EDIT: Wow, that was an experience. I’m not sure if it was successful or not, but kind of fun. Although it made it hard to actually pay attention to what the candidates were saying. I’ll have to think about whether or not I want to watch or type next time. 

I’ve never done this before, so bear with me.

Pre-Debate Thoughts:
This just in from CNN: They’re having trouble finding black Republicans to interview. Shocking.
Why is the GOP watch party happening in some guy’s rumpus room?

9:02: Memo to CNN
There’s such a thing as too much realtime info. Why do I care about second-by-second reactions of undecided voters? How can they still be undecided?

Financial Recovery: 
Drink every time someone says “Great Depression” or compares Wall Street to Main Street. You’ll be buzzed in no time.

9:06: McCain gives a nod to bipartisanship. Meanwhile, the parties are butting heads over the package that he’s so happy about.

9:08: Give it to McCain. He’s honest about the fact that the economy is going to struggle for a long time. May not be politically expedient, but it’s upfront.

9:09: Obama is using the question “Do you like the package” to tout his own prescience. Kind of obnoxious.

9:10: Now McCain points out that a lot of people saw the problem coming. If it was such common knowledge, why didn’t they do anything sooner?!?!?!

9:11: It’s the Giuliani Magic Hour! Okay, not really.

9:12: McCain wants accountability. So does Obama. Everybody hugs and goes out for ice cream. Oh, wait.

9:13: It’s fun watching two millionaires pretend that they’re just like the guy who just got laid off from the auto plant.

9:14: McCain accepts Republican responsibility for increased government and spending. It’s sad to see the maverick thing has become just another campaign tactic.

9:15: Earmarks really means taxpayer-stabbers, apparently.

9:16: Obama points out the amount of earmarks compared to total budget.

9:17: Trickle-down generally means that poor people get pissed on. But that’s just my opinion.

9:18: Tax cuts, healthcare.

9:19: I’ll cut more earmarks spending. No, I will. No, I will!

9:20: Moderator keeps trying to get them to talk to each other, but they’re posturing for the camera. Of course.

9:21: Gee, the CNN audience folks like it when they talk tax cuts. Modern technology is wonderful.

9:22: Guess what guys, you both meet anybody’s definition of “rich.”

9:23: I know that there ARE tax loopholes, but I wish somebody would give details about just one, instead of calling out the whole practice.

9:24: The person who wins is the one who can diverge the farthest from the question or his opponent’s previous point without looking like a total asshole.

9:26: Back to the package. Heh. Package.

9:27: Why ask about budget specifics when the economy (and tax revenues) isn’t even close to bottoming out. Sooooo, Obama goes off on a tangent about things he wants to do. Kind of the opposite of the question. No, wait, not kind of, EXACTLY the opposite of the question.

9:28: Liberal shouldn’t be a dirty word. Thanks, biased media. Wait…

9:29: McCain is at least staying in the same zip code as the question by discussing vague spending cuts.

9:30: I haven’t been watching very closely (I’m not a touch-typer), but I’m pretty sure that the range of reaction from the audience indicator has been from “pretty great” to “awesome.” Are they undecided because they just want to snuggle both candidates?

9:31: Someone finally says “George Bush.” Shockingly, it isn’t McCain.

9:32: Crabby McMicrophone tries one more time to get them to engage each other.

9:33: A spending freeze? Good luck selling that.
Someone finally says “Iraq.” Shockingly, it isn’t McCain.

9:34: Where did nuclear power come from? I think McCain’s got a point, but he had to phone out to get it delivered from the backyard of the question.

9:35: Your priority is to raise money to get re-elected. Duh.

9:36: John McCain is THE ANTI-SPENDER!

9:37: Hah hah hah. Orgy of spending.

9:38: It’s interesting that McCain has to give a laundry list of items with which he disagrees with the president from his own party.

9:39: Iraq was badly mishandled. Thanks you captain McObvious.

9:40: We’re winning in Iraq. How comforting.

9:41: Someone finally says “Bin Laden.” Shockingly, it isn’t McCain.

9:42: A trillion dollars. A TRILLION DOLLARS. *vomit*

9:43: The Surge.

9:44: It was only necessary because the rest of the war was fucked up so badly.

9:45: Yes John, the voters are worried about the definitions of “strategy” and “tactic.”

9:46: If General Petraeus (sp?) is so awesome, why isn’t HE running for President?

9:48: 16 month timeline. I hope he can stick to that if he’s elected.

9:49: Iraq is only the “central battleground” because went in on false premises!

9:50: Afghanistan; isn’t that in southern Iraq?

9:52: I wonder if Obama’s better pronunciations of Afghanistan and Pakistan will help or hurt him.

9:53: Holy crap, McCain just acknowledged that we’re the reason why Afghanistan was so fucked up in the first place. Good for him. Also, McCain thinks everyone he quotes from is “great.”

9:54: The Taliban doesn’t want Pakistan to cooperate with the U.S. Who knew?

9:55: OMG OBAMA IS A WARMONGER! HE TOTALLY WANTS TO BOMB PAKISTAN!

9:56: The U.S. supports dictators who agrees with its policies. Who knew?

9:57: Oh yes, John, please defend Musharref. (sp?)
Really? You admire Ronald Reagan the most of anybody? Zombie Lincoln does not approve.

9:58: Okay, yes, you know how to wage war. Go be a General.

9:59: Somebody finally says “I met the mother of a dead soldier.” Shocklingly, it is McCain.

10:00: It’s the battle of the bracelets!
No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain? Methinks a lot of Vietnam vets would disagree. 

10:01: From now on, the new leading front in the war on terror is in my bathroom. Scrubbing bubbles can clean up any mess.

10:02: If we don’t set a date for withdrawal, what do we do? Just sneak out in the middle of the night?

10:03: Iran. Come on John, give us some Beach Boys.

10:04: A League of Democracies. I’ll be buggered, I can’t come up with a joke about that.

10:05: Multilateralism is all of a sudden a Republican priority?

10:06: Thanks astronauts that both of them can pronounce “nuclear.”

10:07: Sanctions without Russia and China are like using a wet tissue. It looks adequate until it fails utterly.

10:08: Negotiation doesn’t mean approbation. I looked it up.

10:09: Nixon going to China was also preceded by by the U.S. Olympic Table Tennis Team’s visit.

10:10: A Democrat appealing to the authority of Henry Kissinger. I think I just had a stroke.

10:11: Nuclear, nuclear, nuclear. I’d let either of these guys install a reactor in my taint if they just keep saying it right.

10:13: So it’s okay to negotiate as long as it’s done by diplomats who nobody cares about?

10:14: Zombie Reagan loves you, John.

10:15: John McCain has known Henry Kissinger since the Stone Age. Obama should just let it go.

10:16: Russia. Man, remember the cold war? Those were the days.

10:17: Thanks for the geography lesson, Barack.

10:18: Russia is fueled by petroleum and run by its intelligence service. I bet they wiretap without warrants and everything.

10:20: The Russians need to GET OFF OUR LAWN!

10:21: The Russians were planning ahead to invade Georgia, but they didn’t bother to invent WMDs to justify it. Silly Russians.

10:22: I don’t know that bragging about spending a billion dollarsto fix the Georgian economy is a good thing right now. Unless that money was spent buying peaches in Atlanta.

10:23: I wonder how much oil we actually buy from Russia. Obama said nuclear again. *swoon*

10:24: Drilling is a bridge. Republicans (and Alaskans) know all about bridges.

10:25: We have to store nuclear waste safely. Thanks you, Captain Obovious.

10:26: 9/11. Did somebody say Giuliani? Here goes the Republican candidate, talking about how he differs with the Republican president. Poor George.

10:27: We have to do better at human intelligence. Can we get some intelligent humans first? *rimshot*

10:28: Nuclear proliferation. Missile defense. Port security. Can’t we just shrink-wrap the whole country and be done with it?

10:30: The fact that Ronald Reagan didn’t understand missile defense technology wasn’t grossly incompetent, it was visionary. Who knew?

10:31: There’s the withdrawal date again. I’m out of jokes on that one.

10:32: Wait, other countries have foreign policies? I call shenanigans.

10:33: Science and Technology are national security issues. Huzzah.

10:34: McCain is seriously trying to suggest that Obama is more like Bush than he is. Let’s play the “Who Loves Veterans More?” game. John will have them all in for a sleepover.

10:36: I have to hand it to McCain, he waited this long to mention his POW experience, and it was actually in context.

10:37: I’d love to see one candidate deck the other instead of shaking hands.

10:38: Or a potential First Lady catfight.

What?

Tags: Barack Obama, debate, election, John McCain

This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Panic!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.