The Third Presidential Debate - LIVE ELECTION DEBATE - TIME:
10:37 p.m. - Karen Tumulty: Wrapup: There was no new ground broken. This seemed to me to be McCain’s strongest and most coherent performance in these debates, and he was doing a better job of articulating a big vision. compared to his previous performances. not compared to Obama, who -I'm with kos on this- just on another level. However, I think what people are going to take away from it is—once again—the demeanor of the two candidates in the cutaway shots. Obama seemed cool and collected, while McCain’s grimaces were painful to watch.
10:34 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: In summary: Obama was cooler and clearer; he didn't laugh at his own jokes, and he didn't look like his head was about to explode. But mostly he's just got a better hand to play. no, mostly he's got a first class temperament (not to mention intellect) and McCain has a pretty lousy one. When historians look back at this election they're going to say: the republican president was wildly unpopular, so the republican lost. and that will not give due credit to Obama's calm, his well-run campaign, and the hope he has inspired. but maybe they will not say that. I think President Obama could be a 'transformational president' in which case the story will be told of his remarkably coordinated ground campaign, and the people who he moved with his speeches, and...
0:31 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: My wrapup: For those who complained the last debate was dull—which I guess was all of us—it provided more sparks. ...
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10:26 p.m. - Karen Tumulty: McCain seems to be under the impression that Sarah Palin has an autistic child.
right, asllvn:
"Special Needs" - The Daily Dish 10:41 | By Andrew Sullivan
I was curious about McCain's apparent conflation of Down Syndrome and autism. They are very different ways of being human, but they do come under the same umbrella of "special needs" according to wkp.
Special Needs Children - The Daily Dish 10:57 pm | By Andrew Sullivan
A reader writes:
McCain’s most out of touch statement of the evening for me was his claim that Sarah Palin, with her four month old child with Downs Syndrome, knows more about special needs than anyone else he knows. My 12 year old daughter is autistic and I can tell you, at four months I knew next to nothing about the joys and heartbreak of raising a child with a disability.
At four months these kids are much like typical babies --- sweet, full of hope, and we related to them the same way relate to every other child we know. Ask parents of adults and teenagers with down syndrome or autism about what they know --- it is a different world.

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10:21 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: @KT: Here was my problem with "spreading the wealth" attack. It is shorthand that only signifies a bad thing to people who already agree with you. In itself, people don't hear "spreading the wealth" as a negative thing. is that right? I don't know. isn't it heard as bad by the rich, who do not want anybody to take their money, plus the aspiring rich, who do not want anyone to take anyone's money bcs they intend to have a lot one day -- and heard as good by people who see the others with piles of money just sitting in the frickin bank while meanwhile they are going into debt to afford the basics?
10:20 p.m. - Karen Tumulty: Isn't "throwing the money at the problem" sort of like "spreading the wealth"? Guess not, when you're talking about schools.
10:17 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: Split screen report: Obama has the gently bemused grin thing down -he thinks it';s so adorable that his opponent is wrong- I dunno, I like his serious frowning head shake better, but then ppl can find that condescending, or it can look like opponent getting to you. whereas John McCain looks like he sat on a tack in the split screen. Call it shallow, but people watch debates, they don't read them.
10:15 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: Dial group report 2: Um, Sen. McCain, women don't like it when you put "health of the mother" in air quotes.
10:04 p.m - Jim Poniewozik: It sounds like McCain is defending Joe the Plumber's right to deny health coverage to his employees. Possibly a persuasive argument to Joe. To everybody else... indeed. unless everybody else includes a lot of people making more than 250,000 a year, which I guess it does not, since they say most of everybody else is the 'middle class.' and what about McCain's "congratulations Joe, you're rich" bit?
10:00 p.m. - Karen Tumulty: Substance alert: McCain is flat-out lying about Obama's health care plan. It is not government-run health care, and looks nothing like the Canadian system. anyway, I've always heard ppl speak of Canadian healthcare enviously, as really good. is that not most people?

9:58 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: @jp: it's worse on tv, isn't it? It's the guy who's talking calmly to the camera vs the guy who looks like he's going to jump through the screen and bludgeon somebody.
9:55 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: I don't know how many people are listening on the radio, but when I look down to my laptop to type, I'm hearing: the mad guy versus the calm guy.int. hear it in voices as much as see it in their manner.
9:53 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: When I think of colombia, I think of a country that's really working hard to stop the flow of drugs into the us. Don't you? nice. again voicing my inchoate thought.
9:49 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: Warning: substance! The first new nuclear plant would not come on line until 2016 at the earliest. It won't do ANYTHING to reduce dependence on foreign oil in two terms.
9:48 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: The battle of the reaction shots is more interesting than the actual answers. Obama has the bemused chuckle down. McCain leans on the affronted eyebrow arch.
9:45 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: She understands that autism is on the rise. Well, allrighty then. They're talking about palin like she's going to be first lady. yes! that was my inchoate thought. like: here are the projects of special concern to her. and: I'm so proud of her.
also, Obama did specifically answer, ~ 'if heaven forbid sth were to happen to me, yes, Biden qualified, on core issues is where I am..' but I did not hear McCain assert that Palin would be good President, or anyth to that effect. just proud of her. and she's ignited the base.
... I suppose this debate seemed awesome to me, relative to the last ones, partly bcs of Schieffer's direct questions, and also bcs I was not distracted by them egregiously not answering the questions. overall, both McCain & Obama spoke to the specific questions. yay. ....

9:40 p.m. - Karen Tumulty: Schieffer now asking each candidate to contemplate his own death. This has to be a debate first. this one-two of the question about smear tactics, then this compare your VP as pres to his, that' when I thought: this debate is awesome. getting right to business. economy, then the water-cooler topics, then we can get back to other domestic issues - health care, education. but I love that Schieffer went direct on these two much talked about things, the campaigns (McCain's anit-Obama tactics), and the VP picks (McCain picked someone a lot of ppl see as unqualified. in usual classy strategic manner, Obama did not say this, when Schieffer asked if he tht Palin qualified. he went to the "up to the Amer ppl to judge." as I think I heard Hilary also do, in post-debate bit.

...........Last words from me about debates until 2012 (at the soonest) - James Fallows
- This format is the winner, compared with all the others we have seen. Forces a kind of personal engagement -- though the fact that this was the third and final round probably made a difference too. Clarifying discussion of actual substance, from health care to abortion, and rawly-honest seeming exchange about the excesses of the campaign.
- Bob Schieffer was a winner, raising provocative issues without being mindlessly horse-race oriented or too obsessed with time. His questions about dirty campaign tactics and about Sarah Palin were exemplary in this regard. ................


9:40 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: I don't mean to say my opponent is a terrorist...but... what was McCain saying here?
9:39 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: From Ayers and ACORN to "I'm goingg to lower your taxes"--most awkward segue of the evening. yeah that was ~ Palinesque 'and, too, other bad things.'
9:38 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: Through the "character" section, Obama seems unflappable, McCain heated. Not sure which of the two plays better out there, but a noticable difference.
9:36 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: Waaah! Someone wore a mean t shirt! People who come to my rallies are the most patriotic people in the world! It's going to be painful watching mccain walk back his campaign after he loses. what's 'walk back' mean?
9:34 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: First complaint about a T-shirt in a presidential debate? and it's not from the guy whose face is on t-shirts with big lines x-ing it out (oh geez I don't know, are there Obama supporters photographed in shirts like that w McCain?)
9:33 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: McCain's got a point. Who among us has ever thrown a big party without someone yelling "Kill him!"
9:27 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: Lie! Obama did repudiate those wallace remarks. yes! this one esp bothered me. bcs he immediately repudiated the remarks in a released statement. and overall sure seems to me he had less real cause to repudiate anything than McCain did, but no statement from McCain repudiating hate speech, and he'd 'have to know context' before could say whether appropr or not to say that Obama and Osama both have terrorist friends. !! if Obama were *not* taking the high road (maybe as a strategy) he could have fired back by asking McCain about that. when McCain said I have always repudiated inappr comments & wld hope Obama do same but he hasn't. !! bizarro. here sits Obama ready to say the Wallace comparison over the line. but you won't say it about comparing Obama to Osama bin Laden?!?
9:26 p.m. - Karen Tumulty: McCain campaign keeps passing out paper here. DEBATE FACT #5: MEET JOE THE PLUMBER. huh. this was a big prepped bit.Turns out he spells it Wurzelbacher.
9:25 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: Mccain keeps making that weird smirk. It's like that jon lovitz line from 1988: I can't believe I. Losing to this guy! SNL, read recently in review of current SNL that their pres skits not hits like that one: G H W Bush can't fill up his allotted time: Lovitz as Dukakis: I can't believe I'm losing to this guy.
9:24 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: The slaw just arrived so nobody heard it.
9:23 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: @MG: How did the Fox News joke go over? Obama ~ even fox news said.. and they usually __ me
9:23 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: The 42K lie! Drink.
9:21 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: Good ol boys just went nuts on mccain saying he's not bush.
9:18 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: McCain talks spending freeze: men like hatchets better than women.
9:17 p.m. - Karen Tumulty: McCain is back to earmarks. Not a good sign. In fact, a very bad sign.
9:17 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: Is it wise for mccain to talk about what "we" did during the depression? I mean, he was only in his twenties then.
9:16 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: Who told the mainstream media that economic downturns are the time for belt tightening? I mean, that's nuts, isn't it? Did fdr cut the budget?
...........Last words from me about debates until 2012 (at the soonest) - James Fallows NEITHER OF THEM IS GOING TO BALANCE THE BUDGET -- nor should they be mainly concerned with trying, right at the moment. We're in the middle of a potential economic collapse. One of the lessons Herbert Hoover inadvertently taught is that you shouldn't try to tighten up on public spending during a huge downturn. For details, see the works of JM Keynes, passim. and Paul Krugman just won Nobel, he's a 'Keynesian' as they say right? yes:
Paul Krugman is surprise winner of Nobel economics prize | Business | guardian.co.uk: A noted liberal, Krugman is seen as a neo-Keynesian so his victory is timely. There's quite a revival of interest in John Maynard Keynes's theories at present, especially his argument that government intervention is the best way to stop a downturn becoming a depression.
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9:15 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: We've heard a lot about how intimate the seated setting is, but it's less so when they never show Obama and McCain in the same frame. It's like they're doing a dueling Face the Nation appearance.

9:13 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: I'm sorry, Joe the Plumber is now by far the famous plumber wherever he lives. Barack Obama probably made him rich through the sheer free advertising. Joe the Plumber just got a Super Bowl ad here! yeah really
9:10 p.m. - Karen Tumulty: If Joe the Plumber charges as much as my plumber, he’s making more than $250,000 and Obama is going to soak him.
9:06 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: "Jobs." And the dial lines go WHANGO! Obama should work "jobs" into every answer, including any about Bill Ayers.
9:06 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: I'm sorry to start with facts, but this mess did NOT start with fannie and freddie. They buy mortgages - they don't issue mortgages. I'm in a grouchy mood - I'm going to drink when they lie. note that it's McCain who said that, as Palin has also. not Obama.

8:54 p.m.- Jim Poniewozik: CNN focus-group squiggly line is again going to be divided into lines for men and women. Is this really the salient division in this election? Shouldn't it be the Youngs vs the Olds?
8:52 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: Just canceled recording of 90210 on my Tivo to watch the debate. The things I do for you people. what do you mean, James, 90210 was a repeat of the premiere, wasn't it?
8:51 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: @jp: I would have! I took a lot of crap for asking whether mccain was a long-shot or a no-shot....
8:48 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: @KT and MG: Who would have thought, by the way, that we would be going into the last debate, and everyone on cable would be talking about nothing but what John McCain needs to do? If no one mentions Bill Ayers, there will be some glum faces around the CNN table.
8:37 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: @jp: well, yes. The first speaker at the cookout just welcomed us to god's country. But I should point out that the second speaker was eric fleming, the black democrat who's running against sen cochran. And he just led the crowd in a rousing chant of WE ARE MISSISSIPPI!
8:33 p.m. - Karen Tumulty: @MG: Maybe it's a sign of the hard economic times: Bud must be the libation of choice this evening. Budweiser, as it happens, is sponsoring a tent outside this filing center, but no one seems to be bringing any in here, so it's a pretty dry and dour place. We are in some kind of athletic center at Hofstra. If the debate is boring, I may go try out the climbing wall.
8:33 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: @MG: Oh, sorry, I see you wrote that you're watching Fox News. Like I had to ask!
8:29 p.m. - Jim Poniewozik: I'm settled in front of the TV, with a Blue Point Oktoberfest beer from the great region of Long Island, in honor of Hofstra University. Will probably be watching CNN, because I can't resist the squiggly lines. @MG: What channel are they watching the debate on in Real America, where people are good?
8:22 p.m. - Michael Grunwald: Hey y'all. I'll be watching tonight with a few hundred of my new best friends at Johnny Morgan's annual Good Ol' Boys political cookout in oxford, mississippi--and not the university part of oxford. The liquid of choice in johnny's barn is bud light. there are white paper tablecloths, peanuts and big hunks of cheese. A snowy old tv is airing fox news - and it's great, because I can't hear a word dick morris is saying. There's no wifi, so I'll be blogging by blackberry, as bloggers in johnny's barn always do.