Surprisingly dull, and we have an entire month to go!

Frankly, I didn't find the debate dull. But again, I unashamedly admit, I was mesmerized by the grace, confidence and aptitude of Barack Obama.

Also, Greg, this debate will be looked in a much different light, once we all move away from it. This is a very notable moment presidential elections, and we'll see it differently a few months or years from now.

It was dull for the first hour, but heated up nicely eventually. I must admit to missing the "That one" line in real time. I was probably emailing Josh with a witty comment he didn't post.

Obama took the lesson of Debate 1 and sharpened his Iraq answers tonight. Sure it was a zinger, but it was better than the hair plug line.

I could do mcShame's lines:

"My friend, I know how to fix ..... (fill in the blank). I've already done that before. You can look at my record [of lies]. America can do anything. We are the best. We can do this. Because we've done this before. And by the way, my opponent [more lies].

It was the same refrain, no matter the question.

Plus, did others feel that at times he leaned so close to women, they cringed?

Everybody expected McCain to go after Obama on Ayers etc. and he never did. Does this mean that McCain got cold feet about bringing it up in front of 50 million people? Is this something that his people figured out doesn't actually have any pull with anybody outside of the base? Is Sarah Palin just flying solo when she brings this stuff up - is it just a matter of "free Sarah!"? Or is John McCain just too big of a big pussy to actually look Barack Obama and the American people in the eye and make such accusations and insinuations?

I don't know, but hopefully in the future, a McCain insider will write up an honest account of this campaign and when he/she does, it will be far more interesting than the "Lives and Times of David Axelrod."

McCain's base will go crazy over his 300 Billion dollar plan to buy the mortgages.

But, he'll spin it in a way where he can say, "See! I'm standing up to my own party!"

I wish Obama had answered the question about what will Americans be asked to sacrifice differently. I wish he would've said that, at the very least, a simple task like using a tire pressure gage would help the nation and our individual pocketbooks. The McCain camp made a "joke" out of this. Krugman said he thinks such realities fall on deaf ears because Americans don't want to do the "work" required. We're in the shitter for sure if we can't pull off something as taxing as that. I have a sickening feeling Krugman had something in that thought of his, though, and that's why Obama doesn't say such things anymore.
He is a nimble politician.

As multiple observers have pointed out, McCain needed to jar the electorate into seeing this race in a new way. It isn't even clear if McCain even tried to do this tonight -- there was no moment where he appeared to make an aggressive bid to take down Obama or grab the initiative

Surprising that so many of you LEFTIE TAX n SPENDERS missed it

THE BAD LOAN BUYOUT....that was his gambit

Boy the conservatives r gonna love that one

I'll give McCain credit for not sinking to the low of Ayers etc. He was meandering and his jokes fell flat, and lied about taxes and stuff, but...he was in the realm of being a reasonable person. Anyway, I do wonder if the campaign will continue to send Palin out to incite hatred and resentment given McCain's semi-honorable (or at least civilized), if fatally weak, performance tonight. Do they really think that will be effective?

"That One" may have wrapped this up.

http://pufferfish.typepad.com/

Sorry, Greg. But I disagree on the "low-key" point. I think that's what CNN and other channels are trying to say right now, perhaps in an effort to make the race seem closer than it really is. I'll paste my comment from the previous thread here to explain why I think this way:

I think as liberals (or progressives, or whatever the fuck you want to call yourself) we're WAY too cautious. I felt that way while following Josh's live blog during the debate. He was indicating that Obama was winning, but only cautiously so.

I'll say this: I think it was a slaughter. There are no bullets left in McCain's gun. He repeated things from the last debate ("I looked into his eyes and saw three letters k-g-b") that just made him sound like he had nothing to offer. He even did damage to his own base by offering to, in their eyes, socialize mortgages.

It was a fucking wipe-out, folks. Don't believe the hype that would pretend things are still close.