I think it’s safe to say that those of us who support Barack Obama are starting to feel pretty good right about now.  The poll numbers look good so far, the issues are against the McCain-Palin ticket and the momentum seems to be heading our way.  But before we get too used to success, let us remember our friend the cyclist and wait to celebrate until after the finish line:

Well, well.  John McCain plans to play rough, and Barack Obama responds, and then some:

At least Barack Obama knows how to stay on the issues.

Looking back on the debate, there’s not a lot in the way of real blood-letting to be taken away from this debate.  I think whether you think Barack or John won will be based largely on style or personal preference.

On the other hand, it was McCain’s debate to lose.  He’s in a hole right now, and he needed to look better than expected.  I’m not sure he did that, and I’m not sure there was a lot to inspire confidence in those whose confidence he lost.  He didn’t look at Obama, he laughed weirdly, and despite Barack Obama’s many compliments and attempts to engage in discourse, McCain could not bring himself to return the favour.  Frankly, it looked petulant and unpresidential.

Overall, my personal feeling is that this was roughly a draw, but practically a loss for McCain.  Not a win for Obama, precisely, but a loss of opportunity for McCain.

I’ll be live blogging this evening’s debate here at home.  I’m monitoring my Twitter with the phone, watching MSNBC for the debate, and have a few windows open on a few blogs to get thier reactions.  Stick with me and keep me posted in the comments!

9:03: funny that Jim Lehrer felt the need to justify the economic questions as foreign policy.  Was anyone going to be disappointed if he talked about the economy?

9:07 ~ Failures on Main Street?  That’s coming back in a commercial by the end of the night.

9:10 ~ Oh, cripe.  Here we go with the “I also did that” crap from McCain.  He has been absent or actively against any plan for regulation since he went into office (the office held formerly by Barry Goldwater, don’t forget.).  What is this crap about Normandy.  Jesus.

9:18 ~ John is trying his best to make earmarks what matter in this debate.  Hey, they’re important, but his tax cuts are worse.  McCain’s rhetorical skills are sharp.  But it seems like he talks a lot and says very little.  Hence he refuses to talk directly to Obama.  Jeeze, he wanted to ride in an airplane with him and go to town hall meetings?  Seriously?:

9:24 ~ Hit him with the regulation stuff, Obama!  Hard!

9:26 ~ Didn’t some one tell John to stop frickin’ laughing?  He looks like an idiot at best.

9:30 ~ Delving into obscura of military spending isn’t exactly the best method of looking strong on the economy.

9:33 ~ Both candidates are kind of dancing around the issue of what changes in their administration as a result of the economic crisis.  At least Obama talked about Iraq, finally.  John wants to take money out of our foreign aid.  We give less per capital to foriegn aid than any other industrial nation.

9:39 ~ I’m not sure there actually is a “Miss Congeniality” election within the Senate, is there?  And man, is it just sad to hear a person call themselves a maverick like McCain just did.  Holy crap does this sound desparate.

9:45 ~ John McCain will not look at Barack Obama at all.  If you recall, he fucking hates Obama.  And he’s getting pissed.  That’s not good for McCain.

9:48 ~ John McCain’s election law in Iraq?  Provincial elections.  Wow, that’s great.  I guess we’re almost done, so can we leave?

9:56 ~ Bomb, bomb, bomb.  Bomb, bomb McCain!!

9:59 ~ “About bombing Iran, and all that. . .”  Where is he going with this?  Sometimes he goes for war, some times he doesn’t?  Oh, here comes Wolfbourough, NE.  Bring out yer dead!

10:04 ~ When you repeat the question as an answer, it’s a stall, John.

10:09 ~ Ackmajinidinijuni. . . . .

10:13 ~ Spain!  You knew that had to come up.

10:14 ~ Um, John?  If you talk to insane people, they will insist that everyone who disagrees with their world view simply doesn’t understand.  “What Senator Obama doesn’t seem to understand is. . . “  Watch yourself, there, Corky.

10:19 ~ Lack of Understanding Watch 2008 officially begins. . . . . nnnnnnnow. . . .

10:25 ~ My wife felt compelled to point out, and I have to say again, John McCain snickering and laughing with everything he disagrees with is not only not attractive, it’s not very presidential.  In fact, it looks a little sleazy.  It didn’t look good during the Republican debates and it looks even worse when he’s not facing dolts.

10:32 ~ Again with the understanding thing.  And what the hell is he talking about with SDI?  That was the biggest joke of the decade and began after nuclear talks began with the USSR.

10:35 ~ SDI!  I can’t believe it.  Remember Star Wars?  Obi Ron Kenobi?

10:38 ~ Fucking A, with the Vietnam shit.  POW!  POW! POW!

By the way, check out Andrea Mitchell’s hair.  Whoo.  And it’s funny that she reported on this story and now acts like she doesn’t even remember it.  And let me direct you to my post of a few days ago.  Watching this video, keep in mind that the only thing John McCain wanted to fix was what got him into trouble, not the basic dirty dealing of the scandal.  And also keep in mind that, despite having self-flaggelated on the lobbyists and campaign money front for the public’s amusement, he’s still got active lobbyists in his campaign.

Looks like there’s no crisis too big for John McCain to avoid playing politics with:

Political Radar: Stephanopoulos: McCain Holds Key to Administration’s Bailout Passage on Capitol Hill

ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos reports: If Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain doesn’t vote for the Bush administration’s $700 billion economic bailout plan, some Republican and Democratic congressional leaders tell ABC News the plan won’t pass.

“This is a huge crisis. We know, in the words of many  experts and mine, this is the greatest financial crisis since World War II. So to somehow, for the Democrats to say that their vote is going to be gauged on my vote frankly doesn’t do them a great deal of credit.”

Funny thing: no one knows how this plan will turn out - if indeed it passes - till well after the election.  I understand that Republicans are hoping to paint this as the Mother of All Tax and Spend Liberal Proposals, but until the bill passes and until it’s proven to be a failure, how does this not come across as the Mother of All Republican Deregulation Fuck Ups?

Am I missing something?

Talking Points Memo has both the video and the quote of Jonathan Alter critiquing John McCain’s reaction to the Keating Five scandal.  I’d like to amplify his comments slightly, if I could.  First, the quote:

Talking Points Memo

[Y]ou remember the Keating Five scandal that he was a part of, which, by the way, it’s crazy but there’s been very little about it in the press in the last few weeks. And McCain thinks he’s getting a hard time, he’s really getting a free ride on the fact that he was in the middle of the last great financial scandal in our country. But his reaction to that, you would have thought, would have been more regulation of the financial services industry. Instead he moved forward on campaign finance reform after being caught in that scandal, but did nothing - nothing - to try to prevent another savings and loan crisis from happening down the road. He was missing in action when it came to even learning the basic lessons of a scandal that he said taught him all kinds of things that he would never forget.

To put this another way, John McCain’s signature reform initiative was entirely narcissistic and self-flagellating.  The largest scandal in our nation’s financial history since the Great Depression, now dwarfed by our current crisis, meant nothing to his sense of reform.  He made no attempts whatsoever to reform the financial system that was at the root of the problem - indeed, he spent the rest of his time in Washington actively working against regulations that might have prevented our current crisis.  Rather, the important take-away from his experience with Keating and lobbyists was that getting involved with lobbyists might get you into trouble.

Early voting has already started in a number of states.  Can you imagine?  You can vote before watching even one debate.  I realize many of us have already made up our minds, but is it really good for our nation’s sense of civics that people are not even bothering to weigh what they see in these debates?

Or are we just fooling ourselves in thinking debates have any real impact anymore?

Remember when John McCain was running for president?  Gosh, it seems like a long time ago.  I think these days, he’s standing in for either Sacha Baron Cohen or Andy Kaufmann, I can’t tell which.

Here’s John’s deregulatory theory of Health Care reform, which he predicts will make it work at least as well as the banking industry.

We should hope.

John McCain demands that the chairman of the FEC step down.  Based on context, we’re pretty sure he meant the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and not the FEC (Federal Elections Commission).  And now he’s corrected himself from yesterday demanding that the president fire him, which he cannot do.  But hey!  Maybe he really did mean the FEC.  Lord knows the man has had his troubles with the FEC.