The Tuesday 10-7-08 Presidential Debate ~ Thread

Let's keep the discussion on tonight's debate here and NOT overflow the P&R forum with multi threads

Thank you

P&R Mods ~

Over/under on number of McCain blinks tonight is 1,000,000.5.

I'm taking the over.

Yippee! I actually thought Obama was scheduled to be in Queens, NY today...boy was I wrong...but I definitely look forward to the debate tonight!! Getting popcorn ready!

http://prince.org/msg/15/286132


BARACK OBAMA, FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!! Get used to it HATERS!!

Okay, people! The second debate is town-hall style, and we all know "The Maverick" is the heavy favorite in that department. What do y'all think Obama has to do tonight to get another favorable rating?

MyNameIsPiper said:

Obama-McCain Campaign Barbs Shift to Nashville Town-Hall Debate



Oct. 7 -- Barack Obama and John McCain will take their long-distance name-calling to a more intimate, and perhaps awkward, setting tonight: a close-quarters, town-hall debate.

The presidential candidates will be seated six feet apart, on a horseshoe-shaped stage in Nashville, Tennessee, as the campaign grows increasingly tense and personal. Both nominees pledge to stay on offense during their second face-to-face debate, which could make for uncomfortable political theater, said Alan Schroeder, author of ``Presidential Debates: 50 Years of High-Risk TV.''

``It seems to me that the aggressive tone isn't very suitable for the town-hall debate,'' Schroeder said. ``The nature of the town hall is the candidates have to be responsive to the citizens,'' who are more interested in ``legitimate issues,'' than the ``the fighting between the two campaigns.''

McCain, 72, will try to leaven his attacks with humor, said Republican campaign aides, some of whom plan to wear cufflinks with a mock Obama presidential seal. McCain and his surrogates will be ``aggressive truth tellers'' on debate night, said senior adviser Nicolle Wallace. ``I don't accept the premise that that makes the campaign negative.''

Obama, 47, is prepared to return fire. ``Our first thing is always to talk about the issues,'' said Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to the Democratic nominee. ``But if we need to counterpunch, we're certainly prepared.''

Undecided Voters

Moderated by NBC News's Tom Brokaw at Belmont University in Nashville, the 90-minute session will cover questions from an audience of 80 undecided Tennessee voters. Brokaw, interim moderator of NBC's ``Meet the Press,'' will try to limit the candidates' responses to two minutes and keep the discussion on- subject.

That could be difficult. Since the weekend, McCain's vice presidential running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has criticized Obama for his association with William Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground radical group. She said Obama is someone who would ``pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.'' Obama once served on a charity board with Ayers, and has denounced the bombings by the Weather Underground, which took place when Obama was a child.

The Obama campaign hit back by launching a Web site about McCain's relationship with former savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating during the 1980s S&L collapse.

Harsh Rhetoric

McCain responded yesterday by unleashing some of his harshest lines about Obama to date. At a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, McCain criticized Obama's ``touchiness'' and said the Illinois senator ``will try to distract you from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate questions he has been asked.''

With less than a month before Election Day and Obama's support in opinion polls rising amid a financial crisis, both sides are seeking leverage.

The Democratic presidential candidate is trying to draw parallels between the current market turmoil and McCain's role in the savings-and-loan scandal. McCain's campaign, meanwhile, is focusing on raising questions about Obama's character, questioning his personal associations with Ayers and with Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

So far, McCain has left the Ayers charge to his running mate, though his campaign didn't rule out the possibility that McCain might raise the topic during the debate. ``We'll just see what the questioning is,'' Wallace said.

Punching Back

If McCain mentions Ayers, Wright or Obama's ties to real estate developer Tony Rezko, who was convicted of fraud, Obama's campaign says the Illinois senator will likely respond by talking about McCain's role in the so-called Keating Five.

``We're not going to get into the boxing ring with a guy that's going to throw punches and not throw punches back,'' Gibbs said. ``If these guys want to talk about relationships, we're more than prepared to do that.''

Obama's advisers have been preparing to criticize McCain's involvement with Keating since at least late September. The domain name for keatingeconomics.com, the site launched by Obama's campaign to show a video about McCain and Keating, was created on September 25, according to GoDaddy.com.

``It's a 13-minute documentary, so it's been in the works for a while,'' said Gibbs. ``But look, we're going to fight fire with fire.''

Keating Five

The so-called Keating Five included McCain, who was in his first term in the Senate representing Arizona, and four Democratic senators, none of whom are still in office. They faced accusations of improperly intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Keating, an Arizona businessman who was chairman of Lincoln Savings & Loan Association.

The Senate Ethics Committee ultimately found that McCain had ``exercised poor judgment'' and cleared him of wrongdoing. In his book ``Worth the Fighting For,'' McCain wrote that his decision to meet with regulators on Keating's behalf was ``the worst mistake of my life'' and that he had learned from the experience.

Trailing in every recent national poll, McCain heads into the debate with more ground to cover. ``With McCain's challenge getting tougher and tougher each day, the potential effectiveness of attacks by McCain gets less,'' said Charlie Cook, editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington. ``We're getting to the point when a campaign event isn't likely to alter the trajectory of the race.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Hans Nichols in Nashville at hnichols2@bloomberg.net ; Julianna Goldman in Asheville, North Carolina, at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net

ITS MAVRIK TIME!!!




OH!



OH!



OH, OH!

i wonder if the audience will be permitted to respond - that could have an impact on the candidates' reactions.

i'll be there with bells on. should be interesting.

I have a preminition of what McCain is going to say.

I'm a patriot!

I got Captured, I deserve to be president!

I'm a fucking Maverick!

I'm religious!

9/11

Did I remind all Americans that I was captured?
[Edited 10/7/08 11:27am]

IrresistibleB1tch said:

http://prince.org/msg/15/286132


BARACK OBAMA, FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!! Get used to it HATERS!!

jaimestarr79 said:

I am worried about the debate tonight!

Apparently, McCain does very well in the town hall meeting format?

This is why he wanted to do tall hall meetings across the U.S.!

Oh... I saw Oliver Stone on Larry King live last night. He was promoting his George W. Bush movie.

Anyway, Larry asked him if he knew George W. at Yale. And he said no, because he (Oliver) went to Vietnam. Then, they started talking about McCain. Oliver said he respected McCain as a war hero and of course a P.O.W., but Oliver was in the "ground forces" in Vietnam where as McCain was a pilot. He said something like usually pilots do not see the damaged the cause where as ground forces see it everyday. He said something like pilots can remain more detached. The he said that McCain always seems to have this us against them mentality and Oliver was even afraid he was a war monger!

Of course, Oliver made the disclaimer he was for Obama, but I thought his comments were interesting. And the movie is supposed to be sympathetic to George W.
[Edited 10/7/08 14:04pm]

3 hours til MAVRIK TIME!

MyNameIsPiper said:

IMHO, Obama cannot hammer home enough the fact that McCain = Bush, especially with respect to economic issues.

Does anyone know if I can watch the debate online?

Stymie said:

RodeoSchro said:

MyNameIsPiper said:

lascantas said:

I am worried about the debate tonight!

Apparently, McCain does very well in the town hall meeting format?

2the9s said:

lascantas said:

I am worried about the debate tonight!

Apparently, McCain does very well in the town hall meeting format?

I've heard that too! That's his element! Where he can be his most mavericky!

Seriously, in this kind of format, McCain absolutely shines. Like a God. It's incredible, it's like he suddenly draws all statesman-like qualities to himself like a force of nature. He is radiant and golden, and his words are like manna.

But it's also in his gestures, his presence, his pure and unadulterated gravitas, through which he destroys anyone in his path. He is a soul fresh from heaven on display in town hall meetings.

Like an old testament prophet.

It will be magnificent. HE will be magnificent.

The country will accept no less!

ShotKeywords = REFORM & MAVERICK

2the9s said:

lascantas said:

I am worried about the debate tonight!

Apparently, McCain does very well in the town hall meeting format?

I've heard that too! That's his element! Where he can be his most mavericky!

Seriously, in this kind of format, McCain absolutely shines. Like a God. It's incredible, it's like he suddenly draws all statesman-like qualities to himself like a force of nature. He is radiant and golden, and his words are like manna.

But it's also in his gestures, his presence, his pure and unadulterated gravitas, through which he destroys anyone in his path. He is a soul fresh from heaven on display in town hall meetings.

Like an old testament prophet.

It will be magnificent. HE will be magnificent.

The country will accept no less!

2the9s said:

lascantas said:

I am worried about the debate tonight!

Apparently, McCain does very well in the town hall meeting format?

I've heard that too! That's his element! Where he can be his most mavericky!

Seriously, in this kind of format, McCain absolutely shines. Like a God. It's incredible, it's like he suddenly draws all statesman-like qualities to himself like a force of nature. He is radiant and golden, and his words are like manna.

But it's also in his gestures, his presence, his pure and unadulterated gravitas, through which he destroys anyone in his path. He is a soul fresh from heaven on display in town hall meetings.

Like an old testament prophet.

It will be magnificent. HE will be magnificent.

The country will accept no less!

2elijah said:

MAVRIK TIME!!!!!

If McCain tries to start agreeing with Obama like Obama did in the last debate, I hope everyone see that as no better than attempting to co-opt Change as a campaign theme.

I made it home just in time!

warren Buffett would not take the job.

Meg Whitman? Nope. Not qualified.

2the9s said:

lascantas said:

I am worried about the debate tonight!

Apparently, McCain does very well in the town hall meeting format?

I've heard that too! That's his element! Where he can be his most mavericky!

Seriously, in this kind of format, McCain absolutely shines. Like a God. It's incredible, it's like he suddenly draws all statesman-like qualities to himself like a force of nature. He is radiant and golden, and his words are like manna.

But it's also in his gestures, his presence, his pure and unadulterated gravitas, through which he destroys anyone in his path. He is a soul fresh from heaven on display in town hall meetings.

Like an old testament prophet.

It will be magnificent. HE will be magnificent.

The country will accept no less!