5:17 PM Macleans.ca – We’ll be liveblogging McCain vs. Obama right here at 9 PM EST tonight. See you then.8:13 PM Scott Feschuk – i’m watching the pre-game show on CNN and i have alarming news: david gergen’s combover is horribly out of place. makeup to pundits’ row: STAT!! Also: CNN has split up their “best political team on television” – partisan commentators at one table of six, and non-partisan pundits at another table of six. and in between them: only anderson cooper and a moat filled with sharks with lasers on their heads.8:15 PM Scott Feschuk – missing in action: james carville. rumour has it he’s been bought by a kid in iowa who wants to go out for halloween as a skeleton.8:36 PM Scott Feschuk – i’ve decided what i want for christmas – i want a magic board like john king has on cnn. i’ll use it to offer expert analysis of future family disputes. “Sorry, son, i’d love to let you borrow the car but, as you can see up here, you’re experiencing a softness in the parental trust sector – and if we zoom in over here you’ll notice a 6% increase in how often we think your friends are stoned.”8:54 PM Scott Feschuk – it’s almost time for the third and final U.S. presidential debate. They’ve stood behind podiums! They’ve stood without podiums! Tonight, they sit!! (A proposed fourth debate was canceled on account of neither candidate being able to crouch for 90 minutes.)9:04 PM Scott Feschuk – we begin with john mccain’s traditional hospital update. first debate: ted kennedy. tonight: nancy reagan. tomorrow: mccain’s presidential hopes.9:08 PM Scott Feschuk – is it just me… is it my HD tv… but does barack obama have a bit of a moustache going on? definitely a five o’clock ‘stache shadow. he looks like sarah palin on the cover of newsweek. or nixon, but less moist.9:10 PM Paul Wells – hi!9:11 PM Scott Feschuk – you’ve been missing the gripping tale of joe the plumber! they’ve already mentioned him 93 times.9:11 PM Paul Wells – So I’m just like the average American. I missed the top of the debate because I was on TV. But whereas the average American was on So You Think You Can Dance, I was on The Agenda. Which is too bad because I have killer salsa moves.9:12 PM Scott Feschuk – i expect mccain to start talking about paul the dancer at any moment9:12 PM Paul Wells – Is Joe the Plumber Polish? In France they were very worried about Polish plumbers. Anyway. Already I’m amazed at how pokey these debates are compared to our action-packed Canadian debates. 9:14 PM Scott Feschuk – i watched the first debate at harvard, at the kennedy school. people cheered and booed there. plus there was beer. only during the second debate did i realize that these things are less engaging when not treated like professional wrestling.9:16 PM Paul Wells – Obama’s using the old magical Programs That Don’t Work trick. It’s just always harder to find those programs in power than it was going to be when you were in opposition. I checked. There is no Department of Programs That Don’t Work that you can shut down. 9:17 PM Scott Feschuk – the best thing about this debate so far is the cutaways – they just showed john mccain scibbling some notes on a pad of paper. i guess when you reach his age, you just can’t control your impulse to write a letter to the editor.9:18 PM Luiza Ch. Savage – Have you noticed that this time McCain is making a point of actually looking at Obama. It looked pretty strange last time when he seemed to avoid looking at him.9:19 PM Luiza Ch. Savage – McCain’s best line to date: “Why would you want to increase _anyone’s_ taxes right now?”9:20 PM Scott Feschuk – mccain begins an awful lot of sentences by saying “i know how to..” he knows how to save billions of dollars. he knows how to win the war. he knows the caramilk secret. why has john mccain been keeping these answers to himself all these years? america could be rich and at peace by now, and much better informed about how chocolate bars are made.9:21 PM Luiza Ch. Savage – Senator Obama, I am not president Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. Oh snap.9:21 PM Paul Wells – McCain was really good on ethanol subsidies. His position against them helped him lose the primaries in 2000. He’s so not good on earmarks and subsidies because his running mate never met an earmark she didn’t like in Alaska. 9:22 PM Paul Wells – He could even have said, “I know run against Bush. I did run against Bush. And Senator, you’re not run against Bush.” But come to think of it, I kind of understand why he didn’t.9:22 PM Scott Feschuk – yeah, the bush line was good. it helped that he was looking at obama. it’s less helpful that his voting record IS president bush. plus he totally hugged him that one weird time.9:23 PM Luiza Ch. Savage – The Obama campaign has just sent out a blast email citing various articles saying that the vast majority of small businesses would not be affected by Obama’s tax increase on people earning over $250K.9:24 PM Paul Wells – This is the obligatory I’m a Pariah in my Party portion of the program. Musical accompaniment by Sister Souljah. 9:24 PM Scott Feschuk – i just received an email saying i’ve won the irish lottery. third time this week. take that, wall street.9:25 PM Luiza Ch. Savage – McCain likes to criticize Obama for not standing up to his own party. Prior to the debate, the McCain campaign sent out this exchange with an Obama surrogate on a blast email: MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: “We’ve watched John McCain over the years do things like Patients’ Bill of Rights, the McCain-Feingold reform bill. A number of cases where he has been able to reach across the aisle and get things done, even with Kennedy and Edwards and people like that, Feingold, people like that on the Democratic side. Can you give me a case where Barack Obama has reached across the aisle and cut a deal and gotten something done for the country? One example.”
Governor David Paterson: “Well, Senator Obama has been there two years and I can’t cite an example right now. But I know that did he collaborate with one of Republican senators on one of the issues. I just can’t name it off the top — ” 9:26 PM Luiza Ch. Savage – However, raising it in the debate allows Obama to counter it with examples of not agreeing with Democratic constituencies such as trial lawyers, teachers unions, etc.9:26 PM Paul Wells – Oh this will be interesting. The Say It To My Face book, so to speak 9:26 PM Scott Feschuk – bob schieffer is scolding both of them for being very bad boys in playing out behind the shed with that negative adve
Governor David Paterson: “Well, Senator Obama has been there two years and I can’t cite an example right now. But I know that did he collaborate with one of Republican senators on one of the issues. I just can’t name it off the top — ”
“During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate.”
In the statement, Lewis linked Wallace’s language to the1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four little girls.
McCain immediately called Lewis’ remarks “beyond the pale” and called on Obama to repudiate them. The Republican presidential candidate continued to fume on Monday. “It’s unfair. It’s unfair and it’s outrageous,” McCain told CNN.
The Obama campaign said any comparisons to Wallace were out of line, but also said that “Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked.”
btw, i’d keep watching this analysis til midnight if they voted one pundit off the set every ten minutes.
“John McCain won tonight’s debate with strong, clear straight talk about setting a new direction for our country and fighting for working families. He outlined a specific, bold plan for creating jobs, helping those near retirement, keeping people in their homes, curbing spending, lowering health care costs and achieving energy independence. He vowed to fight for ‘Joe the Plumber’ every day he is President and he affirmed his belief that we shouldn’t raise
taxes just to ‘spread the wealth.’ While Barack Obama is measuring the drapes and campaigning against a man not even on the ballot, John McCain demonstrated that he has the experience, judgment, independence and courage to fight for every American.”