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LIVE DEBATE BLOG

September 26, 2008 10:27 PM

9:41pm CT: And that's a wrap.  The first debate is in the history books and that means the spin can begin.  We'll see you back here next Thursday, Oct. 2 for the Biden-Palin vice presidential showdown and then again on Oct. 7 and 15 for the final two presidential debates.  In the mean time, check out all the latest in The Note every morning and keep the conversation going.  G'night from Oxford.

9:32 pm CT: It may just be me but I feel like Obama is getting his best shots in very late -- one of the key parts of his appeal has to be the different tone he would set with the world. I think he would have been well-served to be talking like this about 50 minutes ago.

9:29 pm CT: Obama pledges to "restore America's standing in the world." A critical part of the message -- and it only took 89 minutes to get to it. A missed opportunity?

9:26 pm CT: Watch a GOP talking point get made! This is Barack Obama, saying John McCain is right.

9:24 pm CT: Republicans are in full drill, baby, drill mode -- but does McCain want to "exploit" oil reserves?

9:20 pm CT: Meaty discussion on Russia -- with lots and lots of Russian names for McCain to pronounce. IF people care about this, McCain looks strong.

9:15 pm CT: I've got to think the McCain campaign is happy with what this debate has and hasn't covered. I don't know if he was better prepared, or just jumped at more opportunities, but he's hitting the pitches to the right parts of the field.

9:12 pm CT: McCain: "I'm not going to set the White House visitors' schedule before I'm president of the United States."

This is another area where McCain is in his comfort zone. He's having a long discussion on the preconditions line.

9:10 pm CT: From ABC's Bret Hovell, who covers McCain: He may have missed Ahmadinejad, but he got that string of 5 or 6 russian words right on.

9:04 pm CT: ABC's Sunlen Miller has some details on the bracelet: It was given to him on 2/15 in Greenbay by Tracy Jopek of Merrill, Wisconsin. He's worn it every day since. The bracelet says her son's name, Sgt Ryan David.

9:03 pm CT: From ABC's John Berman: Remember the line from the convention: "If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have."

That is the debate that they are having on foreign policy...and Obama is getting in his licks.

9:02 pm CT: First flash of meanness from McCain, to me -- when he heads up subcommittees, they do things...

8:59 pm CT: A few times tonight, McCain has slowed things down to tell a personal story. Surely rehearsed, but it doesn't come off that way -- breaks through in a debate that features long lists of talking points. (Obama liked the last story so much he offered up one of his own: "I've got a bracelet, too.")

8:57 pm CT: "That business about bombing Iran . . . " McCain says. And his first Reagan reference is about a break with Reagan.

Oddly, tonight John McCain seemed marginally better on the economic issues, while Barack Obama has been a little stronger on foreign policy/national security.

8:53 pm CT: McCain talking diplomacy, Obama talking military force. Hmmm...

8:51 pm CT: So far -- I'm left flat. I wonder if the fasct that they've been otherwise occupied has had a big impact on preparations.

8:49 pm CT: Obama talks tough: "Capture and kill bin Laden and crush al Qaeda."

8:45 pm CT: It took Obama halfway through the debate to find a groove. "You were wrong," was his refrain, repeated several times. Yet McCain had a good rejoinder: "We are winning."

8:40 pm CT: "We will win in Iraq," McCain says (finally, on foreign policy). Notice he makes the question about the success of the surge. Obama in his comfort zone too -- shouldn't have gone in in the first place. "Sen. McCain and President Bush had a very different judgment," Obama said. "We took our eye off the ball."

It's taking him a while to marry McCain and Bush -- but he's getting there.

8:38 pm CT: "Your president," Obama says, presided over this "orgy of spending." McCain says AGAIN that he was not Miss Congeniality. (Scary that he might have been.) But can't he limit the lame jokes to once each per debate?

8:36 pm CT: That's pretty close to an outright lie by Sen. McCain -- saying he wants to hand over healthcare to the federal government. (Also, as a colleague notes, why is he suddenly in favor of handing over the economy to the federal government?)

8:33 pm CT:  A third of the way into this debate, Barack Obama is the first to mention a foreign policy subject, in the context of saying he wants to save money by ending the Iraq war.

I like that Lehrer is hammering this point about being realistic about the financial crisis. But time is ticking on this debate.

8:32 pm CT: From ABC's David Chalian: It seems to me there is a clear attempt on McCain's part to use his contrast or anti-Obama moments to paint him as an entirely typical politician willing to put politics ahead of principles.

8:30 pm CT: Obama: "I'm not willing to give up the need to do it, but there may be individual components that we cannot do."

8:28 pm CT: Asked what he'd give up, Barack Obama told us what he'd do. What wouldn't he do? "Eliminate programs that don't work." Some more specifics, at least, from McCain -- he likes to cite spending horror stories.

8:24 pm CT: Next up the energy bill. McCain, again, on the offensive. (And still nothing on foreign policy.)

8:22 pm CT: Obama delivered a good answer on taxes -- touting his tax cut -- but I don't think the country is going to get angry that we have low business taxes. Then he accuses McCain of wanting to raise taxes -- by taxing health benefits. "It is not a good deal for the American people, but it's an example of the [notion] that the market can do everything."

8:21 pm CT: STILL on earmarks. "Senator Obama is a recent convert," McCain says.

8:20 pm CT: Guess who's wearing a flag pin tonight -- Barack Obama. Not John McCain.

8:19 pm CT: Don't look now -- but John McCain is dominating the discussion on economic policy. He has steered it toward ground that's comfortable for him. Very early on, I'm seeing McCain in a groove.

8:17 pm CT: "Evils" of earmarking, McCain says. (Has he seen the Thad Cochran Research Center that's a few hundred feet from here?)

New attack -- nearly $1 million in earmark requests per day from Obama since he's been in the Senate.

Obama can't be comfortable defending earmarks here -- though of course he would never (NEVER!) be influenced by a special interest . . . So he turns it to taxes -- some engagement on economic policy.

And we're 17 minutes into the debate on foreign policy without a single word uttered on foreign policy.

8:13 pm CT: From ABC's Sunlen Miller: It only took Obama 1 min and 44 seconds from the start of his first answer to hit McCain

"We have to recognize that this is a final verdict on 8 years of failed economic policies of Gorge bush, supported by Sen Mccain."

8:12 pm CT: Obama: "John, you said 10 days ago that the fundamentals of the economy are strong." There's that word again. . .

8:08 pm CT: Thanks to Jim Lehrer for pointing out that the question wasn't answered.

Obama so far is more aggressive than McCain -- maybe it's the topic, but I'm struck early by how McCain is playing optimistic -- I thought he was the populist on the trail of late.

McCain said "sure" he's going to vote for the plan -- did he mean to say that?

8:06 pm CT: An odd comment on Kennedy from Sen. McCain -- he's actually out of the hospital, unless he has better information than we do.

Then -- an optimistic tone on the economic crisis -- that's an eyebrow-raiser. But it fits in with McCain's argument that he helped along the package that's working its way toward a vote on the Hill. "I went back to Washington," he says.

8:04 pm CT: Sen. Obama gets the first question -- a direct one, on the financial bailout project. And he ticks off his principles, in a solid recitation. Also, chalk up the first hit on the Bush administration. (Plus the word "fundamentals" -- a coded tweak at Sen. McCain.

September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (346)

Judgment vs. Experience: A Viewing Guide

September 26, 2008 7:33 PM

It’s not easy to grade debates -- winners and losers being a matter of perception -- but one way to watch tonight’s debate is by counting the number of times Sen. Barack Obama cites his judgment in some way, and how many times Sen. John McCain cites his experience.

This is the crux of their competing foreign-policy arguments. Obama argues that he has superior judgment, typically citing his early opposition to the Iraq war, as contrasted with McCain’s long held support for the war.

McCain argues that he’s got the requisite experience, painting Obama as a naïve idealist who’d do things like meet unconditionally with leaders of rogue nations.

The topic matter -- foreign policy -- is probably a slight McCain advantage. But remember that the Obama camp asked that the topics be switched so this would be what they talk about in the first debate.

Another thought: Has McCain’s conduct these past two weeks -- the halting, stop-and-start efforts around the economy -- created an additional hurdle for him tonight? Or is there more pressure on Obama, who needs to be seen as a commander-in-chief, as well as a good campaign closer?

I’ll be blogging during the debate itself -- but offline in the 8 pm - 9 pm ET hour, where I’ll be on ABC NewsNOW with Sam Donaldson anchoring our coverage.

Watch it HERE.

September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (41)

Lindsey Graham: "You better be glad Sen. McCain came to Washington"

September 26, 2008 6:48 PM

More from the pre-game spin wars: Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top McCain surrogate/loyalist, offers a bit of a preview of what Sen. John McCain might say tonight if he’s asked to defend his roll in the bailout bill.

"Here's what I'm going to tell voters: You better be glad Sen. McCain came to Washington," said Graham, R-S.C.

Graham argues that without McCain, House Republicans would have been shut out of the process. If that had happened, he said, the draft legislation would have been defeated on the House floor.

"Nobody was going to vote for it," he said, adding that McCain had a "beneficial effect" on the legislation.

Under this argument, Graham is essentially conceding that McCain slowed the process -- but says this slowing was necessary to get a bill that can actually pass.

He also says that McCain’s participation was valuable to the candidate himself.

"There was no substitute for being in the room," Graham said. "Getting on the ground and watching this was what John needed to do."

September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (57)

Richardson: Obama Has No Weaknesses

September 26, 2008 6:01 PM

ABC's Sunlen Miller caught this quote from the pre-debate spin: "He doesn't have a weak point. He's very strong. He's very articulate," Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., said of his former rival, Sen. Barack Obama. "I didn't detect any weak points that he has."

Apparently he didn't get the memo -- literally. The Obama campaign -- in furious, we're-gonna-stink, pre-debate mode -- sent around the following snippets of "opposition research" earlier today:

New York Times: Obama's Debating Skills Are "Uneven" As He Has "A Tendency To Overintellectualize And To Lecture" And "Frequently Rises Above The Mire Of Political Combat When The Battle Calls For Engagement."

AP: Obama Comes Across As "Lifeless, Aloof, And Windy" During Debates.

Fallows: Obama Never Managed To "Receive Big Acclaim After A Debate."
John King Said Democrats Worry That Obama Is To Professorial Or Too Subdued In Debate Settings. 

Fallows: Obama Never Managed To “Receive Big Acclaim After A Debate.”
John King Said Democrats Worry That Obama Is To Professorial Or Too Subdued In Debate Settings. 

By the way -- also spinning before the debate begins: Rudy Giuliani. Not spinning (but looking very lonely on his BlackBerry, outside the press filing center): John Kerry.

September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (23)

Does Obama Heart CNN?

September 26, 2008 5:17 PM

Just got an odd text message from the Obama campaign: “Watch Barack debate John McCain tonight at 9 pm Eastern on CNN.”

On CNN? Last time I checked, the debate will be on every channel this side of the Food Network -- including, of course, ABC and ABC NewsNOW. Tonight’s moderator is PBS’ Jim Lehrer.

Why the shout-out for the Cable News Network? (And does MSNBC feel jilted?)

Two Obama aides are chalking it up to a mistake made by a technical person who works for the campaign -- someone who, apparently, thought the debate would only be televised on CNN, like the National Service Forum from earlier this month.

They say a corrected version will be sent out later -- which means the Obama campaign will owe me another 10 cents.

UPDATE: In an 6:11 pm ET from the Obama campaign: "Watch Barack Obama debate John McCain tonight at 9 pm ET on any of the major networks or cable."

September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (46)

Monument to a Bygone Era

September 26, 2008 4:43 PM

John McCain, take note: Right here on the Ole Miss campus, not 1,000 feet from tonight's debate site, stands a monument to another age in American history. (No, this has nothing to do with James Meredith.)

It's the Thad Cochran Research Center, fortuitously named for Mississippi's senior senator -- the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and one of the greatest earmarkers in American history.

Just last year, Cochran helped deliver the University of Mississippi 27 earmarks worth a total of $37 million. (According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, only one college in the country did better last year -- Mississippi State University.)

The tax dollars funneled to Ole Miss pays for such urgent federal priorities as $125,000 for the university’s music archive; $500,000 for the Center for Innovation Excellence (which doesn’t open until) December 2010; $2.5 million to train judges and prosecutors in handling electronic and computer crimes; and $10.2 million for the National Center for Natural Products Research -- which is housed at the Thad Cochran Research Center.

Given the anti-earmark fervor on the campaign trail these days, the University of Mississippi is almost certainly going to have to learn to do more with less under the next administration. That’s particularly true of Cochran’s favored candidate -- McCain -- is elected president.

Cochran, and those here are quick to remember is no particular fan of McCain. Last January, he told The Boston Globe: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. . . . He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

After supporting Mitt Romney during the primaries, Cochran ultimately endorsed McCain -- but we'll let you know if we see him pop up on campus as a surrogate today. In the meantime, his research center is an interesting detour.

September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (2)

Obama Wins Debate Over Debates

September 26, 2008 3:01 PM

Rick Klein here from ABC's The Note: The debate is still ahead of us, but with Sen. John McCain's announcement that he's showing up after all, Sen. Barack Obama won the debate over debates.

How's that? Well, when McCain announced Wednesday that he was "suspending" his campaign, he sought to recast the economic issue, placing himself at the center of the discussions.

He got just what he wanted. But the public perception is one he could live without: A deal looked closer to reality before he showed up. Democrats say his presence made things worse. He still hasn't said whether he's in favor of the draft bill that's been hashed out in consultation with the Bush administration, House Democrats, and Senate Democrats and Republicans.

And then, the morning of the debate -- with no one on the Hill seriously saying that the deal is really imminent -- McCain pronounces himself ready to head to Ole Miss after all, his previous statements notwithstanding.

What do you think? Can anyone discern a strategy here? Will any of this matter once the debate starts?

I'll be blogging all day and night, so check back here for updates. And our NewsNOW and www.abcnews.com/politics livestream coverage starts at 8 pm ET -- Sam Donaldson and I are anchoring an hour of pre-debate coverage, plus a 30-minute wrap-up show after the debate ends, at 10:30 pm ET.

September 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (37)

McCain's Moment: Biography in Search of a Theme

September 05, 2008 12:16 AM

Sen. John McCain tonight made his play for the support of a nation that’s ready for change -- by introducing the public to the new party he intends to lead.

It was a speech largely devoid of overarching themes -- defined as much by its mundane qualities as by its vision.

“Fight,” McCain declared and promised, again and again, offering his unique biography as testament. “Fight with me.”

The speech’s emotional core was McCain’s personal story, told with a level of details he’s largely avoided in public settings. “I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's,” he said.

It contained only hints of the battle to come with Barack Obama; for a night, he let subtlety reign -- for the most part.

“I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her as long as I draw breath, so help me God,” he said, in one of his few overt tweaks of his opponent.

But as his choice of running mates made clear, his is a Republican Party that wants desperately to believe in itself again. McCain made only passing attempts to appeal to those sentiments.

This was John McCain’s convention, of course, but it may long be remembered as Sarah Palin’s. And as the race moves into its final 60 days, McCain is asking an awful lot of his running mate.

September 5, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (57)

The Palin Effect?

September 04, 2008 9:45 PM

From ABC News’ Rick Klein, author of The Note: Sen. John Ensign, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has been among the most realistic assessors of the political landscape this year. He said in June that it would be a “terrific night” for the GOP if the party only loses three Senate seats this fall.

Well -- that was before Sarah Palin. On ABC NewsNOW this evening, Ensign told Sam Donaldson and me that the committee’s fundraising pace doubled just in the week since Palin emerged on the public scene.

“Our fundraising is certainly picking up, we had a much better August than we had anticipated, we raised $2 million dollars more than we had budgeted for, and it really was over the last couple of weeks things really picked up,” said Ensign, R-Nev. “So I'm confident that things are picking up.”

He said internal polling shows races much tighter than they had been in three states Democrats have targeted GOP-held Senate seats, though he declined to name them.

Could this be the beginning of a Palin effect? Might Palin do for the Republican Party what Sen. Barack Obama has done for the Democrats -- energize the party from the grassroots on up, and help in down-ballot races across the country?

“I certainly believe that she is going to attract a lot of people who want to volunteer, a lot of those small dollar donors, a lot of people who are really excited,” said Ensign.

“So I think that what Barack did for the Democrat Party, she is certainly doing for the Republican Party, and we're gonna surprise a lot of people,” he added.

“What I think that Sarah Palin brings to us is -- the Democrat base was real fired up, now the Republican base is fired up, and so for turnout, I think that's gonna be a big equalizing factor in this campaign,” Ensign said.

None of this is likely to change national trend lines that are literally years in the making. But it’s another sign of how this previously unknown Alaska governor is remaking the political landscape.

September 4, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (34)

Live from the Republican Convention on McCain's Big Night

September 04, 2008 7:15 PM

Rick Klein here from ABC's The Note.  I'll be co-anchoring ABC News NOW coverage one more night from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, alongside Sam Donaldson, from inside the Xcel Energy Center (were the fine folks just presented Mr. Donaldson with a Minnesota Wild jersey -- DONALDSON 08). We'll be on starting at 7 pm ET tonight, and going through the end of the action.

We'll get you speeches, analysis, and a range of great guests: including Tom Moe, one of McCain's fellow POWs; Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.; former Sen. George Allen, R-Va.; former Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.; former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd; the Chicago Tribune's Jill Zuckman.

Watch it all by clicking following the link from HERE.

September 4, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (11)