Debate Liveblog

7:41 PM (seenos): I’ll sign off for now, but as a parting shot, let me say that this seemed like the most inane debate format I’ve ever seen. What’s the point of having a “town hall” when the moderator is constantly cracking the whip to prevent any informal discussion between the candidates, or interaction with the audience. They could have saved a lot of money and effort and just held the debate via videoconferencing.

7:36 PM (seenos): Too bad debates aren’t won or lost based on an ability to inhale inaudibly Compared to McCain and Brokaw constantly sucking air past the microphone, Obama looked like he should be out riding with Lance Armstrong!

7:28 PM (seenos): When Ahmadinejad says that “Israel is a stinking corpse,” John McCain says “Hey, I resemble that remark!”

7:24 PM (seenos): I just switched to CNN, so now I’m too mesmerized by the favorability tracker at the bottom of the screen to keep liveblogging.

7:09 PM (seenos): McCain: “We need a cool hand at the tiller.” If ever there was a perfect opportunity for Obama to get up and say that he and McCain are in complete agreement, this was it!

7:01 PM (seenos): McCain: “We have gone to the four corners of the earth!” Someone tell him it’s not a big rectangle.

6:55 PM (seenos): Hey McCain: What the hell is a “refundable tax credit?”

6:44 PM (seenos):Brokaw is a stickler for the rules, except when he wants to alter the question to give his own editorial slant. He’s also mastered the delicate art of simultaneously talking and gargling! He must have the minty freshest breath of any debate moderator in history!

6:35 PM (seenos): Obama seems like he has been working on his pacing, giving up some of the pauses that usually mean he’s choosing the perfect words to express his point. In this format, it’s more important to smoothly transition from thought to thought, even if it means drifting from the original question.

6:30 PM (seenos): McCain is going to ask Americans to sacrifice by giving up education, health care and the ability to retire before they drop dead.

6:25 PM (seenos): For the sake of the audience members, I hope McCain used some breath freshener. He’s getting much closer than I would feel comfortable having him.

6:15 PM (seenos): McCain’s vaunted skill at town hall style meetings appears notable only when compared to his wooden performance behind a podium. Repeating the questioners’ names while earnestly sticking his face in front of them isn’t all that effective.

6:01 PM (seenos): I heard today that Tom Brokaw dismissed any talk of the Keating Five Scandal as “ancient history.” I guess that means that he will be making sure both candidates talk only about what they intend to do for the future of America. Not!

5:35 PM (seenos): After today’s continued tanking of the stock market heading into tonight’s debate, let’s just say that Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the market appears to be giving John McCain the invisible finger!

I’m not quite sure how McCain is going to avoid talking about the economy, which his campaign has already admitted will cause him to lose! He may have no choice but to take a page from Sarah Palin’s playbook, and simply address the first townie in the hall who asks about the economy with a response like:

I’m just not going to answer the questions that you, a representative sample of the American people, want me to answer. Instead, I’m going to talk directly to the American people . . . who want to hear me talk about how Barack Obama is the Antichrist!

It promises to be quite an evening, and I’ll try my best to keep up a running series of, probably snarky, comments – at least until I snap and throw my laptop at the grinning, blinking, slime-spewing, not-really-my-friend, image of John McCain on the teevee!