Last Chance Saloon Debate Drinking Game Live Blog

Any place I can watch on my 'puter ?

amk

CNN will carry it live online. C-span will carry it live. www.cspan.org

you should be able to watchy on cnn online, or at least another news channel. i even got it with the stream so you don't get their commentary. im in the uk btw

amk

seriously - i've not owned a tv now for a couple of years and it has been fine during this entire election cycle.  The news networks like cnn and msnbc do live feeds of the debates, election results, and all the big rallies and speeches, and I get my news from blogs and youtube and some online newspapers.

And, now my two favorite tv shows, house and er, are available in full episodes online the day after they are shown on tv (plus of course jon stewart full episodes are online too).

It's my mini-revolution against the MSM and it's great.  Plus I just heard about this today, the monitor is now a TV screen

http://www.enduserblog.com/2008/10/apple-announces.html

KD

MSNBC usually has a good feed too.  They had clean feeds of the conventions - no pundits at all - it was sweet...

Yeyyy, C-span is working. Watching the debate commission guys yakking about now.

I am bunking work today morning.

amk

check out this batman clip posted by ambinder

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/10/the_debate_watch_it...

it's hilarious - who is this "batman" guy anyway?

jed should really do a compilation of this with mccain's attack ads

KD

amk

Al,

I'm on Red High Alert for a message.  I'm not watching this one but I will be making up stuff that I infer from other comments during the live blog.  I get way too nervous about these and I am soooo glad this is the last one.  I've got the Phillies game on and a big glass of red wine and looking for lots of "my friends" updates to pour a second.

amk

 I have not seen how bad the lump is on the side of McLame's face until tonight!

for Obama's opening question.  McCain's not as high and now McInsane's rebuttal is close to flatlining....Took my first sip, too.

McCain has some bizarre tics. I'm drinking Patron tonight. I have to sip. Does McCain's pretend dialog with Joe the plumber count for a full drink?

You think Grumpy ever spoke to a tradesman working in any of his homes -- except to tell him to move his goddam truck?

Don't amurikans have any other names ?

amk

Why did I have to pick "Joe the Plumber" as my phrase to take a drink?

i think they're referring to the plumber who asked Obama a question this weekend.

 So far. At least they can really debate the issues.

We had to wait for the last one. McLame is still appealing to his base.

 That's what I'm talkin bout. Go Obama!

I like the faint moustache on Obama. Looks like he didn't spend a lot of time in makeup preparing.

McLump tries to sound like he knows how, but can not describe how he knows how or how he can do it.

New drinking game? I know how? 

online.  McCain sounds like an old person talking about what he did 30 years ago. Over and over.  I know how to cut, I know how to...blah blah blah. 

amk

Be careful if you go there.  Think of your liver.

I'm torn; at some point Obama will have to take a chunk outa McCain's ass over the interruptions and lies...but in the meantime, McCain's simply the most passionate he's been in a face-off with Obama.  This is the McCain that would have been a contender.

Uh-oh...the question about negatives!  Woo-hoo!  This'll be fun.

amk

amk

 Bob Schieffer rocks! Whine Whine Whine! McCain is whining!

An attack disguised as an apology... the anger is showing through. This should be interesting

 @Chris--- your right, I am going on the wagon on November 5th.

Obama is wise beyond McCAin's years....

Wow, that's a line I woudn't have thought of, but it's a great rejoinder to "get off my lawn"!

I've gotten through these debates by following discussions here...somehow we're so far behind in the comments that I'm running out of distractions.  How'm I going to watch this thing?

Obama's response to the negative attacks question is superb. This will be his success tonight I feel sure. His refocus to what the American people want to hear is excellent.

post the reactions here ?

amk

Not a very subtle segway to Aryers and ACORN

Is McCain pulling a Victim card here? Ala Clinton?

Women are liking Obama's responses, while men are like McCain. Pretty much the same as in past debates, except that while they talk about these petty issues like whose feelings got hurt by what attack ads, the lines are pretty much around the middle - nobody is too impressed all around.

Whenever McCain gets all impassioned, men get all excited; the lines tend to flatten when Obama's talking.  I think people are itching to see a fight; perhaps at the night goes on they'll get tired of the bluster.

amk

 The dummies for McCain are jumping for joy! The smart people are saying huh?

Ohio undecideds are getting pissed every time McCain talks. I swear to god polls will show Obama winning this. McCain looks petty and angry. Obama is staying cool and focussed. 

pollyanish

I confess, I hadn't really paid much attention to him on CBS before, but he's asking all the kinds of questions I would want a moderator to ask. And he's forcing the candidates to get specific. If I didn't already know all the issues pretty well already, this debate would actually be informative and educational for me.

 I believe she is an idiot! Are you kidding me John? I am not buying it.

Yikes.  Breath of fresh air?  More like the stink of rotting moose dung.

Now he looks more relaxed.

JM worried about autistic children ??? Rrrright.

amk

Here is a comment from my only McCain supporting friend on Facebook:) 

(my friend's name) was watching the debate but got tired of watching two old men bickering back and forth and pointing their fingers at eachother! What a waste of time

I think Obama handled the Ayers question fine. He interjected "That is not a fact" when McCain said that Ayers hosted a "coffee" for the Obama campaign. Since Obama doesn't interrupt very much – not to mention his poker face – the few times he does interject holds that much more authenticity and believability to what he says.

I think that short but stern rebuttal, after giving his initial explanation, was the best he could have done in this environment.

Every time they rattle off all of the fun alternative options for energy, it gets a liiiiiittle bit faster!

I thought Obama nailed McCain on autism research and his proposed spending freeze.  To me, it was one of he best moments of all three debates for Obama.

 Put the waste in in NV, Lose NV! Oil Companies, Use em or lose em! Yes. Critical that we develop a car that uses something other than oil. Hello?

What a jerk!  Oil closed at $75. a barrel today.

I am surprised at how much I dislike McLame!

Like I said, first person to mention Herbert Hoover is it in this game of tag.

The old man brings up Hoover!!!!!

HELP!!!  AAuughhh...this is hard watching!

Did McC snort when Obama was speaking.  I caught his raised eyebrows etc. He seems to like making faces behind his opponent back.

I didn't think I would have more difficulty watching a Republican whose name is not George Bush but you know I'd rather listen to him than McCain sit there and lie and treat us all like dimwitted twits.

 He wants to put my personal medical records online? WTF? Joe the plumber, he is scaring you, don't fall for it.

 Priceless! The most confused face evah!

Pitch right by the bat of McCain. SRIKE  OUT! 

On health care, Obama takes the game, series, title.

Finally, Obama gets to get in McCain's face on the "fine" for not having health care...and explains why the $5K tax credit is bullshit.

Meanwhile, McCain hopes that his grimaces and tics and blinking and head nodding and fidgeting keeps anyone from listening to Obama.

Just murdered McCain on health care.  MURDERED I tell you!!!

$5,000 will get you a catasrophic plan that will only pay for your funeral.

 Bwahhhaa! Are you kidding me. Baracks plan is not a mandate.

I'll find the best people - for judges - just like I selected the VP!

For what it's worth, medical records are already available online. There are systems in place now, used by some health care providers who can't afford their own server-based systems, whereby they access the records via a laptop over the Internet. They are supposedly secured with encryption and by storing the records in different packets on the host company's servers, etc., but who knows what hackers are capable of, right?

That's the way it's headed ... paperless. I just think that when McCain says he wants to make them available on line, it's more an indication he's not up to speed on technology again. Whether it should be happening is another argument.

 If any women could vote for him, I would be completely confused.

Obama is kicking ass in this one. Just watch the polls tomorrow I swear.

 Just said it's my body, damn it, no man should tell me what my choice is.

Abortion. Safe. Legal. Rare.

blabber by JM ?

amk

So much concern for the embryo.  So much support for "the surge."  I'll never get it.

McCain keeps mentioning the 21st century just to remind himself which century he's in.

I think Obama is mopping McCain on the floor, but I'm having a hard time not staring at John's gangster suite and tie and is that Rich Lowry's Palin stardust on his jacket that keeps spottily glistening or is it white haired dandruff?  Hard to tell, but CNN's HD is not good for McCain's appearance.

You know, I thought I just saw an actual smile on McCain's face, in a note of resignation ... with the thought running through his head, "Damn, as much as I hate this guy, he's good, real good.  ... [Wait, I have to snap out of this ... attack, attack .... Oh, what's the use; is this almost over?"

research at the college level.

And I didn't understand what JM said about education.

But then, I am a geek, what do I know ?

amk

NCLB = "a great first beginning"

SAVE US!!!!!!!

 only to his base, this is over.  Charter schools, they agree on two things. One or two things Mclump might be right about. America's youth are not interest groups.

It's baaaack!

Is Palin's child replacing POW?

what's this about autism.  again? sad.  but why is he pushing it re: education.

Heh, intrade just jumped to 86 for Obama.  McCain really lost the women vote with this one.  Rachel is right, the 'health' of the mother jibe that McCain made is going to hurt him.

I don't think anyone told John boy that autism is not Down's syndrome.  eek. 

amk

that Autism and Down's Syndrome are not the same thing...and vouchers are paid for by the government...

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

I've only got basic cable, but the lines are getting squigglier the more McCain talks about education.  He's all over the place.

And he's settling in as the obnoxious old aunt who corrects every word you say at the family dinner.

 Autism, panderer.

was Senator Obama calm, cool, and detailed, while McWhat's his name spouted platitude after platitude after blame Obama for everything?

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

John.

Eff this, we will do it live.

amk

I too find it almost impossible to watch JM. He is a poor excuse for a human being; with 72 years on his belt, he has no ability to interact without treating an opponent contemptuously. I find that in itself enough to disqualify him. But then I'm prejudiced. Senator Obama is amazing in his presentation and generosity.

Snore is good for Obama.  Does anyone almost feel sorry for McCain?  I do.  But he is doing fine.  Sometimes I think McCain's eyeballs are going to pop out of his head.  I get sorta neurotic for him.  He kinda reminds me of an old codger that is used to saying totally off color comments.  I mean, when I go out with my 85 year old dad, I can get sort of freaked out by the things he will say.  If I call him down, he will tell me, foreign accent and all, and loud enough to include a 10 foot radius "I thought this was a free country!".  McCain has these moments too.  I have no idea -- maybe the elusive undecideds likes it.  Just seems very old school to me -- someone we might watch on a video and laugh about how different it was "back then".

McCain is better than he has been but for the eye popping and the massive facial movement that seems somewhat incessant and comes across as unserious to me. 

Later fieldhands all across the globe!  Early voting in Tennessee started today (and lots of states). Great event in Knoxville.  Everyone got to meet a 74 year old first time voter.  Registered by the campaign.  He gave a speech. A story of redemption. Come on -- a political campaign that makes one understand the power of redemption?!? It opens up the possibility of a collective evolutionary jump up the ladder -- a shift in perspective - an explosion of a way of thought so that it becomes a meme instead of a personality trait. 

Right before the debate I got a call from the Obama campaign.  I answered "Hey, baby!".  Scared the bujeezus out of the poor woman calling.  I explained I'm in the tank for Obama and needed some ice cream...so she let me go.

Brooks just gave it to Obama!  Mark Shields, no surprise, too.

Both commenting on Obama's composure - how comforting, he is!

We call it COOL!!! Sullivan has some good comments on it to in recent blog.

I gave up watching after wanting to just slap McCain and started working on postcards to voters in swing states. That at least made me feel a whole lot better.

Did anyone else see Obama post debate ?

amk

Al,

I'm very glad to see that you think Obama did well.  I think all I was hoping for was no gaffes.  Obama is a realy cool nerd that he actually likes TALKING about the issues over and over and over for 20 months.  In the debate, he talked about  education, healthcare, etc with passion. Awesome.

An economic debate that pretty much wasn't an economic debate?

Finally, finally, after all this time, people are actually listening--Obama's giving details and taking names, and McCain's spitting slogans.  And Americans have been forced to care.  Thank God.

For decades I've been wondering what kind of cataclysm it would take for th US to care for something bigger than whether they could buy a bigger TV.  Perhaps we've finally hit it.  I sure hope so; if not, it'll be a gut-wrenching civil war before anything changes in this doltish excuse for a nation.

How did I miss that this conversation was going on?

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/citizen-ayers/

Really, I think it was.  And sunstantively I think it was close to a draw.  But perception is everything and Obama came off as the cooler, more thinking person, which are traits that people want, particularly now.

Brazille, on ABC, hit it.  If you came in liking Obama, he didn't do anything to change that.  If you came in liking McCain, he didn't disappoint.  If you were undecided, probably not a big change either way.  And Matthew Dowd said that McCain did not take any Obama people away from him and that is what he needed to do.

Was it just me or was Obama more popular with Republicans than McCain? Granted, it seemed like the Republicans in the focus group were much more volatile than everyone else (the Democrats were apparently asleep at the dial), but Obama was scoring some serious points with the red line.

over the last debate!  Despite consistently "dialing" better on Obama last time, they ultimately voted McCain - 14, Obama - 11.

FYI, Nate over at 538 wrote "Congratulations, President Obama" at 10:31pm.  :-)

So much for "I'm going to kick his you-know-what". It didn't happen.

http://thepage.time.com/

McCain: A-

Obama: B+

Still doesn't sound like a "game-changer" to me.

amk

Damn. Obama SHOULD have run against Bush. :)

Ok. I think this is all good news FOR JOHN MCCAIN!!!!!!!

amk

not that it's particularly close in any of the polls, but if the Phillies win tonight (knock on wood), Pennsylvania is guaranteed to go for Obama, as his special will be aired on Fox immediately preceding one of the games, which should be fairly highly rated in the SEPTA region.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

It gives me a great pleasure in giving you

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA.

amk

Obama 58 McCain 31

amk

I don't have the stomach for the tv blowhards so I'm just reading the live blogs on 538 and Daily Kos.  It seems the channel that disliked McCain the most was FOX.  Go figure. 

that CNN that I quoted was one of those silly online polls.  Relatively meaningless but still...

It seems the channel that disliked McCain the most was FOX.  Go figure. 

Me likey that. Great that Mcinsane lost his mind as well as his base. Great News. CNN - 58-31. Me likey more.

amk

Josselyn,

I think Halperin REALLY doesn't like Obama.  I happened to catch on a video replay a brief exchange between the two of them during the primaries (either in PA or OH).  Halperin was standing beside a breakfast buffet line and when Obama came close he  said to Obama mockingly, "can I just eat my pancakes, please?".  He was mocking what Obama had said a few weeks prior when the reporters were interrupting his breakfast at a diner.  Anyway, when he said that Obama just turned to someone (ignoring AssHat) and said, "anyone want some of these?" or something to that effect.  Obama KNEW Halperin was trying to get his goat and he just igored him.  Which is the reason for the B+ I'm sure. 

He's a wannabe celebrity reporter.

 Catherine, I have watched his site daily and he is the biggest tool of this election. No gravitas, nuff said

Halperin on PBS talked less about McCain winning (he thought McCain started strong and Obama caught up) and more about how the questions are:

1) Is there any plausible path McCain now has to get the required electoral votes (Answer: doesn't look like it)

2) Will this be a Democratic landslide?

In respose to AC's question of "Looking at the snap polls, if you were John McCain, what would you do tomorrow?"

Gergen just said and I quote "It beats the hell out of me."

Nuff said.

but he's one of the ones who'll tell people how they should feel about tonight...unfortunately.  Best to know whatall is being said all over, so, in that spirit, I went to Faux News.com & checked their on-line poll as to who won.  It's currently Obama 67% to McCain 33%.  http://elections.foxnews.com/

I watched post-debate reaction on Fox News tonight, and their panel (except for Barnes) as well as Frank Luntz's focus group went for Obama.  I believe that the Republican party leadership, which was never all that loyal to McCain in the first place, are now despondent and ready to lose. 

As we get closer to the election, I think we're going to see the GOP backbiting, defections, and open expressions of disgust at the campaign McCain ran increase drastically.   The game is over for them. 

kicked out on their butts.

'nuff with the media spin. People have decided and the pundits can go suck an egg.

amk

I am most amazed that everyone is talking around what is most obvious - McCain is on something - what I don't know.  But the erratic eye movement - the gesturing, the flailing from one topic to another is demonstrative of drug use.  Whatever his campaign has him using for these debates, and to keep his energy levels up, is definitely causing him issues with his mental faculties. 

I think the American people have a right to know what a 72 year old man is taking, as well as his medical history, before we vote on November 4th. 

I concur, as I'm sure we all do 'round these parts.  And thanks for the great visual of Halperin sucking on an egg...picturing it where he loves to post pics of himself on his "The PageCast".  You know something's changed with how people feel about msm when CNN/Anderson Cooper self-congratulatorily [a word?] pronounces they are NOT going to go into/cover the spin room after the last debate.

suddenly, now that he's posted his further wisdom, Obama at a plain "B", no +.  To quote Sarah Silverman, what a douche nozzle.

51% of cnn watchers said they don't care about the Ayers affair.  Other instapolls seem to mirror this.  Of course the day to day polls have been screaming TALK ABOUT THE ISSUES.

So I wonder when the media will stop talking about Ayers or will tomorrow's topic be dominated by the instapolling result re Ayers questions. 

I'm a Phils fan so I was switching back and forth but I saw the 'health of the mother line' by McCain which was unbelievable.  He had to come off as moderate on the issue and he pulls that.  Like he pulled an allnighter with Steve Schmidt.  If he had any point to make there he had to explain it, but all he did was categorically mock the idea of considering the woman's health without any specifics. The gender gap is now a gender crater.

I honestly don't understand this obsession with Halperin.  It seems like a lot of people here are validating him by reading what he writes/listening to what he says.  He's just another person with an opinion. 

Enjoyed it, and the comments.

It is done. Over. Now, it's about campaigning, long and hard.

I have been reading the news sites and blogs post-debate to get a sense of what everyone else thought of tonight’s debate and something surprised me.

I watched the debate on our PBS station - where there were no split screen shots during the debate. I had no idea that McCain had been making those faces. I heard him interrupt but he wasn’t in the shot. It seems to make a huge difference in how the debate was perceived.

I also couldn’t understand why pundits liked McCain’s performance tonight. Right when he was getting all attacky, he was muddled, unclear, weird. He lost me right there and, although some are writing that he did well in the last part of the debate, I never thought he did ok after that. Even without the view point of split screens.

By the insta-polls so they don't get to shape the public perception. We can all tell Halperin to go to hell. The insta-polls and focus groups tell us what we already know. Debates are not sporting events, like a boxing match. They are a sample of behavior where we see the candidate under stress articulate who they are and how they propose to govern. Net result, the viewing audience didn't like (again) what they saw in McCain nor what they heard in how he might govern. (It's no wonder, with all that demented lurching and flailing anger.)

And they did like what they saw in Obama. He's presidential. Period.

Obama picked up 30 points on favorable ratings, not 18.  Hard to even fathom.  I had to go to the link you provided to double check.  It's a net swing of 50 points.  How is that even possible?  I mean I love the guy but who are these voters?  Have they totally been living in a cave and just now decided it was time to pay attention?

I am also glad someone else caught McCain's slip on the autism thing.  I mean it was such a pander and to totally blow it was pathetic.  Sarah Palin's child has Down's Syndrome...not even close to being the same thing.

I was so glad to see that other people (and by that I mean objective) were annoyed with McCain's interruptions, grimmaces and condescension.  And that god-awful stupid smile.  He had one good line all night.   I find it odd that they wanted to talk about Ayers and yet when given the chance he couldn't even make a coherent argument about it.  I don't care about Ayers but we need to know more about Obama's relationship with him.  How is Obama supposed to prove a negative?

If it's drugs, it's probably a combination he's taking to keep himself going.  Think of JFK, stoned to the gills half the time because otherwise he could often hardly walk.

There are a lot of things about John McCain that we don't talk about.  We joke about the "get off my lawn" thing and fret aimlessly about his melanoma, but the elephant in the room is his psychological condition.

As I watch McCain I see a guy in huge physical and emotional pain, chronically furious, even abusive, with himself and those around him (just watch him and Cindy sometime).  His blinking and grimacing and hobbling around make me suspect not drug use but physical ailments we don't know about.

McCain's POW story is, to be callous, unremarkable: torture, starvation, deprivation, refusing to be released ahead of earlier officers, a horror shared by thousands.  His PTSD seems completely untreated; no doubt he can't acknowledge emotional weaknesses, given his background.  So he's erratic, rageful, and a maverick more in the sense of a stray calf than a nonconformist.

McCain's identity is built on a retelling of a terrible story in a way that objectifies his entire life. What we're seeing now is the disintegration of his persona.  The cover story is unraveling, which has got to be absolutely unbearable.  It's almost unbearable to watch.  I tell you, I get no pleasure out of it.

Tara, I think undecideds were waiting for a defining moment, and that tonight (or last night, for some of you) finally filled in some mental blank for them.  The "you don't know Obama" meme was finally broken down by the juxtaposition of the angry nasty McCain unable to connect a punch to Obama's cool, composed face.

Pundits (boy, there's a word I'm getting tired of) are lamenting that Obama is winning by "just surviving."  But desperate, fearful voters see a man who bears up under pressure, who staves off attacks, and who keeps his balance.  Finally, finally, they want meat more than they want blood.

It's just a theory.  I'm still working on it.

I watched the debate on CNN (addicted to the audience dial), where there was a split-screen, and the YouTube videos I've watched were also split-screen.  Any idea whether the debate was shown that way only on cable, or what?

Whom do you want to be your next president?

http://images.derstandard.at/2008/10/16/1220631450981.jpg

(Picture of the debate in Austria's most respected liberal newspaper Der Standard. Has this picture been printed in the US media as well?)

Obama did good tonight. He stayed cool and calm and picked when his spots when he would answer McCain. He knows to pick the battles you know you can win and not try to fight all the battles.  He didnt get down in the mud with McCain and allow McCain to turn the debate into a fight about personal and personality issues but kept to the voters issues thus forcing McCain to address the issues as well.

The thing that hits me everytime McCain brings up that Obama wouldn't do the town hall debates with him is  I dont like her anymore because she wouldnt play dolls with me.  She won't play the game I want to play.  It strikes me as childish.

Did I hear McCain say something to the effect that Obama was a wimp on the Roberts and Breyers Senate votes?  Shouldn't it have been Roberts and Alito?  (It was in the middle of some pressured, muddled speech).

During the primaries, he banked everything on cultivating sources inside the Clinton White House.

Oops!

Now, he's bitter at Obama and doing everything he can to lick McCain's shoes.

amk

These guys are gooood.

amk

Though my comment placement below the vid got screwy.

amk

"the commies".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/politics/7671046.stm

All in the name of democracy or demoncrazy ?

amk

@ amk - Nice embed. You know you can go back and edit any of your posts as a co-publisher.  In doing so, it does show up as a new (but not a duplicate) post. 

I woke up feeling relieved that the debates are DONE! And that ad is perfect - as you say, it was McCain's only good line. 

I think that if people haven't made their mind up by two weeks before the election, they need to be disqualified from voting.  I don't want the election decided by those who are STILL this clueless as to the differences in the two candidates.  (I'm joking but I wish I wasn't.)

It looks like Mr. Roto Rooter might not be registered to vote in Ohio? http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/The_Joe_file.html#comments

Most people who broadcast themselves as "trying to live the American Dream" consider voting as part of that, no?

If he isn't even a registered voter in Ohio his 15 seconds of fame may not play out as he would like.  The good news there is that  Joe P may not need to worry about making +250K and paying a little extra in taxes in an Obama administration.

Apparently, I can't edit once I embed. The video does not go away nor does turn off style (html only) work.

About this guy, joe, the plumber, this is what I posted @dkos.

This guy, joe, can't be bothered to register to vote. Can't be bothered to pay his due taxes. Can't be bothered to pay for all the benefits of living in a free country, especially, when he could afford it.

Please watch how you throw around words like "obsession."  Some of us were just having a chat.  Despite what it may have "seemed like," since the primaries, I actually have only looked at his page after two of the debates.  Just sharing info and our opinions.

http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/10/undecideds_laughing_at_not_wi...

oh that picture is painful to see.  And funny as hell.

Yup. Those guys sure ARE good.  Reminds me of that line from Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid when they look back to see who's following them - see the 'white hat' - and ask "Who are those guys?"

This campaign has been so strategically brilliant - leading to having every voter ask: "who do you want to watch & listen to for the next 8 years?"  Can anyone imagine watching the eye popping, the grimaces, the schizoid comments, and what IS it with McLunk sticking his tongue out at us?  Double scary if it's his 'tell.'  At least he didn't think I was his friend last night!  Whew!  We all survived the debates - thanks Al & Field hands.  GOTV.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS09/810160418/-1/NEWS

There was a moment from last nights debate that is hardly being discussed, but it might have won Obama Ohio and West Virginia.  It was the discussion on the Columbian Free Trade Agreement.  Blue collar voters and union voters in OH and WV have seen jobs and wages decline as a result of unfair trade agreements, so it was bad enough for McCain when he talked about his wholehearted support of the CFTA.  But what really made it a home run for Obama was when Obama said he opposed the CFTA because labor organizers in Columbia were being murdered.  The right to organize is a sacred right to many in OH and WV, and I would not be surprised if we saw a post-debate bump for Obama in these and other blue collar states.

I wish I had copied/pasted something like this from deep in one of the NYT comment sections:

In years to come McCain's "I am not George Bush" will be seen as equal to Nixon's "I am not a crook."

Priceless.