« September 2008 | Main | November 2008 »

LIVE DEBATE BLOG

October 15, 2008 9:05 PM

10:35 pm ET: Obama also closes well.  A strong debate all around -- for both candidates, Bob and Joe.  Believe it or not, the next stop for the live blog is November 4 -- Election Day.  We'll see you then -- when the polls, debates, and pundits make way for your votes.  We eagerly await your decision.

10:29 pm ET: The "long line of McCains" mark a slightly emotional, and probably effective, close.

No big slips for Obama -- measured against that standard, another great night for him.

I'm wishing we had had three debates this good -- maybe Joe the Plumber should have been called a few weeks ago . . .

10:23 pm ET: McCain gets a voucher plug in too, just for good measure.

And wow this has been a really interesting debate. If this had been the first, and not the third, I could see more impact for McCain. Plenty of distinctions drawn this evening.

10:20 pm ET: From ABC's Teddy Davis: McCain was wrong to state that small businessman "Joe the Plumber" would end up paying a fine if he refused to provide his workers with health insurance under Barack Obama's health-care plan.

Under the Obama plan, small businesses are exempted from a requirement imposed on large companies that they contribute to a national health fund if they fail to make "a meaningful contribution" to their employees' health care costs.

10:18 pm ET: The post-debate polls should be fascinating. My sense is that McCain has done much of what he needed to do tonight -- that may not matter for the race, but it's a key hurdle. If the polls show a big Obama win -- that's telling in itself.

10:12 pm ET: McCain: "I don't know how you vote present on something like that." He's painting the portrait tonight . . .

Obama's response on the "life-saving treatments" question just missed the mark, it seems to me.

10:09 pm ET: If you're curious about Joe the plumber, my ABC colleague Jake Tapper did a thorough write-up of the exchange he had with Obama yesterday.

10:06 pm ET: Almost a really interesting Roe v. Wade answer. "I would never . . . " impose a litmus test, McCain says. He didn't follow with the typical code words a conservative candidate gives. Instead, he turns to the Gang of 14.

Sen. Obama most definitely did not vote against Justice Breyer. He was not in the Senate at the time. Clearly Obama misspoke.

10 pm ET: ABC's Matt Jaffe notes that Joe Biden likes to call John McCain's healthcare plan "cockamamie." Biden has recently argued that Petraeus - despite not saying as much - has essentially implemented Biden's Iraq outline. (Which was NOT a partition of the country, for the record.)

9:57 pm ET: Noticing the eyes -- McCain looking right at the camera as he explains his plans, McCain looking at the moderator. A little thing that helps Sen. Obama look presidential. John McCain only looks at the camera when he talks to Joe the plumber (who has officially gotten way too much air time).

Sen. Obama's plan is NOT single-payer.

9:51 pm ET: Drilling is a McCain comfort zone -- and he gets at it by attacking Obama's "words."

He's painting a broad portrait, without saying the words, that you just can't trust Barack Obama -- that his promise is based on something false, or at least faulty.

9:49 pm ET: More than halfway home -- clearly McCain isn't afraid of being aggressive, seated at a table or no.

9:48 pm ET: From ABC's Bret Hovell: By bringing out Bill Ayers and ACORN, John McCain makes an effort to placate those conservative voters who are frustrated that he has not been hard enough on Barack Obama - like the ones who on Friday confronted McCain at a town hall meeting in Minnesota. This feels like it could be a direct response to the five or so people who begged McCain to "take the gloves off."

9:44 pm ET: Obama: "If we have an across-the-board spending freeze, we're not going to" be able to expand autism research.

McCain attacks Biden in a way that Obama didn't attack Palin. "Cockamamie idea"! Don't tell me John McCain wasn't ready to mix it up with lines like that.

Big Obama smile on the cutaway shot while McCain attacks on spending.

9:43 pm ET: McCain on Palin: "She's a reformer through and through." "She'll be my partner." But wasn't the question what happens if her partner, um, can't serve?

9:40 pm ET: An odd cut on the running-mate question. But Obama uses it to build up Biden -- continuing the strategy of pretending as if Sarah Palin does not exist.

9:39 pm ET: I'm still perplexed about this "all the facts need to come out" thing from the McCain campaign. Why not make it about the substance, not alleged cover-ups?

9:35 pm ET: HERE COMES AYERS -- and ACORN too. Wrapped in a Hillary Clinton mention. "All of these things need to be examined," McCain says.

The response: "Forty years ago, when I was eight years old, he engaged in despicable acts . . . I have roundly condemned those acts." Obama lays out the relationship like he typically does. And ACORN had "nothing to do with us."

I'm not sure how to score this one -- but it's a measure of the McCain campaign that so much is pinned to these two factoids.

9:33 pm ET: McCain: "I'm proud of the people that come to our rallies." (That was another Ayers opportunity he didn't take, by the way.)

This is a lot of time McCain is taking on the Lewis thing.

9:30 pm ET: "Senator Obama is spending unprecedented . . . amounts of money on negative attack ads on me," McCain says. That will not make them stop, or get him much in the way of sympathy. "I did not hear a repudiation of Congressman Lewis." (That's because there wasn't one.)

Also -- is it weird that Obama said a few times "your running mate," but didn't mention Sarah Palin? "I do think that he inappropriately drew a comparison," he says, finally, on Lewis.

9:28 pm ET: No surprise that they both use a question about tone to complain about the other side. Strikes me though that they both missed an opportunity to lower the temperature in a statesmanlike way.

And so the attacks will continue.

9:26 pm ET: Say it to his face, Schieffer says. "I regret some of the negative aspects of both campaigns," McCain said. But instead of then saying it to his face -- he attacks Rep. John Lewis, which is legit, sure. But he did NOT jump at the opening this provided to the Bill Ayers issue.

9:24 pm ET: From ABC's Teddy Davis: During tonight's debate, McCain said that Hillary Clinton proposed the same kind of mortgage buy-up plan that he did.
This is not true.
While Clinton has proposed directly helping homeowners by having the government buy and resell mortgages that are in danger of foreclosure, her proposal would force financial institutions to take a loss.
The McCain proposal, by contrast, is more generous to financial institutions and more costly for taxpayers.

9:23 pm ET: "When it comes to economic policies, essentially what you are proposing is eight more years of the same thing," Obama says.

9:20 pm ET: Obama was asked for specific cuts and he talks "new direction."

McCain: "If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run for president four years ago." Clearly he had that one ready -- a good line, easily cuttable into a soundbite.

But McCain is still saying he'd balance the budget within four years? This is silliness, and I think McCain knows it. I look forward to his campaign explaining how, exactly, he'll do this while extending the Bush tax cuts and funding bailouts.

9:17 pm ET: First mention of Hillary Clinton belongs to McCain. But then he starts talking energy independence and a whole bunch of other stuff? What does that have to do with a spending freeze (and didn't he just spend that $300 billion)? This response has the Palin problem -- lots of words, tumbling over each other. "A half a trillion dollars we owe China." Earmarks too in this answer. Over-eager tonight?

9:15 pm ET: Seems to me that the off-the-bat skirmish fell along rather predictable lines. That's all well and good -- but predictable is not great for John McCain, who needs more than Joe the plumber to un-clog the race.

9:11 pm ET: Joe the plumber wins the debate so far. McCain: "I want Joe the plumber to spread the wealth around." But then he said the whole premise of Obama's plan was "spread the wealth around"? Anyone else lost on that one?

And maybe enough of "Joe the plumber."

Also -- ABC's Jake Tapper notes that he got the last name wrong. It's Joe WurzelBACHER. Not Joe WurzelBURGER

9:08 pm ET: Think McCain had this one ready to go? Even remembered the guy's last name. "Joe was trying to realize the American Dream." McCain talking right to Joe: "I'll keep your taxes low. . . . I will not stand for a tax increase." (That's a real important distinction for him to draw -- if he loses the tax argument, he loses the election.)

9:06 pm ET: Sen. Obama also gets specific right away -- looking right to the camera with his bailout package for the middle class. And if you're looking for the first candidate to draw a distinction tonight, it's Obama, not McCain.

9:03 pm ET: "Americans are hurting right now, and they're angry." Populist tone out of the bat for McCain. "New direction." And an immediate turn to Fannie and Freddie -- obscure stuff, still, but the right gets really energized blaming Democrats for this. McCain carves out the $300 billion from the $700 billion -- that's a bit of a shift. Like the previous debates, McCain goes from broad to specific right away.

During tonight's debate, McCain said that Hillary Clinton proposed the same kind of mortgage buy-up plan that he did.
This is not true.
While Clinton has proposed directly helping homeowners by having the government buy and resell mortgages that are in danger of foreclosure, her proposal would force financial institutions to take a loss.
The McCain proposal, by contrast, is more generous to financial institutions and more costly for taxpayers.

October 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (2224)

Live Video Coverage of Debate

October 15, 2008 7:11 PM

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Our live coverage of the debate, with me and Sam Donaldson, starts with a preview show at 8 pm ET.

Click HERE for video via ABC NewsNOW.

And check back to this blog at debate time for running commentary. . . .

-- Rick Klein

October 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (97)

Richardson: Obama Expecting 'Erratic' McCain Attacks

October 15, 2008 7:04 PM

Per ABC's Sunlen Miller, Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., offers this piece of spin (and notice the word "erratic," since you will see it again): "We're expecting that McCain is going to try to get a game changer – try to hit a homerun by being negative. And Obama is going to respond in a very positive way about the economy, about health care, about America’s role overseas. That’s the difference between the two candidates."

"Sen Obama's main challenge is to do as well as he did in the other debates, talk about the issues, be bipartisan, appear calm and knowledgeable, and not erratic like Sen McCain and talk about the economy. The economy. The economy."

"Sen Obama is not overconfident. He is working hard to get every vote. This race is not over. It looks good and we're getting great movement in battleground states. I think the American people are seeing Sen Obama as the positive candidate, the unifying candidate. The candidate that can bring the country together that is bipartisan. The candidate for change. And they are seeing Sen McCain as being the negative candidate. Who's just attacking. And that’s now working."

October 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (38)

If McCain Doesn’t Attack . . .

October 15, 2008 5:42 PM

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- The setting tonight makes attacks, shall we say, uncomfortable. It will be Barack Obama and John McCain seated at a table, in close quarters, moderator Bob Schieffer across from them.

The thinking here, in Republican and Democratic circles, is that McCain is coming prepared with something dramatic. Maybe a policy proposal, like he brought out at the last debate, maybe an announcement of a Cabinet official -- or maybe, just perhaps, a real attack.

Keep in mind that if McCain doesn’t come out swinging tonight, he will disappoint many of his supporters -- up to and including his running mate.

If McCain doesn’t come out swinging -- raising, at the very least Bill Ayers -- he will have to be prepared for an evisceration in right-wink talk radio and blogs.

Maybe he’s thinking about legacies that are broader than that -- but as he thinks strategically about tonight and beyond, this has to be a consideration.

What do you expect out of McCain tonight?

-- Rick Klein

October 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (43)

Hillary in the House

October 15, 2008 2:28 PM

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Since Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is so firmly committed to being “the best senator from New York that I can be,” naturally she’s showing up at tonight’s presidential debate in her home state.

She’ll be in the hall at Hofstra this evening -- which makes for some intriguing opportunities for the debate’s contestants.

Does Sen. Barack Obama recognize her in some way? Or does Sen. John McCain do so first?

Does McCain use her presence to remind viewers that Clinton was the first to raise the Obama-Bill Ayers relationship in a debate, saying at ABC’s debate in April that it is “an issue that people will be asking about” -- and predicting (rightly, it would turn out) “that this is an issue that certainly the Republicans will be raising”?

Unlike New York’s senior senator, Charles Schumer, Clinton is not on the Obama campaign’s designated list of post-debate spinners.

But she will be making the TV rounds during post-debate coverage, according to a spokesman -- regardless of whether she comes up in tonight’s discussion.

-- Rick Klein

October 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (6)

Will Phanatics Phorget Debate in Philly?

October 15, 2008 1:58 PM

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Those hard-to-reach voters in Eastern Pennsylvania (John McCain was in the wonderful town of Blue Bell, Pa., just Tuesday) may be even harder to reach tonight.

In an unfortunate bit of timing, Game Five of the National League Championship Series starts at 8:22 pm ET Wednesday. That’s about half an hour before Bob Schieffer tosses out the first pitch here at Hofstra University.

Up 3-1 against the Los Angeles Dodges, the Philadelphia Phillies have a chance to capture their first World Series berth in 15 years this evening.

Asks the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Larry Eichel: “What if they held a presidential debate and hardly anyone watched?”

-- Rick Klein

October 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (7)

This Just In: McCain is a Republican

October 15, 2008 1:43 PM

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Rick Klein here from ABC's The Note -- I'll be blogging all day from the site of the third and final presidential debate at Hofstra University on (my native) Long Island. 

Amid all the will-he-or-won't-he speculation surrounding what Sen. John McCain has to do tonight, an interesting vein is emerging in the pre-spin: McCain wants voters to know that he's a Republican.

"He's heartened by the fact that Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are planning a liberal takeover of all of the branches of government -- measuring the drapes," said McCain senior adviser Nicolle Wallace, on CBS Wednesday morning.

Said another senior adviser, Nancy Pfotenhauer, on MSNBC: “We just can't afford Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama with a blank check and their signature on it.”

On one level, the argument makes perfect sense: In this formulation, McCain is the last bulwark against a Democratic takeover in Washington. It gets the based revved up, and maybe scares independents about their taxes.

But doesn't this run the risk of undercutting McCain's central appeal? In a year that's terrible for Republicans, he's spent so much time trying to tell us he's a different kind of Republican -- a "maverick," if you haven't noticed -- who can, heaven forbid, work with Democrats.

After a campaign spent running against his own party (and with that 90-percent wrong-track number, who wouldn't?), is McCain now interested in advertising the fact that he's a Republican? What happened to reaching across the aisle?

If he talks tonight about the need for a Republican president to check a Democratic Congress, I'd look for the Obama campaign to use it as evidence for the tag they're trying to apply to McCain: "erratic," they'll say.

October 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (38)

LIVE DEBATE BLOG

October 07, 2008 9:03 PM

That's it for tonight folks -- two down, just one to go. Check back for more analysis tomorrow morning, as always, in The Note.

9:28 pm CT: Before the dizzying spin begins -- I find it hard to declare a winner. Tie goes to the frontrunner, perhaps, in the conventional wisdom? I don't see McCain hitting things that shake it all up.

9:27 pm CT: From Ron Claiborne:  For those who care about debate style: Obama watches McCain raptly whenever McCain speaks. McCain again is having a hard time looking at Obama when he speaks.

9:25 pm CT: McCain makes actual physical contact with an actual real-life voter.

9:23 pm CT: Why do politicians like saying "petrodollars"? And who cares whether candidates think Russia is an "evil empire"? Red Sox fans think the Yankees are an evil empire -- and, as it pains me to point out, the Yanks haven't won in a while.

9:17 pm CT: I'm not seeing any big breakthrough moments -- McCain is better relating to the audience, but Obama is having what qualifies as emotional connections. Maybe it's the format -- but I'm not seeing anything that changes any trajectories so far. (Anyone else ready for this format to be retired?)

9:14 pm CT: From a colleague: No winners in this debate. But there is one loser…Tom Brokaw. What is he doing here?

My take -- he's enforcing silly rules, or trying to. Then asking follow-ups that tend toward less light, not more.

Watch for this line from GOP mouths -- this wasn't a "real" town hall, and that's why McCain didn't "win."

9:12 pm CT: Getting some e-mails on something I missed earlier -- McCain didn't really engage on the "sacrifice" question, while Obama did, evoking the post-9/11 period.

9:11 pm CT: Then McCain attacks Obama for being a hawk -- "Sen. Obama likes to talk loudly."

9:10 pm CT: "We will kill bin Laden, we will crush al Qaeda." Those were Obama's lines.

9:08 pm CT: I can't imagine a single voter caring about the debate that just played out on Iraq. Not that it's unimportant, just that it's played out.

9:06 pm CT: The word "Ayers" has not been uttered tonight. Neither has the word "Keating."

9:05 pm CT: A friend who's keeping track notes that, more than an hour in, there have been six questions from people in the auditorium. Six.

9:03 pm CT: ABC's Ron Claiborne, on the "That One" line: "Tonally, seemed dismissive, maybe even contemptuous. It could provide Obama camp with an opportunity to onsinuate more than that, even racially-charged, a version of the phrase "you people." Obama press people quickly noted it in e-mail to reporters."

They did. One Obama supporter e-mails me to call it his "get off my lawn" moment.

9:02 pm CT: Obama finds a good stride talking about McCain's "wrong judgment." This was one of his better moments at the first debate, too.

Also, John McCain is taking a lot of notes. Seems like he's scribbling something every time the camera cuts to him.

8:59 pm CT: McCain: "America is the greatest force for good . . . " I don't think many listeners would disagree. I don't know, I legitimately don't, whether people want to hear about it at this precarious time. Maybe McCain is onto something -- it reminds me of Romney at his best in the primaries. But it does muddle a bit the I'm-not-Bush message.

8:58 pm CT: Don't hate on Delaware -- that's where Biden's from . . .

8:56 pm CT: An emotional connection, by Sen. Obama, on healthcare -- talking about his mother's struggles with insurers toward the end.

8:55 pm CT: Is health care a privilege, a right, or a responsibility, Brokaw asks. And America answers: Who cares? I just want to make sure I have it, for less money.

8:53 pm CT: In the un-green race to pass out as much paper as possible, the McCain campaign is destroying the Obama campaign once again. Aides scurry about handing out paper copies of the press releases every reporter gets via e-mail, several times over, usually. No Obama paper, as in the previous debates.

8:50 pm CT: Should healthcare be treated as a commodity? Obama talks about what an important and vital issue this all is -- and then . . . waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting. "We have a moral commitment as well as an economic imperative to do something . . . " This might have been a good opportunity to score on an emotional level, not a policy one.

"Do the math," McCain says on his healthcare plan. (Because he didn't right there.)

8:48 pm CT: Who voted for it? "That one!" McCain said, pointing, with that weird smile he sometimes cracks.

8:46 pm CT: Brokaw a stickler for the rules -- how much time being wasted trying to enforce them, though? Enough for an extra question?

8:43 pm CT: Almost halfway in, it's McCain attacking -- with a smile. He's the happy warrior so far, trying to stay optimistic while drawing the distinctions he needs to. No big game-changers yet, though.

8:42 pm CT: McCain calls for an up-or-down vote on entitlement reform. Sounds like something real there.

McCain: "Sen. Obama voted 94 times" to raise taxes. "That's his record." That's a laughable charge and McCain knows it.

8:41 pm CT: From ABC's Bret Hovell: McCain continues to attack Obama in almost every answer and Obama either responds or, sometimes, doesn't. But Obama's not putting McCain on the defensive at any point.

8:39 pm CT: Meanwhile, are all these questions turning into an argument over who's going to raise your taxes?

8:38 pm CT: Obama can tell tired jokes too: "The Straight Talk Express lost a wheel on that one."

8:37 pm CT: Brokaw slaps down Obama's attempt at a follow-up to the follow-up.

8:35 pm CT: Obama's tax proposals "like nailing Jell-O to the wall." I haven't tried, but that would sound difficult. Cute line. Then the meat -- Obama's tax hike is a hike on small businesses. "I've got some news, Sen. Obama -- the economy is bad."

(Waiting for the oppo research that points out McCain saying the "fundamentals of our economy are strong.")

More from the rah-rah McCain: "Let's not raise anybody's taxes."

8:33 pm CT: Obama raises the "revenue side," gingerly. That means taxes. He's engaging on the issue here, to his credit on an intellectual level. This is a key bridge for him to build -- he needs voters who are hearing a whole lot about his tax hikes to think about this as leveling the playing field, not making people empty their pockets.

"Those of us like myself and Sen. McCain who don't need help" -- that's similar to a Kerry line in 2004.

8:29 pm CT: McCain doesn't get real specific on cuts either -- in fact, tonight he just proposed a new spending program inside the Treasury department at the same time he's talking about his "spending freeze." Did you feel that thaw? By the McCain campaign's own count, this new program would cost $300 billion. With a B.

"We're not rifle shots here. We're Americans!" McCain says. (Sorry, but this one seems forced.)

8:25 pm CT: "We're going to have to prioritize," Obama says. Top of the list is energy, and energy independence. "And we can do it." Health care grabs No. 2. Then No. 3 is education. But wasn't the point of the question what you can't have?

8:23 pm CT: ABC's Bret Hovell points out that that is indeed a new McCain proposal: To have the Treasury department have the ability to buy up struggling home loan mortgages and renegotiate them at the new value of the home so that people can make their payments.

An intriguing debate tactic, to have that in his hip pocket.

But, from ABC's Ron Claiborne: How is this different than his HOME program to buy up subprime mortgages taken out since 2005 by "credit worthy' homnowners facing foreclosure and give them a new loan, fixed, based on current home value? He says 400,000 people would be eligible for that. Is he saying now -- can we infer -- he's talking about ALL troubled loans, a much bigger program? If so, that would be a change from his position last spring when he said people who got in over their heads and shouldve known better and speculators shouldn't be helped.

8:20 pm CT: Again, that would be McCain saying a voter's name, instead of starting an answer, "well, look." For what it's worth. And McCain calls out for bipartisanship -- this is reaching to the center, really a key goal of his tonight. Your contrast: Obama blamed George Bush, McCain said bipartisanship. WAIT -- spoke too soon -- this was really to set up a he's-a-liberal attack.

8:19 pm CT: Obama says there's "blame to go around," and then applies it in one direction. "Sen. McCain voted for four out of five of those George Bush budgets," he says. (That was an unprovoked jab, it seems.) Then comes more laundry list out of Obama, nothing really outstanding there.

8:18 pm CT: So far, both are playing populist cards. In the early discussion on the economy, I don't see either one distinguishing himself on the big question of the moment.

8:17 pm CT: Obama says he wants to "change the culture in Washington." That and other bromides are sure to fix everything, right?

8:14 pm CT: Obama needs to correct McCain's statements, "not surprisingly." (Was that necessary?) But he's not staying above the fray -- this isn't above-it-all Obama tonight early on.

8:11 pm CT: Now both candidates are touting the bailout package. (And why is McCain still talking about how he suspended his campaign for this.)

First attack -- Senator Obama and his friends, and his cronies, who defended Fannie and Freddie. This one is a bank shot, sort of hard to explain (lots of meanwhiles). But it looks like McCain is jumping at opportunities tonight, even when they're not directly offered. "Others took a hike," McCain says.

And -- McCain right up in voters' faces. Really moving in close.

8:08 pm CT: "Not you, Tom." (What did Brokaw do to deserve that dig?) McCain drives the right NUTS by mentioning Warren Buffet for treasury secretary. (They'll be much happier about Meg Whitman.)

Obama: "Warren would be a pretty good choice." So far, the Sage of Omaha is winning the debate.

ABC's Jennifer Parker points out that McCain is mentioning voters' names -- strong connections with the audience.

8:07 pm CT: McCain is roaming the stage, playing to his strength. And comes out with a policy proposal to help people stay in their homes -- a strong lead answer, to have a meaty response to that. McCain looks confident early.

8:06 pm CT: McCain: "Sen. Obama, good to be with you at a town hall meeting." Took approximately two sentences for the first dig.

8:04 pm CT: Obama leads off -- "worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and a lot of you, Ithink are worried." He looks back from the beginning -- "final verdict" on Bush-era policies. But he was asked about what to do next -- and leads with the bailout package. (I didn't think either of them would want to tout that tonight.)

But Obama is the first to talk about tax cuts tonight -- will be interested to see how McCain hits back on that point. He also says "middle class" first.

8:02 pm CT: John McCain quick to make eye contact from the start -- he won't want that storyline to repeat itself.

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (480)

Live Coverage of Tonight's Debate

October 07, 2008 7:42 PM

Live video coverage of tonight's debate on ABC NewsNOW is available HERE.

Our pre-debate show starts at 8 pm ET -- me and Sam Donaldson hosting. We'll carry the whole debate, then do a half-hour wrap-up.

Tune in HERE, and I'll be blogging HERE throughout the debate.

-- Rick Klein

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (195)

The One-Way Debate?

October 07, 2008 7:30 PM

Just like last week's vice-presidential debate was all about Sarah Palin, tonight's presidential debate is all about John McCain -- right?

That's the media's judgment, and the very real sense in Nashville. McCain -- by dint of being down in the polls, and telegraphing a newly aggressive approach to the campaign -- seems to have all the pressure on him, to deliver for his base and for the still-moveable independent voters.

A bad McCain night and the narrative could be written for the final 27 days -- not in a way he would like.

True -- to a point. I just spoke with a top Obama adviser who didn't dispute that McCain has more at stake (of course, Obamaland would argue that precise point) but also made an interesting observation: Something north of 50 million people are watching tonight.

Most of them don't care about what the media filter has to say about who has what at stake. Many of them still probably need convincing about Obama, too -- that old "commander-in-chief" threshold we seemed a tad obsessed with just two weeks ago.

Just a thought -- but don’t both candidates have everything at stake every time they debate this late in the election?

-- Rick Klein

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (114)