Quick 8: Reactions to the Last Debate

1. MyDD's Todd Beeton: "McCain is such a sad little man."
2. Trapper John at the Daily Kos: "Barack Obama Is a Phenomenally Cool Guy. Nothing can ruffle Barack Obama."
3. Media Matters' Jamison Foser: "Schieffer just suggested McCain and Obama have been equally negative during this campaign. As false equivilencies go, that's about as bad as you can get."
4. SilentPatriot at Crooks and Liars: "The dials love Obama talking about Detroit making the cars of the future. Obama really needs to run more positive, 21st century-themed ads. The one during the Olympics was great."
5. kos: "I'll let the snap polls determine who 'won' the debate, but no matter what they proclaim, this race is pretty much over."
6. MyDDs Josh Orton: "McCain's lacking any specific theme. He's going one way or the other trying to goad Obama into responding poorly, but he's not really laying any specific narrative. And this might be McCain's larger problem - no one has a reason to vote for him, and his arguments for not voting for Obama aren't working."
7. MissLaura at The Daily Kos: "There is no way we will ever be able to say enough about the look on John McCain's face when Obama looked warmly out at Joe the Hypothetical Plumber and said Joe's fine would be zero. Total, stunned, befuddled, hit in the face with a board, I do not think McCain's people told him that answer was possible."
8. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo: "McCain's just angry and contemptuous of Obama. And you can see that the whole campaign has just gotten under his skin. Like I said at the beginning, when McCain said 'hurting and angry', I think a lot of people will think he was talking about himself."

I'll have my reactions up sometime in the morning. Good night all! (Anyone?)

Quick 8: Things to Look for at the Final Debate

1. John McCain will bring up Ayres because he doesn't like to be called a sissy. Obama will brush it off as only he can and the debate will move on. It won't kill the issue for the die hard right wingers, but for those American's with brains that function normally, it will be as dead as McCain's campaign.
2. Debate moderator Bob Schieffer will also attempt to prove himself by asserting himself as much as possible, especially if he feels the candidates are out of line. He's familiar with the criticism of Ifill and Brokaw and will try to prevent the same criticism from coming his way. The problem? If he goes to far, he will be, rightfully, accused of inserting himself into the debate.
3. Expect the economy to dominate the debate again and expect McCain to try and paint the Democrats as the party that's close to Wall Street and opposed to regulation.
4. McCain will again refer to his ability to reach across the aisle in order to get things done. Does he really think that after the campaign he's run that if he pulls out the win in November the Democrats will be willing to work with him?
5. I expect Obama to hit McCain even harder on health care than he did in the last debate. Although I would prefer single payer, and mandatory coverage, I do like Obama's plan. It would be a monumental step forward for this country.
6. I think that can also expect Obama to be much more aggressive in defending his tax policy. The McCain camp, abetted by he said/he said reporting in the media, has been touting the lies about Obama's plan. Obama will detail his plan in easy to understand language and eviscerate the old guy on the issue.
7. McCain will tell at least 4 verifiable lies. At least.
8. Polling in the immediate aftermath, and in the days that follow, will show that Barack Obama has won. Again. The pundits will proclaim that the debate was a tie. Again. The opinion of the average American on the debate will not be swayed by the pundits idiocy. Again.

Quick 8: Last Night’s Debate

1. “That one”? Seriously John? “That one”? Oh my, people do work quickly.
2. Did anyone think it was a good idea to let a senile old man wander around the stage for 90 minutes in the middle of a Presidential debate? That was their candidate? Yikes.
3. To elaborate on the joke in my last comment, John McCain is too freaking old to be President. Our last ancient President, scum bag garbage pig Ronald Reagan, set this country on the economic path to ruin. He’s a conservative icon because conservatives are desperate for icons and frankly, since maybe Dwight Eisenhower, have they had one worthy of admiration?
4. I said that John McCain didn’t have the guts to pull out the big guns against Obama. It would seem that all that slime that is OK for the campaign trail isn’t fit for a debate. Like most conservatives, John McCain is terrified to be himself in front of anything other than a partisan crowd. Why? He’d lose. Big.
5. Obama is so cool, calm and collected every time we see him on television. Isn’t this the type of leadership we need in a crisis?
6. As stated by Kos, you’ve got to love the instant polls that come out just minutes after the debate. The public gets to decide who wins, not a bunch of blowhard pundits.
7. Why didn’t McCain mention the prom queen last night? She’s much more popular with the conservatives than he is and it might have mitigated some of the anger the conservatives are feeling about his new, surprise, awesome, maverick (look at me, I can help the economy) mortgage refinance plan.
8. Obama won. Obviously. Again. Why doesn’t McCain just do the honorable thing and suspend his campaign permanently? Oh yeah. The man has no honor.