Friday, September 26, 2008

US Presidential Debate 1 - Live Blogging

9.07 pm - McCain brings up Ted Kennedy (to me it sounds tacky - an obvious ploy to be classy).

9.20 pm - Did Obama just promise a tax cut for 95% of the USA, AND promise to build schools and bridges and stuff? Wow.

9.27 pm - God this is boring already. They are not going after each other at all. Memorized set pieces.

9.30 pm - "Using a hatchet where a scalpel is needed" - fantastic line from Obama.

9.37 pm - Obama goes after McCain - "you agree 90% of the time with Bush!"

9.39 pm - McCain gives a feeble reply and then brings up "I have been in Senate for a long time". Reference to his experience?

9.40 pm - McCain reply to Iraq is standard. "We are winning in Iraq, general is good, etc. etc."

9.41 pm - Obama's reply hasn't set any fires either. He says what he has to say (I disagreed / we should have been in Afghanistan). He should have accused John McCain of lack of proper judgment (bring up the 100 years).

9.43 pm - Brings up the surge which should be a plus point. Rightly brings up the O' Reilly show and Obama's daft comment ("surge worked"). Obama's reply should be interesting.

Obama says McCain thinks war started in 2007. Brings up early quotes and the slam "you were wrong". McCain is grinning like an idiot.

Now it's getting interesting. McCain says Obama doesn't understand the difference between tactic and strategy.

9.46 pm - McCain gets emotional (or tries to) with a story about how soldiers are running up to re-enlist to go to Iraq. Obama's background "this is not true" is not enough. He has to be forceful.

Obama explains his funding troops issue because it was a timetable issue. Question is - will it fly?

Obama is spending too much time on was this a wise war. He should pull out the bus into a ditch story he used in the debates against Hillary.

Did I say this debate is boring?

9.50 pm - McCain is pulling out names. He is boring, and I don't understand the point he is trying to make.

However Obama is not countering him forcefully. They are too used to being scripted.

9.51 pm - Obama rises to the Afghanistan issue. He says no one in Iraq has anything to do with 9-11. He says there was no Al Qaeda there. He says he always wanted to put troops there (should be music to Harper's ears).

Obama just mentioned Pakistan! When will he say he will bomb it? Now he brings up poppy trade.

AH PAKISTAN. "We have got to deal with Pakistan!" Let's see ...

9.53 pm - McCain replies. He promises not to abandon the Afghanistan again like they abandoned freedom fighters after they fought off the Russians. Does he know those freedom fighters are now the Taliban?

"I am not prepared to threaten Pakistan at this point." Good line. Works.

Obama is being schooled by McCain on the Afghanistan issue. Unbelievable.

9.56 pm - Obama is not blocking McCain at all.

"Pakistan is a very important element in all this."

Now, Obama is explaining his "bomb Pakistan" speech.

Haha, Obama brought up 'bomb Iran' and North Korea speech of McCain. This is good, now.

"If Pakistan is unwilling to cooperate we have to make some decisions," says Obama.

"We were anti-democratic," says Obama. Boy, he got guts to say that.

Now McCain calls Pakistan a 'failed state' when Musharref came to power.

So far Obama has come back with some effect on the Afghanistan issue.

9.58 pm - McCain brings up Bosnia, Kosovo and some other thing (yawn). Oh ya, Somalia. Why is he bringing that up? What has it go to do with Afghanistan. Oh, he has a record of being involved with national security issues, he says.

10.00 pm - One hour gone and so far no fireworks or gotcha moments. How long is this again?

Obama is now saying "he got a bracelet too". What? First time on live TV presidential candidates are debating on who is wearing bracelets.

"Let no US soldier die in vain again".

If you have a drink to every time Obama said "John you are absolutely right" and "our troops are doing a good job" you would be drunk by now.

"We are having enormous problems in Afghanistan because of Iraq."

He brings up McCain's "muddle through Afghanistan" comment.

10.02 pm - McCain scolds Obama for not visiting Afghanistan. He knows his VP pick got a passport only last year, right?

10.03 pm - Iran comes up. This should play to McCain's strength. Will he bring up Obama's readiness to talk to that leader?

Israel makes its first appearance.

"We cannot have a second holocaust." Woah! Did he watch Palin's interview?

Now he says Iran is lousy. They have a lousy government and their economy sucks, something to that effect. So if Iran has a nuclear weapon this is a threat to Israel and the world. I get it - Iran sucks.

OK. So what are you going to do about it?

10.06 pm - Obama correctly says Iraq war has emboldened Iran.

"Senator McCain is absolutely right." Again? Grrr!

Says he wants tougher sanctions.

"Tough diplomacy." Again, Obama brings it upon himself to bring that topic.

10.08 pm - McCain then latches on to this comment, saying talking with Ahmedinajad would give him a propaganda platform. "This will legitimize their behavior".

"I will sit down with anybody, but there has to be preconditions." McCain declares. Seriously he is more Bush while Bush is now more Obama.

10.10 pm - Obama says McCain's own adviser Kissinger says US should talk with Iran without preconditions. Very good gotcha moment, but next minute he mumbles the difference with preconditions and preparations.

Um, tough to say. Kissinger will surely come out with a reply now in McCain's favour.

10.12 pm - Obama says McCain doesn't even want to meet with a NATO ally, the President of Spain. He didn't expand on that.

McCain says he doesn't even have a seal! Haha, this is good stuff now. He calls Obama's approach "dangerous", followed by "he doesn't understand".

10.16 pm - The moderator cuts off just as they were getting fired up. McCain spews a great joke about a supposed meeting between Iranian President and Obama to great laughter.

10.19 pm - Obama explains his position on Russia, followed by McCain. McCain is very calm and cool and spews a lot of names.

"I saw three letters in Putin's eyes. K-G-B." Good quote. Wonder if Putin is watching.

10.24 pm - Obama follows McCain's cool explanation (and history lesson) with a proper explanation of its own. He is holding his own on Russia and Georgia.

In some ways this debate is boring but in other ways it is showing up the very different characteristics of the two men. McCain reacts and is on-the-spur whereas Obama can see the big picture and nuances with foresight.

10.29 pm - Will we have another 9/11? Ooooh.

A pause of silence. I think both candidates are shocked at the question.

McCain says we are safer but not safe yet.

Obama says we are safer in some ways. Er ... Will you say your opponent is right again!

Yes! Obama praises McCain on the torture issue (really! shut up about him already.) but fails to mention that McCain changed his mind on the torture issue lately.

McCain again says Obama doesn't understand.

10.32 pm - Obama makes a great point summation that over the last 8 years the focus on Iraq has made them less safer - "weakened our capacity to project our power throughout the world".

I see another Liblogger Last Canadian Exit... is also live-blogging the debate.

10.35 pm - McCain says he knows the veterans know he will take care of them. Wow. It sounds good. Republicans are all about good sound bytes.

Aha! Obama talks about his Kenyan father. And American dream. You can tell he is dying to give a speech!

Aha! McCain brings up his POW experience. He says he doesn't need any on-the-job training. Ouch. This is a nasty old man.

10.37 pm - It's over. I think I can safely call this a boring 0-0 draw.

10 comments:

A.L. said...

I agree... a tie.

Just saw Guiliani on NBC, wow he is a hack.

mezba said...

I am watching CNN and those guys are giving Obama the thumbs up. LOL, I wonder what Fox is saying.

tee dimensionist said...

I was super excited about this, couldn't wait to watch and less than half way through I went to the kitchen to make myself some dessert and STAYED there!

Oh-My-GOD.

So unbelievably boring!

Your post was funny though! Should have done something better with my time and then just read your post! If you're blogging about the next debate let me know!

mezba said...

And I came back early from Taraweeh for this!

grrr...

Anonymous said...

Fox news been the most popular in the states, and most watched had a poll and 82%went for mccain, 11% for obama, pro obama tv networks was closer, surpise surprise, so what doea that tell you, and here is another obama miss, 92% of americans agreed with bush after 9\11, and at the start of the iraq was was about 80%....so when he says mccain voted with bush 90% of the time, so did the people...lol. he is sooo stupid and will never get elected, no matter how much the networks try to help hium...

mezba said...

Ah well, it looks like polls are saying it was Obama's victory (BBC for some reason says McCain won).

I think this election is now Obama's to lose.

Jasen said...

A note on Anonymous's poll numbers from Fox. Fox's poll question was "Who won the debate?" The 3 answers were a) McCain (in RED); b) Obama (in white); c) Undecided (in white).
Why is McCain in RED when the other 2 answers are in white? Hmmm.... I wonder.

Aisha said...

Interesting. How do you live blog on blogger though? Continue update the publish icon? I want to do that for the Palin/Biden debate. Will you be watching that?

Also, 9.20 pm - Did Obama just promise a tax cut for 95% of the USA, AND promise to build schools and bridges and stuff? Wow.

No, he said that his tax reform suggestions would NOT affect 95% of us. He did not say that he would give tax cuts to 95% of us. Just that things wouldn't change. :) And he said we should prioritize to schools, etc, not that we should run around bulidng them!

I didn't find it boring, but again, it coudl be bceause I have a lot more at stake.

Aisha said...

Also, regarding this election, Obama's to lose.... I dont know about that. There is an issue with people saying, "we will vote for X" when in fact in the closed votign booth, they will do anything but.

mezba said...

Jansen: Fair and balanced indeed!

Aisha: Yes, you continuously edit/update the post and publish. So you would publish it the first time , hit Edit, change, and the publish post again.

You should do the Palin/Biden debate. One mistake I made was that I made it almost like a report. I should have just inserted quotes and my quick thoughts into it. This is the first time I did a live blog though.

I don't know if I will do the Palin/Biden debate as it's the same night as the Canadian debate (we are having an election also, just called recently, and we have a parliamentary form of democracy).

I don't know the timings yet, Canadian debates do tend to start earlier, so if the timings don't clash I will do the Palin/Biden otherwise not.