3rd Presidential Debate Live-Blog

Wouldn't it be wonderful if McCain had a total meltdown tonight?

Proud Educated Elitist With a Poison Pen

Got to get up and change from CNN. Can't stand the "moving lines" and the team chatter. Switching to MSNBC

I don't have energy to watch this thing in public. We'll see if I can make it through 90 minutes without falling asleep.

Clueless blaming Fannie and Freddie Mae (sic)

He repeated himself three times in the first sentence. Then, the Freddie Mae thing.

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

n/t

n/t

If that continues, it'll sure be trouble.

He looks veeeery creepy

about his own taxes going up...he doesn't give a rat's ass about Joe Plumber.

Joe The Plumber's website is going to crash tonight because his business is going to increase dramatically.

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Robin Hayes lied, Robin Hayes cried and thousands of folks lost th

Energy independence? Nuclear? We have to import uranium John.

McCain is talking shop with jargon and buzz-words. People will tune it out. He's trying to prod Obama but Obama's not taking the bait.

Came across as canned.

If you think the budget is out of control, why'd you vote for it?

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Robin Hayes lied, Robin Hayes cried and thousands of folks lost th

McCain is being aggressive.

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

a terrorist.

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

That's a petty response about town hall meetings.

What's McCain talking about?

around with terrorists.

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Robin Hayes lied, Robin Hayes cried and thousands of folks lost their jobs.

I look like I'm going to cry.

I can't imagine they're working.

Joe the Plumber has one thing in common with this debate. They're both a two hour minimum.

McCain is proud of the crap talkers.

Men got a bump out of it.

over Barack's answer on Ayers.

They hate being tagged as GOP. And they've been fair or better to Barack.

Both groups are edging up, but women really like Barack tonight.

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Robin Hayes lied, Robin Hayes cried and thousands of folks lost th

and with an attitude. It is sad he must try to discredit Obama. Hope he do not have a stroke in the process.

"I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Elie Weisel

both are negative. McCain should have stopped when he was behind....uh...less behind.

I broke down and switched to CNN to watch the "lines". People not liking McCain going on about Ayers or Acorns

Men just like those gams...

[edit] I did NOT say that. I swear. That was my rogue keyboard.

Awesome, that's what I want is a person who quits when the going gets tough.

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

he is a Maverick. I haven't heard not one woman say she was a role model to them. Oh well.

"I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Elie Weisel

I know all too well the challenges that Sarah Palin will face raising a child with special needs. However, to say she understands it better than anyone is a slap in the face to those of us who have been raising children with special needs for years, decades.

McCain like tough Todd. He went fearlessly right after that ex-brother-in-law-state-trooper didn't he?

The man is actually shaking.

The sheeple will follow his "strong" stances, never mind that they are complete bullshit. My wife, who is a normal resident, votes but doesn't pay attention to daily politics keeps asking 'What are they talking about?' Like ACORN and Ayers, that entire thing went over her head.

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

McCains like a mental 3-D pinball machine. Reminds me of Brownian Motion.

What McCain was trying to explain is too complicated.

Most people only know Hoover as a vacuum cleaner.

I swear he was looking right at me.

men bounced around on the ceiling for a while there too. McCain is slowly rising in their esteem as well on this answer. Oh...the $5000 tax credit just bottomed out and women are in the negative on the Joe the plumber mention.

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

Barack opens his mouth and the women all swoon.

the dial groups drop when he brings Joe up.

I switched to PBS and MSNBC for a bit and noticed that CNN has a split screen and McCain's look compared to Obama is not flattering to McCain.

n/t

and the dial groups liked him on the first two answers, but he's losing them.

Thank God for talking points....if McCain didn't have them he would be speechless.

Cause I really want him to talk about filibustering in the Senate...

Breyer was appointed 1994, well before Obama

as Obama talks about supporting Roe v Wade!

Amazing spread between male/female on CNN for McCain's responses

As soon as McCain started talking the lines took a nose dive.

from Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner if y'all want to hang around. I"ll post them here. My prediction is that more people will see John McCain as having done better this debate based on his early answers....unless, of course, they have been completely turned off by his recitation of talking points during the rest of the debate.

Like someone with a political science degree working in local government doing a horizontal transition into an American Government class.

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

I think these are good points.

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

is not an interest group!! Great line...and the approval lines went way up on that one!

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

However, it would be good if someone would admit that the NIH budget has been decreased and pointed towards Bioterrorism - not Autism.

Nothing new from Obama. I don't think that his proposals are comprehensive enough, but education is tough to reform from the federal level.

McCain didn't seem to comfortable delivering that "civil rights battle of the 21st century" line. His allusion to charters in New Orleans and New York is faulty. I was just at an AMAZING charter school in New Orleans, but overall their whole system is charters and the system as a whole isn't any better than before.

His idea that troops should become teachers without examinations or certification... Why would that be good? Don't we want qualified teachers? If they can't pass tests, their kids won't pass tests.

I like Obama's trade off of higher teacher pay for more teacher accountability.

Washington vouchers: 9000 D.C. parents requested vouchers because their schools sucked. If they had good schools, they wouldn't need vouchers. They didn't want the vouchers just for the sake of having vouchers. And where were the kids going to go? There weren't enough good schools to serve 9000 student transfers.

I need to look up what the DC superintendent has said about vouchers...

McCain's final voucher statement was really creepy...I mean disturgingly creepy.

McCains "Joker" smile is creepy, my friends

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

McCain is a mess

Go vote at WSJ Wire

He's down on the McCain performance. But he can never quite compliment Obama.

McCain came off as desparate. Although Obama didn't hit it out of the park, he still tried to stay on message and steer the conversation to the issues. It seemed that McCain took way too many detours.

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

Progressive Discussions

Three people made up their minds, Obama for all 3. All of them hated Joe the Plumber and Ayers/Acorn.

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before." John McCain, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

Greenberg Quinlan must be having a tough time with the numbers....maybe not as clear cut this time.

saying Sarah Palin knows all about raising a child with it. Is another one of her children afflicted? I thought her baby was a Downe Syndrome case.

Progressive Democrats of North Carolina

Dial groups held in Denver, Colorado.

Stan Greenberg: Results looked more decisive than the last two.

NOthing that indicates

2:1 Obama - coming from undecided voters with a McCain leaning

At beginning McCain was considered favorably at beginning by 20 points - Obama even warm/cool and McCain warm/cool +20
at end Obama 72/22 (+50) when at beginning he had been 42/42 warm cool.....and McCain went down 18 points in warm/cool +2

McCain made a little headway in energy and differentiating from Bush

Has what it takes to be president predebate 38% obama does, 50% does not - at end 50% did and 34% did not
trust to make the right decisions 30% before 48 %after
too liberal - 48% pre tp 40% post

Big gains for Obama - share your values - Obama won by 24 points
Big gain for Obama handling financial crisis 50 - 20 for Obama at end of debate

He got huge marks on education

concerning Lilly Ledbetter the woman went to the Supreme Court over equal pay for equal work? He raced through the answer and said that the case was 20 years past the statue of limitations, what an arrogant A$$!

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

Progressive Discussions

Taxes - McCain had to change the direction of this thing and this would be an essential area to do so....

The whole spread the wealth around was flat
Obama ahead 42-20 beginning of debate and he was ahead 52-20 after the debate

McCain didn't erode Obama's lead in the too liberal question, the taxes question and other key areas that he had to hit Obama.

They have been holding focus groups with people who shifted after the debate to one of the candidates. This debate not enough people shifted to McCain to hold a focus group.

50 people in group -pre-debate 8% for McCain and 4% Obama and 88% undecided

Post-debate the group was - 20% McCain, 42 % Obama, 34% undecided