Live Blogging the presidential debate

I'm watching the pre-debate coverage, and I'm already bored. (And I'm even watching MSNBC) I dunno - the talking heads really just get under my skin after about 15 minutes.

Anyway, to occupy our time tonight between the dodging of questions, someone in our little gathering found a debate drinking game - it's as follows...

1. Every time John McCain says, "My friends..." take one drink.

2. Drink every time McCain says something about "America First" or "Country First"

3. Each reference to McCain's years as a P.O.W. - salute the TV, then drink

4. Every time Obama says the word "Change" make someone else (who is drinking) take a drink

5. Any reference to Maverick by either a pundit, moderator, or candidate drink twice.

6. Drink when either candidate starts their answer with "That's a great question..."

7. Drink if any candidate talks about some fictional or real person and their problems. (likely something involving a choice between diabetes medication and gas for her trip to see her blind grandchildren.)

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Okay, things are going to get started in a minute, so stay tuned...

By the way, I'm happy that Jim Leher is moderating - he's tough, but generally pretty fair - I anticipate more of the same tonight.

9:05: Leher is starting with a quote from Eisenhower - not a bad choice, I guess. He's a Republican I admire from history. Oh well, I can't think of anything else to say... yet.

9:06: Obama is going first, and he's addressing the financial crisis - and he's hitting the themes I was hoping he would - oversight, CEO pay, golden parachutes, and home owners. Bravo. Bonus: He's taking swipes at McCain already in his opening statement about his support of the Bush policies. Good - I want a sharp edge.

9:08: McCain's beginning seems sort of slow and unfocused. And really, I'm trying to be as objective as possible when it comes to analyzing the candidates tonight. Mac mentioned Ted Kennedy in his opening remarks - hmm, bipartisan much?

9:09: Obama is talking about how he wrote the Secretary of the Treasury a few years ago about the impending economic crisis - I hope this doesn't strike the electorate as being too opportunistic.

9:10: First whopper of the night - Mac is saying that he was criticized because he "called for the resignation of the chairman of the SEC." Um, no - he said that if he were president, he would "fire" the chairman of the SEC, a power that the president does not have over the SEC chair. I'll track down that video later - his statement wasn't taken out of context.

9:12: Obama has his elbows up tonight - he's already attacking McCain for the second time tonight by referring to the need for regulation not just when times are bad. Bonus for mentioning that McCain said 1o days ago that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong."

9:13: McCain just said that America is still "the greatest importer and exporter." Arrrnt - wrong. Right now we have an annual $800 billion trade deficit - there's nothing great about that, except the breathtaking burden to our children and grandchildren 100 years from now.

9:15: Now McCain's talking about earmarks -I can only wish that I could see a talking bubble above Obama's head - PALIN! PALIN! PALIN! Hit him where it hurts, Barack.

9:17: Okay, no mention of Palin by Obama, but he does mention that earmarks accounted for $18 billion in last year's budget - about a month and a half in Iraq and a dimple on the golf ball of our national budget. Nice. But, he should have clubbed McCain over the head about Palin.

9:18: Everyone in the room where I'm watching the debate is whooping about McCain's hypocrisy about earmarks, specifically Ted Stevens and Sarah Palin.

9:20: Wow - Leher is all but encouraging the two to slug it out in the middle of the stage, encouraging McCain to "respond to Obama." Anyway, McCain just talked about Ireland's economy. Non sequitur, anyone? Another whopper - Mac just said, "A lot of people would be interested in Senator Obama's definition of rich." HIT HIM, Barack - Mac just said last week that anyone earning $5 million and under is middle class. If only I could be so lucky.

9:23: I wish both candidates could spend some more time on their tax plans - there's a lot of misinformation out there, and a few minutes tonight aren't going to solve it.

Mac is doing his evil laugh for almost a straight minute - a pretty spirited exchange on taxes. Call it a draw. And I really do want to hear more about where Obama stands on capital gains. (I just made a mental note to come back to that over the weekend.)

9:27: Obama referring to health care and education - good, but he's short on specifics. I'm very happy to hear Barack mention infrastructure as well - I've been crying out for this for months now - but the big question - how's it all going to be paid for?

9:28: On to McCain's priorities... Here's red meat for Repubes: "Senator Obama is the most liberal member of the United States Senate. It's hard to reach acrosss the aisle from that far from the left." Somewhere, Karl Rove is masturbating. Hey, it got a laugh from Obama.

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Kudos to Leher for taking both candidates to task for not really answering the question about what should be cut as a result of the economic crisis. However, to be fair to both candidates, there are so many unknowns, it's a gotchya question that can just be used later to castigate the winner in November. Best to tread wisely here, candidates, and that's saying something; I'm seldom happy to hear the candidates not offer specifics.

9:33: McDrilly just threw a meatball over the plate - "I'm for a spending freeze, except for national defense and taking care of our veterans." Obama immediately retorts that "the problem with a spending freeze is that you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel. There are some programs that are underfunded that I would like to increase." Stick that, Mac. Bonus: Obama mentions the $10 billion we are spending per month in Iraq, which is a sorely under-discussed topic - the War in Iraq is having a devastating effect on our economy. A-men to that, and Obama would do well to keep stressing this, especially during the economy themed debate.

9:36: Here's the failure of Reganomics, straight from McSame's mouth - "Keeping taxes low is the best road to recovery." Oh, really? It hasn't worked during the Bush administration, and it didn't work during the Reagan and Bush I administrations. Who's going to pay for our $10-12 trillion debt, senator?

Oooh - Obama takes McCain to task about President Bush's presiding over an "orgy of spending." So far, it's the line of the night.

9:38: McSame just called himself "the Maverick of the Senate." Is there a puke bag in the house? Now he's droning on and on about winning the war in Iraq, and how we have won, and how the surge has won. I'd give a big toe to have a microphone into Obama's ear - I'd be nearly screaming to him: "Savage him about the 'success' of the surge - it's working because we are paying our enemies not to shoot us!" An inconvenient fact that our corporate media neglects like a red-headed stepchild.

9:43: McLame is now droning on and on and on (actually, he's filibustering) about the wild success of the surge and how we have "won" in Iraq - yea, we won the war, but we are losing the occupation, and we will never win the occupation - no country has ever won an occupation, ever.
(Obama would do well to integrate this line into his campaign stump speeches.)

YES - Obama is now attacking McCain about his rhetoric in Iraq - "Senator McCain thinks the war began in Iraq in 2007 - it started in 2003." Brilliant.

9:45: McCain is now filibustering, again.

9:47: Obama is going on a counter offensive about McCain's lies regarding his voting record in regard to our troops in Iraq. Bravo - he cannot and should not let these go unanswered. McCain keeps trying to interrupt, and I have to, in all honestly, give the edge to Obama here.

9:49: McCain just dropped another whopper: "General Petraeus and Osama bin Laden have one thing in common - that the central front in the War in Terror is in Iraq." Seriously?!? Well, had we never diverted resources, troops and forces to Iraq, a country that never posed a threat to us, the central front in the War on Terror would be right where it should be - and where bin Laden allegedly is - in Afghanistan.

Obama just mentioned that Iraq was not responsible for 9-11 - even though Repubes always allude that Iraq was connected to 9-11.

9:53: Wow - McCain just veered wildly off course on foreign policy with regard to Pakistan - that "Obama announced that he would launch strikes into Pakistan." Too bad President Bush gave himself the authority through a classified executive order in July 2008, to invade and conduct covert operations inside Pakistan. (Mental note to come back on this later.)

McCain just stated another lie - that Obama "stated that he would bomb Pakistan" - PRODUCE THE FOOTAGE where Obama said just that.

Obama came right back over the top toward McCain for singing songs about "bombing Iran" and "talking about bombing North Korea into extinction."

Now McCain is talking about his foreign policy record by taking us on a tour of his 25-year record regarding Iran, Kosovo, Bosnia, etc., and I can't possibly be the only person lost and bored here - what the hell was the question again?

10:00: Bonus to Obama for coming back at McCain after his filibustering about his foreign policy experience and his military service. "You know, John, I've got a bracelet, too..." as well as mentioning that "No one of our soldiers ever dies in vain." It's unfortunate that he has to continually repeat lines like these, but due to the Karl Rovian attacks from Repubes on the right, he must.

10:04: A serious exchange on Iran. McCain is on relatively solid ground here, to be fair, but his rhetoric now doesn't match what he's been saying during the past 6-8 months. I also didn't hear the word "diplomacy" one time during McCain's response. Obama responds about "punishing people by not talking to them" is not the right policy. Yes, yes, yes - that's been the Bush MO during his entire time in office, and it's proved to be a disaster in so many ways.

10:08: More red meat for the neocons: McCain just brought up the trite GOP line about Obama's mentioning "meeting without preconditions," but Obama's ready - Henry Kissinger, an adviser to the McCain campaign, recently said that we should meet with Iran unconditionally for talks.

10:14: Now McCain is coming unglued, and dare I say it, unpresidential - "Oh please!" in response to an Obama defense of McCain's deliberate mischaracterizations on his positions regarding diplomacy.

10:18: Bonus to Obama for mentioning that he's worked with Republican Senator Dick Luger regarding legislation regarding nuclear non-proliferation. So much for the GOP line about Obama never working with a Republican about anything. (Are you listening, Jim? Sorry - it's inside baseball - one of my conservative friends. Back to our program.)

10:18: McCain's now whining and complaining about the Russia and Georgia conflict. I have no doubt that McCain is trying and the Bush administration are both trying to instigate and provoke the Russians into another conflict. I'll never forget when the Russian/Georgia conflict began, and McCain said into news cameras, with a straight face, "We are all Georgians now." Someone's reality check bounced. Oh yea - and Dick Cheney was over in Georgia during the week of the GOP convention, and we gave Georgia $1 billion in U.S. funds. That's a lot of money, especially during our economic crisis. Let me frame it another way - I wonder how many people with struggling mortgages it could help?

Obama is missing a MAJOR, MAJOR opportunity here - the Georgians provoked the conflict, not the other way around. McCain also just said, with a straight face, "We must respect boundaries of sovereign nations." The US would do well (Republicans specifically) to do just that. Hypocrisy much?

10:24: Obama is now talking about energy, and McCain is now sniffing and huffing - just wondering - will it get the same treatment in the media as Al Gore's audible sighs during the 2000 debates.

Leher is not doing a good job controlling the candidates; Obama has done it some, but McCain has been talking over Obama all night.

10:26: The last question of the night is about "Another 9-11." Really? What a crock. Hey, what's a debate without a little fear mongering? The normally spot-on Leher just threw away his last question. And now McCain is trumpeting the 9-11 Commission, which was an outright disgrace and a farce - easily the worst commission since the Warren Commission.

10:29: Obama is talking about "restoring American's standing in the world. We are less respected than we were eight years ago, and four years ago." Diplomacy! What a concept.

10:30: McCain has just mentioned Ronald Reagan... again. Seriously, enough already. As Bill Maher so famously said, "I think Republicans renamed one of the airports in D.C. after him so Republicans can coo, 'I'm coooooming into Reeeagan!'"

Obama clearly has a pretty good grasp on the issues, and he's winding up the night by connecting the dots - all of the money we are spending unnecessarily (specifically in Iraq) is tied to national security. It's about time. He would have done better to mention Iraq's economic surplus.

I really do wish that Obama would make the point that it's not about losing the war, it's about losing the occupation, which no country has ever won.

McCain is ending the night just as he began it, babbling about the surge. Mac is doing just about everything but telling us the size of his genitals - stating his entire résumé. Big deal - when you're been wrong about Iran, when you've been wrong about Iraq, your résumé is irrelevant at best.

Mac is ending the night with a POW reference - what a surprise. I can't believe it's taken him this long, actually. I've been saying it for months: POW ≠ POTUS.

That's it - much more to come later tonight and tomorrow. Now, it's off to listen to the insta-pundits and polls - it should take about 8 minutes to declare a winner from tonight's debate.