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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)

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