Another step closer folks.

Heads down and pocket books open. It ain't over 'til its over.

according to david gergen on cnn we have to subtract 6 points because of Obama's "blackness"...no kidding...his "blackness"

WHAT IS WITH THE MCCAIN WHISTLING NOISES? I didn't watch the debate, but my mom caught a bit of it and was immediately put off by the horror of all the whistling noises coming from McCain's teeth as he talks. After she told me, I watched a few moments, and I was similarly grossed out.

I spent my evening watching quality television--"Janice Dickinson's Modeling Agency"--but if I'd had nothing good to watch I still might not have watched the debate because of...THE HORROR...THE HORROR...OF THE WHISTLING TEETH!!!!

Is he Terry Thomas, or something???

I don't mind saying this, because it is well after family hour, but...

I am totally rock hard right now.

What a debate. Second only to the Clinton-Bush-Perot debate in 1992, when Clinton sealed the deal.

what the fuck mccain meant by " that one "

McCain is fortunate that there weren't a series townhall debates.

My immediate reaction upon the conclusion of the debate, as told to my wife, was, "Another tie". I was wrong on the first one when I said the same thing. Then I saw David Brooks (we were watching PBS) say that he thought Obama won. I thought, "Well, if Brooks says Obama won, it must be the opposite". It appears, based on both the polls and pundit reax, that Obama did, in fact, win.

Good for us. Although this was kind of boring.

I watched the vid 3 times and no he did not shake hands with Obama - no he didn't.

He directed Obama to Cindy, they shook hands and McLame had already withdrawn his hand. He is not going to touch "that one."

Pat PukeCannon says McCain won.

On another note: Pat PukeCannon also thinks that the Confederacy won.

Unless Obama wipes his rear end with the American flag during the final debate, I'm uh...cautiously optimistic.

Did anyone else have this impression of McCain.

It could not stop thinking that John McCain was hopped up on something. He just could not sit still, or stand still. His eyes look like squirrel piss holes in the snow.

They had him juiced to the max.

It looks like their internal tracking polls told them that their terrorist smears were backfiring, since he did not even hint at it tonight.

Obama nailed it on all fronts. McCain came off as a bizarre mix of condescending, befuddled, mean, smarmy and doddering.

On Gergan's take off six points for blackness,,,,, that jives with Willie Brown's observation that you take off seven to ten points for blackness and for a woman anytime in American politics.

At the end of the day, McCain is kind of a dick. I really don't like to be that crass, but it is the only word that really fits.

McCain is a dick.

Healthcare. One moment where I actually perked up. And yeah, on that topic, I think Obama killed.

/That's the Bradley Effect Bullshit - based on one fucking election over 20 years ago -'

On the other hand, Debbie Wassermann-Schulz was saying last night on Rachel Maddow's show that the polls are way off - that Obama is ahead by at least 12 points - not 7.

You can believe the bad shit based on a mayoral race in the 80s or you can believe what's happening.

The debate sucked. It was the same points, charges, falsehoods, etc from the first debate. Was there anything new here? I'm not looking forward to the next one. My prediction - the next one will be EXACTLY like the first two. I can't wait for this to be over.

Here's what the "punditry" should be talking about tomorrow: McCain walked out at the end while Barack and Michelle walked around the audience, shaking hands, taking pictures, CONNECTING to the voters there. What does that say about McCain? Did he have to get to his nap?

The most important snap poll, for me, occurred before the debate. My elderly life-long republican parents (91 an 86) had already made up their mind that Obama is the one "to get us out of this mess."

This is huge!!! That means Obama has turned around folks who were totally taken in by Palin initially.

My 91 year old father is completely convinced Obama will win. And he's gonna vote for him!

So convinced are these two elderly voters that they were not even going to watch the debate. They assumed Obama would win!

Meh, I'm over hating on McCain for his "That one" or "maybe not shaking Obama's hand" moments. Of course I'll probably hate his guts tomorrow when he does or says something ridiculous, but I just saw an old man tonight - his wandering around because he couldn't get comfortable in the chair, having to lean on anything for support after standing for too long. And old man who's time has passed.

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.

McCain was creepy - he was creepier than ever tonight.

Yeah, but after 9-11 everybody thought the creepy guys could save us. But maybe it's really going to come to an end. I thought I would go first.

Update the CBS:

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/07/politics/horserace/entry4508356.shtml

"Forty percent of the 516 uncommitted voters surveyed identified Barack Obama as tonight's winner; 26 percent said John McCain won, while 34 percent saw the debate as a draw."

The earlier 39-27 was from around 400 uncommitted voters, at least when I heard it on KO's show. Basically when getting more in, 1% flipped to Obama.

John

On substance, McCain's answers were just plain awful.

Watch his answer on Pakistan and Osama bin Laden again, and tell me how his position is different from Obama's, and how he's not hinting that he would do exactly what Obama has said, only while trying to attack Obama for saying so... huh??? It's ridiculous.

He's completely pretzeled himself while trying to attack on the issue.

And sorry to Hillary supports, no offense please, but that didn't work for her on the exact same subject and exact same attack. So why is McCain repeating it? Way to unlearn obvious lessons and make the same mistakes.

Buchanan ought to know that the "Bradley Effect" turns out not to be about respondents saying one thing to pollsters but voting differently when no one is looking. Better analysis of that wrong forecast found that the contacts who REFUSE TO BE INTERVIEWED are more likely to be suspicious of "others", and conservative at the polls, ie: those who answer polls are not representative of the whole electorate. Similar miscalculations during the early primaries underestimated the strength of Obama support. One could have posited a "Hillary Effect" where voters who SAID they would vote for a woman wouldn't follow through, or a "Barack Effect", where voters were MORE likely to support a black candidate than they let on. But the answer was more prosaic polss underestimated the number of younger voters, and missed those with only cell phones. Buchanan knows this. His 6% comment is meant to legitimize racism to those still uncertain whether to let it go and vote for Barack..

this was a mauling.

I am so sick of hearing McCain say "I know how to (fill in the blank)." He doesn't actually say how he's going to win wars, solve social security, or whatever. He just says he knows how to do it, with this attitude that we're idiots for even asking the question.

If he knows how to do this stuff, why hasn't he done it yet? I'm sick of people acting like solving these problems are easy. (And he did say social security was easy to fix!)

Watching the re-broadcast now.

WTF was up with McCain when asked who he'd appoint to handle the economic crisis? He was obviously taken off guard and paused. He compensated for that moment of insecurity by answering "not you Tom." yuk yuk yuk.

Who does that remind of? What recent US President feels the need to make dicky jokes whenever he feels insecure?

And best of all, who does he mention first off as a possible choice? "Warren Buffett, who is supporting Obama."

Ugh.

If anyone had "My Friends" in their drinking game, they would be headed for the hospital right now with alcohol poisoning.

Damn, he sucks.

Tena,

In the clip TPM showed, McCain clearly did not shake and directed Obama to Cindy. But they DID shake - rather heartily - right after the debate before brokaw told them to get out of his way.

Time for a new "that one" avatar

I have this odd sense that neither Obama nor McCain is going to get elected. Like maybe by some strange twist of fate it will end up being Mr. Belvedere. Just sayin'.

Obama was great. He had substantive answers and he was clever about how he framed them, with genuine and pitch-perfect language that will draw in the voters he's had the most trouble with, working class middle America.

McCain is running on fumes with no useful initiatives to promote and at a time when more and more Americans are being turned off by Culture War flame-throwers.

But, my favorite (least favorite?) McCainism is the answer that basically goes "We should do this and that and this other gee-whiz thing because we're Americans and we're the greatest people that ever lived." He used that crap formula at least 4 times and I'm already tired of it from previous appearances. My response to McCain is, stopping telling me how great I am you ass kisser and give me some specifics about what you're going to do.

Still watching the rebroadcast... Reminded that McCain really stank.

McCain on bipartisanship? "I'm not that popular in my own party."

McCain on the environment? "I supported legislation on the environment, the bad news, it failed."

His answer on nuclear power? "I was on Navy nuclear ships" ... and "Obama wants nuclear to be clean, or safe, or something"

What's the message there?

Vote McCain cause he's unpopular, ineffective, and neither clean nor safe? WTF?

It's an embarrassment our media is so equivocating that despite all the polls making it clear Obama won overwhelmingly with everyone but the Republican base, none of the MSM has the guts to admit McCain bombed. Badly.

I couldn't believe when CNN's undecided voters agreed that Obama had won but then said, 14 to 11, that if they had to vote today it would be for McCain. They should have asked them to explain. Racism or what?

Another thing I noticed on the rebroadcast: Obama speaks clearly and persuasively, and does so in adult tones. McCain, and especially Palin, speak in whispery baby-talk voices. It's very condescending and annoying.

Final comment: McCain, even in his closing comments, is just imitation Obama.

He's for change now, too. (despite going with the Republicans on every major issue over the last 26 years.)

He's for regulation now, too. (despite being continually for deregulation for his entire political career.)

He had it tough growing up, now, too. (despite being the 3rd generation of Navy 4 star Admirals that was on the Washington cocktail circuit, attending a $40K/year boarding school, and having his entire Navy career greased despite multiple failures, academic and literally multiple plane crashes due to negligence on training flights which would end the career of any other Navy pilot.)

And best of all... in his closing speech, after Obama talked about being raised by a single mother and grandparents of modest means, McCain says he was also raised by his mother.

:rolleyes:

McPhoney, McLame, McFraud.

McCain is pathological .

The part of his pathology that creeps me out is his "little boy" voice. The voice he's used all his life when he's crashed a plane, or been caught at something, and needs to display remorse, without being remorseful.

This the second debate where McCain hasn't worn his flag pin. He clearly hates America.

"That One" T-shirt at http://www.thatone08.com.

I have nothing to do with the company that is selling them.

At one point McCain was up wandering around while Obama was speaking.

Yeah, I noticed that, too. My impression was that he was reluctant to let Obama have the spotlight all to himself, but it's also quite possible, as others here have said, that he was simply unable to completely contain himself when Obama was voicing criticism of him.

Livia, Tony Soprano's mom used to refer to others as "this one" and "that one", rather than use proper names. I don't know if this means that McCain is as balanced as a fictional scheming sociopath, or what. I'm only saying.

I have to agree with Zod. I'm not convinced that there will be an election. As it looks like McCain will fail to secure a third Bush term, then a literal third Bush term could be forced on us from the barrel of a gun wielded by own military.

Watch this interview withNaomi Wolf. Sure, she's excitable and comes off as a wingnut, but she makes some great points and connects the dots.

Strange that McCain chose to praise the "Afghan freedom fighters" (now known as al Qaeda) in last night's debate.

Mccain has been in congress forever, it seems; and he claims himself to be a foreign policy expert who "bucks" his own party. I don't remember hearing a peep out of him, during all those years when our government was creating the monsters we are now finding it necessary to waste "blood and treasure" fighting. What was McCain's judgment, when we were propping up Saaddam Hussein in Iraq's war against Iran? Where did he stand when we were sending weapons and support to the Arab known as Osama bin Laden who was so bravely leading those brave "afghan freedom fighters" against Russia, in Afghanistan? And, he was certainly a party-liner when it came to Nicaragua, Chile and the rest of Latin America.

This website, PollTrack has a really interesting post about snap polls: http://www.polltrack.com/post/226-those-pesky-snap-polls. You have to be really careful with snap polls. Since they only sample TV debate viewers, respondents tend to be older, have higher income and more education than the general public.