Can we hurry up and vote already? Ugh, we've still got 28 grueling days and two debates left. Luckily one of those debates goes down tonight. It's in the town hall style format, where candidates are asked questions directly by undecided voters (there are still enough of those left to fill a room? Who are these people?).
The blog is live! It kicks off after the jump.
8:54 - With out a set topic, no one is really sure what to expect tonight. It'll be interesting to see if any of the Bill Ayers/Charles Keating back and forth spills over into the debate. John McCain is going to need a big night to turn this thing around, and he's not going to do it with more than being a grump. His campaign has fed a lot of red meat to the right in the past week or so, and he needs to start coming back around to the center.
9:01 - Alright it's live. Quick tie appraisal: Obama's is pretty safe and basic. John McCain's looks a little "Manager at McDonalds."
9:05 - First question is about the economy, natch. Obama talks about "golden parachutes" and what not, and McCain starts talking about energy independence. Oh wow, he says he's going to buy up the bad home loan mortgages up.
9:08 - "Not you Tom" Where did that joke come from? Awkward. Says he might put in former ebay CEO Meg Whitman as the Treasury Secretary. Obama says "maybe, maybe Warren Buffet." McCain complimented Warren Buffet during his answer, while Obama is lightly attackin McCain's policy. Is the McCain camps new tactic to make Obama look like the attack dog?
9:12 - This questions is "hey, what's in the rescue payment for Joe Sixpack?" Again, McCain's suspension of his campaign did just about nothing, but he keeps bringing it up to make it look like he's doing something.
9:13 - Ok, McCain's on the light attack now. Obama is BFFs with Fannie May and Freddie Mac. Sure, why not? They all have funny names.
9:14 - Oh gee, Obama is being condescending. "I've got to correct some of Senator McCain history, not surprisingly."
9:15 - Both of them are talking about all the things they did to try and stave off the financial crises two years ago. Which we know worked fantastically and turned out great and we're all millionaires.
9:16 - I don't know why I said I liked Gwen Ifel. She was pretty tepid. Tom Brokaw on the other hand is a bad ass.
9:18 - "America's workers are the best in world." Which is why we keep shipping all our jobs over seas!
9:18 - Teresa Finch is pissed! Obama just called her cynical! To her face! What are you doing Obama?
9:20 - Eh. McCain just called her cynical too. Because he is a plagiarist. Poor Teresa Finch, your name is now synonymous with "cynicism."
9:23 - Woah, woah, woah John. That overhead projector at the planetarium may sound silly to you, but there's a lot of Chicago area Pink Floyd laser show fans who are very, very grateful for that.
9:27 - A question from the Internets! John McCain is going to take on defense contract ear marks. Like that one that Lincoln Diaz-Balart got into trouble for the other day.
9:29 - John McCain says "hey those government programs that would probably work better if we gave them a bit more money, eh, we're not going to give them more money :("
9:30 - This debate is boring, but easy to follow.
9:33 - Obama is going to make a legion of community organizers in his image so that they can community oraganize Rudy Giuliani's face off.
9:34 - A not from my friend Kristen: "Tom Brokaw should set an obnoxious one minute alarm, or sound a bullhorn" Which would gel well with this Fourth of July Match Game looking set.
9:35 - CNN has this Positive/Negative scale for their panel of uncommitted voter's responses. It doesn't go into the neggy that often, but McCain just dipped under with that "nailing jello to the wall remark" and for that "I've got news for you" remark. Eh, it's coming back up when he talks about Tax Cuts!
9:38 - Didn't we talk about all of this last week dudes?
9:41 - This is so boring I'm going to go nail jello to the wall.
9:43 - Is Ingrid Jackson the first person to ask question at a presidential debate with a nose piercing? To be fair, it wouldn't seem so shocking if everyone knew what Brokaw's got pierced.
9:45 - Sure, people love hearing about hybrid cars and shit, but this is the environment question. Talk about baby seals and trees and the Everglades and endangered unicorn specious or something besides energy, because there is so much more to environmental policy than energy.
9:52 - My crazier liberal friends are trying to decide if "that one" is on par with "you people" on the coded racist language scale.
9:51 - From another friend: "who wants to bet the mccain campaign takes the 'I'm just trying to keep up with mccain' comment and puts it in their next ad taken completely out of context." My friends are winning the funny debate against me tonight.
9:54 - Holy Shit. Was McCain's "hair transplant" quip aimed directly at Joe Biden? He is going to get shit for that.
9:56 - John McCain says health care is a responsibility, Obama says it's a right.
9:58 - Cynicist in chief Teresa Finch keeps popping out of me from the audience. I like her necklace. Off track, I am sorry. Have we not heard this all before?
10:02 - When Obama talks it makes me forget Sarah Palin and all of the bull shit insanity that is going on in the race exists. This is a very good thing.
10:09 - Most Americans say "Pack-ee-stan," but Obamo says it something "Pock-eh-ston". Maybe because all his best friends are terrorists and he knows their lingo.
10:13 - My jokes are not very funny in this live blog, but it's ok, because McCain is setting the bar pretty low on humor tonight.
10:15 - You know how to get Osama, McCain? Then why haven't you, ummm, told any one in the military how to do it?
10:18 - If I was playing a drinking game where I had to take a shot everytime McCain says "My Friends" I would be dead right now. Totally dead, my friends.
10:22 - Is Brokaw purposefully playing catch up on foreign affairs issues because they got overshadowed by the economy in the first one?
10:23 - Ok, Brokaw, that yes/no question about applying some rhetoric from one situation 20+ years ago to a situation today was pretty lame.
10:25 - Topics still not addressed in these debates: Education, reproductive rights, immigration, gay rights, gun issues, poverty and that's just the tip. This debate wasn't supposed to be totally about foreign affairs and the economy, but Brokaw definitely decided it would be.
10:34 - "That one" won.
10:39 - McCain is contentious, grumpy and has a weird old man sense of humor, but we knew that, like almost everything they said. Over all a boring, repetitious debate. Whatever, I am voting for Teresa Finch.
