Live-Blogging the First Debate
9:06PM — Er, John — Kennedy’s already out of the hospital. But a nice message nonetheless.
9:10PM — Old McCain speaks well about accountability/responsibility. Obama is talking to the audience, not McCain (McC isn’t looking at O either). McC = “change Warshington.” O = people are hurting.
9:15PM — McC will fix economics by reigning in federal spending? What? O’s on the slight defensive here … but points out the miniscule nature of earmarks in comparison to the rest of the budget quite well. Moves into bottom-up/normal-folks benefits vs. “fixing Warshington.”
Hmm, “maybe 932 million dollars isn’t a lot to Sen. Obama.” Ow. Obama hits back well though — earmarks are a niche issue.
TPM notes that Obama sports a flag pin, McCain does not.
9:28PM — Um, Barack, “programs that don’t work” after a list’o’stuff isn’t all that great an answer to “what would you cut.” McCain’s coming on better on this bit (esp. killing ethanol spending). Hint: refer to the WAR and the shitloads of money pouring into that … since it’s foreign policy debate!
… a few minutes later, thanks. 30 minutes in, and we finally get to Iraq!
9:34PM — Nukes are good/bad: good energy, bad costs/returns. Tough sell, too.
9:36PM — Federal spending restraint - path to happiness! Christ.
9:40PM — I don’t get McCain’s argument at all. Well, yes, it’s great to have a great strategy … but we ought not BE THERE anymore. McCain’s about the present of the Surge, not about the future. Which isn’t looking stunning.
9:48PM — Obama: “Capture and kill bin Laden.” Wow. And McCain just compared bin Laden and Petraeus? Double Wow.
…And on to the next beer for me…
9:56PM — Obama on McCain’s lack of prudency is pretty good. Nothing really jumping out besides the Petraeus/bin Laden thing.
10:00PM — Bracelet war!
Travel confers knowledge of deep international issues, I guess.
10:05PM — I don’t know that I agree with McC on Iran, but he does appear to know his stuff, and is clearly in comfortable territory here, far more so than on the economy stuff. Obama is doing quite well, too, actually, and brings up working with players rather than democracies only … which is probably more realistic.
McCain mangles Ahmadenijad. Heh. Pretty thin causal chain there, John-o.
Agree with Sullivan, Obama’s out-hawking McCain pretty well.
10:12PM — Spain jab! Detail quibbling again from McCain — earmarks, preconditions, etc.
N. vs. S. Korean height differential? Huh?
10:17PM — Good stuff on Russia from Obama; assume that McCain will have equally good stuff here. If he doesn’t, big fail. So-so intro for McCain, but getting stronger. He’s got this whole region down — McCain, that is. Classy agreement with general principles by Obama. Pointing out his agreements with McCain definitely pulls Obama more towards the center than he’s being portrayed (he’s never been anywhere but, really, but our politics make slight drifts into screaming left/right differentiations).
10:23PM — Obama’s sliding of the Russian issue into alternative energy/economic points. Interesting.
McCain’s doing better than I expected, but I suspect he needed to be even stronger. No major gaffes, but Obama seemed ever so slightly more on top of things, and a little more flexible, reasonable overall. Obama comes off surprisingly hawky, which is good for him overall, especially against McCain. He’s particularly good at throwing credit to McCain for bits and pieces, which is mature, but McCain gives no credit to Obama, it’s all “he just doesn’t get it,” or variations on that. Not exactly across-the-aisle politics there.
10:34PM — Holy shit! McCain just compared Obama to Bush! WTF! Weird way to end it there (that’ll stick longer than the paean to veterans).
