Samuel

7:04 am – hahaha! I never hit publish. Funny.

7:34 and neither did John.

7:32 And Barack didn’t answer it.

7:30 The last question is the best, hands down, by far, that I’ve ever heard in a Presidential debate. I love it. I love it. No kidding, no holds barred, I love it.

7:24 – McCain’s parsing of the Evil Empire question is pretty impressive. I like it. More meta-answers would make these exercises much more interesting.

7:20 I think that McCain is an old school cold war hawk, and is likely to react in dangerous and unstable ways to Russia.

7:19 On the wars, McCain seems to be sounding a lot like he Republican forebearer, W.

7:15 John McCain only recently stopped using the word “Gook” in public.

7:10 The useless dial group seems to be saying to me that Barack has an edge with women. None of the rest of the polls I’ve read said that.

7:07 No decisive victory tonight for either man.

7:06 I am not John McCain’s friend.

7:04 Whichever candidate says “responsibility to protect” in the context of this question about when we should intervene in humanitarian crises gets my vote. No kidding.

6:57 The woman in the audience in the blue shawl is pretty good looking.

6:54 Red light, John.

6:53 Is it just me, or does John look really old tonight?

6:46 The dial groups like Obama’s rhetoric on energy as a national security issue. I like that rhetoric also. Does that make me useless? Maybe.

6:44 Regarding Nukes, only a complete idiot would intentionally create a substance that’s almost impossible to contain and that is a deadly poison for over 10,000 years.

6:43 I love that we have two candidates who are actually strong on the Environment.

6:40 Obama didn’t answer the yes, no question about setting a date certain for fixing entitlements.

6:36 I want to know what definition McCain is using for “Small” business.

6:32 His populism makes me unsettled, though.

6:30 I think Barack’s answer to this question, on what sacrifices he would ask people to make, is much much better.

6:30 The Overhead Projector; this may become synonymous in future years with the political strategy, or the repeated line, that goes absolutely nowhere.

6:23 Brokaw tries to repeat the ‘what would you cut’ question in a different way; health, energy, entitlement reform, which would you cut. $5 says he doesn’t get a real answer even with this creative framing.

6:22 Still, neither candidate has said anything of real substance.

6:20 When Obama says he’s cutting more than spending, the green Male line on CNN’s dial group dropped dramatically. I wonder why?

6:19 His saying “I understand your cynicism” makes Obama look like he’s condescending. He plays into the worst stereotypes about himself, and does the party no favors.

6:13 I hope to god the Fact checkers are going to hit John hard on the assertion that Fanny and Freddy were the catalyst that started the whole crisis. That’s the most insane thing I’ve heard in a long time.

6:12 Are the ‘crony’ remarks going to play in Virginia? I don’t think so; I think people will just see it as negativity.

6:10 shit, Barack agrees.

6:09 Did John just suggest that we promote Warren Buffet to treasury secretary? Because that seems like a bad idea. He’s a millionaire, sure, but would his instincts serve the Treasury as they have his company? It’s a really different beast.

6:06 – John McCain looks like a freaky chipmunk person.

6:04 This is where Barack makes or breaks it. Does it play that he really cares? I think he can pull it off. Also, can he subtly piss John off without looking like he’s baiting him? If we can get John to blow up, we win.

5:58 PM – Dial Groups mean nothing. Ignore the dial groups on CNN. More at Kausfiles.