Debate

Hacktastic Mark Halperin graded each candidate on different areas last night and in every area he gave McCain a higher grade. The overall grade was McCain A- and Obama B, I thought maybe he had seen a totally different debate than the rest of America, but watching this segment from Charlie Rose's coverage last night gives us a different reason for Halperin's madness. Halperin has a massive man crush on Joe the Plumber

And not the sound bites you might think. Instead let's rewind to 100 years ago and here the sound bites from William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan.

My God could Gwen Ifill have been any more slanted towards Biden? Ok - had to get that little joke out of my system.

Despite having one hell of a cold, I managed to watch the whole thing. Honestly, it was exactly what I expected it to be. No massive screw ups from either candidate. One small thing I did notice was that Palin was looking at an awful lot of notes while answering. Perhaps I picked that up since I was watching and not trying to live blog it.

I don't see tonight's performances helping or hurting either campaign significantly. It was basically a wash. Palin may have calmed some nerves on the right, but she didn't bring anyone over. The same with Biden and his known history of gafffs. I do however think Palin fell flat on her face when she tried to play Reagan with her "there you go again Joe" line. Watching the reaction thing on CNN, it appears the focus group also thought the same thing.

So I am sure people on the left will be upset the Palin didn't totally implode, but that's not a problem. She now has a month of doing interviews and more time for Couric style blunders with no more debates to try and recoup a little comfort amongst the population.

Also I notice the polls over all are showing that Biden won. I have to agree. Yeah I am somewhat partial, but putting that aside, I saw answers out of Biden with great substance. I didn't see that so much out of Palin. It also helps restore a little faith in the American electorate since it appears they may have seen the same thing.

UPDATE:

I've been reading blog reactions from both sides of the spectrum. Needless to say the left says Biden won, the right says Palin won. The interesting thing from the right though is that this is some how a game changer. When Obama named Biden as his running mate, the right was quick to say that a Presidential race isn't won by the running mate. This is very true, but not is seems to be ignored by the right. If anything this may have made the race more where it should be - Obama versus McCain, and in that sense McCain is losing rather badly.

There is a silver lining to what happened today. Congress is in recess until Thursday, meaning they could pass something on Thursday, but that is not very likely. That means we got a debate Thursday night with Sarah Palin and Joe Biden and the economy will be brought up. Considering Palin's dismal responses to Couric's questions on the economy, she will destroy herself. The best part is that Biden don't even have to do anything - just sit there and let her talk.

There will also be questions about McCain's involvement in the bailout brought up.McCain's going to try everything to spin himself out of the pickle he has placed himself in, but that is not very likely given the public perception of McCain now, as evident by the polls. So now Palin's big night just had a few more obstacles put in.

Oh and let's not forget what we saw today. McCain needs Palin on the trial with him to bring in any kind of crowd. Every minute she is out giving speeches is time away from prep work. Thursday can't get here quick enough!

When Obama mentioned the bracelet he was wearing, which bears the name Ryan Jopek, a soldier lost in the Iraq War, the right wing was in a frenzy. Quickly they started decrying the mention of Jopek and said that Jopek's mother didn't want him to do that (see here, here, here, here and here). Now the soldier's mother has spoken out and she says she is "ecstatic" that he is wearing it: So did the right wing end up using this family, who has already given the ultimate to their country, for some political stunt? It sure appears that is the case and they should all hold their head in shame today. It's just another case of the lowest of levels the right will sink to in order to smear someone - even if it is a fallen soldier.

Watch this clip from last night:

McCain: "We were able to help the Afghan freedom fighters
drive the Russians out of Afghanistan we washed our hands of the the region."

Those so called 'freedom fighters" were the Mujahideen, who were Muslim extremists recruited and trained by the U.S. to fight push Russia out of Afghanistan, but McCain is now calling them simply "freedom fighters". Yup - to John McCain Osama bin Laden is a "freedom fighter".

The details of the CBS post debate poll are here (pdf file). Here are some highlights from it:

THE DEBATE’S EFFECT ON OPINIONS OF THE CANDIDATES
	OBAMA	MCCAIN
Better	46%	32%
Worse	8%	21%
No Change	46%	47%

 

WOULD MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS ABOUT THE ECONOMY
	OBAMA	MCCAIN
Yes	66%	42%
No	33%	37%

Then we also have this fine little part:

PostQ3. After tonight's debate, has your opinion of John McCain:
Changed for the better 32
Changed for the worse 21
Not changed 47

PostQ4. After tonight's debate, has your opinion of Barack Obama:
Changed for the better 46%
Changed for the worse 8
Not changed 46

Obama was clearly the winner of this thing.

Where's your lapel pin John?

Just reported on MSNBC that McCain will be at the debate tonight, even though no deal is likely.