The last debate

Still unsure if I can blog this, as the channels I have access to claim that they won't be covering it. Anyway...

Dramatis Personae
BS - Bob Shaeffer, moderator.
BS - Likely content of tonight's discussion.
BO - Barack Obama, pretender.
JM - John McCain, posttender.
TAP - The (much-venerated-never-questioned) American People

Quoting Zogby "The stagnant nature of this race comes as tonight’s final presidential debate looms. The first two presidential face-offs have been somewhat lackluster, failing to gain a television audience as large as the debate between the vice-presidential candidates, Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin. Tonight’s event is the last time Obama and McCain will stand on the same stage before the election."

McCain's last chance to talk in detail.

0:00:00 Shaefer finishes his nonsens, and they stroll on. This is a roundtable. The first question is "why's your economic plan beetter than his?"

0:01:00 McCain reprises his deathbed opening. I didn't hear who was sick this time (Kennedy in the last debate). But the prayers went up. There's a lot of eyelash flutter.

0:03:00 Obama hits the ground running with details. He's following the Palin formula of talking straight into the camera. He has won the debate in the first five minutes. Remarkable.

0:05:20 JM takes the first stab. It's the tax gambit. Incidentally, it revolves around a Joe-sixpack man whose name really is Joe. Supposedly, this man met BO at a rally. JM is doing the Palin thing too now. However belatedly.

Both of them are stressing the differences between themselves. This is JM's last chance to challenge BO's numbers.

0:07:30 BO marshalls independent studies to support his economic policies. So far, there's been nothing new, detail-wise.

0:09:00 remarkably, JM talks to the wrong camera. This is a suable offense.

0:10:30 JM has started fighting. BO looked tired in the last salvo. JM still hasn't found the camera.

0:11:30 Here's a reprise of the "what spending will you cut" question from the last debate.

0:12:50 BO defers the answer until his presidency "I want to go through the federal budget line-by-line," etc.

0:14:00 JM defeats the claim that he's an old man: "During the Depression WE had a thing called..." He gets back to his small government refrain. It's not seemed to work in the past.

0:16:40 Porky, the second debte mascot, makes a dramatic return. She's tackled the same way that BO's done in the past (perspective). So far, BO's been in control of the debate. Ironically, he looks more grandfatherly, which helps in these fragile times.


0:18:00 JM delivers his first attempt at soundbite of the evening "Senator Obama, I'm not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."

0:21:00 BO turns the soundbite around. He's forced JM to show his pen, which makes him look out of control. This debate is turning into a game changer. But not for Arizona.

0:22:30 Bob Shaeffer (should I call him BS?) asks about the campaign dirt.

0:23:30 BO sneers at the townhall idea. Potential gaffe there. He goes on to dismiss the importance of tone in the debate.

(I only just got to make this blog at the eleventh hour. So it was unprepared. None of the fanfare from the last time. So far, this seems like a more robust version of the last one. So I'm tiring of it.)

0:33:30 JM dredges up the dirt on BO. Who said that negative character portrayals are off the Ayre? Then BO dispatches elegantly. That should be the end of this issue now. BO sneers a little more. Then BS turns the corner.

0:42:00 Some droll remarks about the veeps.

Someone should have taught McCain how to speak slowly. TAP don't like no edgy folk. Even Bush knew this.

Next cycle we should have live audience tracking, to work out for how long people stay tuned into the debates. And at what points they opt out.

I don't know how JM intended to sit through ten townhall debates with such a small stock of ideas.

0:58:00 BREAKTHROUGH - BO says "zero", and JM's jaw drops. It's a long story, though. They're talking healthcare. BO is on top of the details. JM has raced through various options that he didn't seem enthused about. it sounds as if the reigning expert on the McCain healthacre plan is Barack Obama.

1:04:00 Talking judges. After telling us at Saddleback that he didn't like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, JM now proudly reveals that he voted for her.

1:13:00 Mercifully, the last question arrives.

1:24:00 "Gentleman, we have come to the close". JM lies first: "I think we have had a very healthy discussion." Finally he finds the right camera. (Or it finds him.)

Interestingly, JM focuses on his long history, and BO on his short one.

BO wins this one on a clear points decision. It's the first debate with a clear outcome.

G'night.