the mother at the airport was so lame.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Obama interested in capturing Osama? Is he that eager to give his pal Ramsey Clark a chance to crap all over America when he defends Osama at trial?
ReplyDeleteSally - Not if you are predisposed to a belief that all war is wrong or, for those less fundamentally principled, but equally fervent that any war with George W. Bush as Commander in Chief is wrong. It probably resonated quite well in those circles. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Cindy Sheehan or one of her Hollywood handlers helped write that line.
ReplyDeleteWhat is that on Barry's lapel?
ReplyDeleteQ: how many times did mccain practice "ahmidinijad" prior to the debate?
ReplyDeleteA: not enough
GREAT line on the Presidential Seal! Way to go McCain!
ReplyDeleteNice crack about the seal.
ReplyDeletesome prankster must have put that on his lapel while his jacket was hanging on the hook during make up. those mischievious stage hands...
ReplyDeleteQ: how many times did mccain practice "ahmidinijad" prior to the debate?
ReplyDeleteA: not enough
Hence the best reason for a CIA "wet" operation. No American leader should have to worry about the pronunciation of that a-holes name.
"Clean coal". Did he run that by Biden?
ReplyDeleteAmen. But I'd only endorse such a mission if we got a twofor with
ReplyDeleteChavez.
Although it's probably hard to find a Bushwhacker who would confess to feeling he or she is in a safer nation than before, I like the way McCain handled this one. Bush won his second term because we were never attacked again. And because Obama...oops, Freudian slip, OSAMA endorsed Kerry. Obviously enough voters felt we were in fact safer.
ReplyDeleteI think McCain is doing a good job portraying himself as wise and experienced, and pointing out Obama's naivete. It will be interesting to hear the media's post-game analysis. Though I suppose Obama could pee on the stage and they'd still rave about his performance.
ReplyDeleteWe are all merely pawns on CW's chessboard.
ReplyDeleteOkay, you heard it here first. Sally predicts the next debate will turn into a pissing contest.
ReplyDeleteRudy is pretty darned funny. Unfortunately, Sarah Palin's absence in the post-debate discussions is glaring given Biden's lead in.
ReplyDeletethe media lovefest continues. they'll give obama the nod. msnbc showed the "truth squad" after the debate. in a lame effort to appear balanced, they pointed out two untruths attributed to mccain and one, very small one relating to obama's defense of his tax plan, saying that it would add a small amount to the national debt, followed by "but mccain's plan would add to the debt as well", so i guess it was really two and a half to one half "untruths" with obama being deigned the more truthful.
ReplyDeleteI think they both did well. McCain didn't lose his temper and stressed the 'he's not ready' line enough. His closing line talking about how he knows how to heal a nation was good. I think he came across as a leader.
ReplyDeleteNeither one of these guys is good at making a personal connection, are they.
Now we can just wait with dread for the VP debate.
Mudge-get off MSNBC. What are you thinking?
ReplyDeleteJust got to LAX for my follow-on to Sacramento. Finished reading the SUPERB commentary here...grateful to all of you for chiming in and giving me a sense of things before I go and read the Mainstream Media View.
ReplyDeleteWhoever gigged Sally for not having an open mind....I'm not sure she ever said the did have one on this subject. Hell, she is a McCain volunteer.
On the subject of open minds....do you know what the only reason to have one is? To eventually CLOSE it. To be open to facts and data and then TAKE A STAND!
Did anyone else think that Obama purposely chose to address McCain informally (as "John") throughout the debate?
ReplyDeleteI felt that this was a 'tactic' devised by the Obama camp, designed to get a rise out of McCain. Probably by some wet behind the ears intern who watches too many movies - think Jack Nicholson reprimanding Tom Cruise in "A Few Good Men"... "I would appreciate it if he would address me as "Senator" or Sir. I believe I've earned it."
That exchange began Nicholson's slide right into the tirade that Cruise's character was trying to elicit. Very similar to tirade that many American's expected and that Obama's camp might have wanted to provoke.
Might sound like a conspiracy theory... but, I would wager that there is more truth to it than there is fiction.
Maybe so, but my theory is that it is a way of "leveling the playing field". Senator Obama does not want to seem "deferential" to the more experienced man.
ReplyDeleteGood pick-up on the "John" Hamptonpkfan. Absolutely, some little tattooed,pierced, punk girlyman in Barry's camp thought of that one.
ReplyDeleteBut consider the quandry the McCain camp faced; whether they call him "Barack" or "Obama" it still sounds like one of the 19 hijackers from 9/11.
sally - cw says you are a smart woman who is also working in the mccain campaign. if you are only listening to the likes of fox news you are seriously missing important "intelligence" about what the opposition is up to. if i only want to hear what i want to hear, i'll listen to fox. i wanted to hear what those clearly biased to obama had to say about mccain and the debate. being aware of what those who will parrot what the media tells them in debating with me is something i feel better prepares me to possibly alter their position. shouldn't someone working in a campaign also be attempting to alter the position of those in opposition to her chosen candidate? just a thought.
ReplyDeleteMudge-I hear you on 'hearing what the opposition is thinking.' But MSNBC is so unabashedly adoring in their coverage I think they're hard to stomach. Actually, I've found one of the best, most unbiased sources is PBS. The best coverage during the conventions could be found there and they did a good job last night as well.
ReplyDeleteYou guys and your Fox news crack me up. Never has there been a more uninformed news outlet spewing out garbage.
ReplyDeleteIf you watched and read just about every MSM outlet, except for Fox news, after the debates you'd conclude that just about everybody viewed the debate as a tie with the overall victory going to Obama since this was McCain's strong debate topic and he really needed a "win" to stay in there. Obama held his own and that's what was important.
But....if you listened to Fox news (not their commentary by GOP Pollster Frank Luntz mind you) they said that McCain just blew him away and the Dems had another failure on the horizon with Palin-Biden. Huh?? I can't stand CNN for the left wing but how you guys put up with such garbage that truly insults your intelligence is beyond me.