I’m on ABC today – time for the Presidential Debate. I’ll be blogging live alongside Bess, a raging feminist liberal who is apparently currently drunk. Me, I’m tearing up my house for the baby.
I don’t know if ABC is a liberal news establishment, but I do know that they have a PBS guy moderating. He doesn’t want boos and hisses, that won’t be fun.
2103: They meet in the middle – I wish I could read lips. Fraudulent smiles all around.
2105: Obama gets us off on the right foot – he’s asked a question, he talks about things other than the question. That’s my main metric for tonight, number of times the candidates answer something other than the question.
BO: 1, MR: –
2106: Mitt has a “tender” moment with Barack. Mitt’s finding Joe the Plumber in Dayton and Denver. Mitt is answering the question. Independence, free trade, skills, small business, and something in the middle. He did answer the question. He’s falling behind. “Tickle down government”. Zing!
2108: BO, please respond directly to Mitt’s statement. BO: Let me tell you something about job training.
BO: 2, MR: 0
2111: Romney makes a good point – the rich will live richly regardless of the president. Good point. Uhh, no gas hasn’t doubled. Bess also makes a good point. Mitt’s hair is plasticine.
2112: I do like lists. Romney keeps making lists. I don’t want permits on government land. But it’s consistent with his view.
2114: Obama pointing out that Romney is making promises that are impossible. I do like the differences in body language. Romney looks excited while Obama is talking, possibly even coked up. Obama looks bored, possibly asleep.
2118: Obama oversells the amount of extra money the government will be able to extract from the wealthy. That said, I’m cool with them paying a higher tax rate. He just oversells its economic impact.
2120: Romney does seem to be enjoying himself. He’s not a train wreck.
2122: Not for nothing, but I have tons and tons of deductions and exemptions. I can see why people would like to get rid of them…but I like them. BTW, reducing deductions and loopholes is probably regressive against the middle class, what with their mortgages and whatever.
2125: Don’t bully Jim Lehrer, Mitt. Bullies never win and winners never bully!
2126: Deficit is immoral. How do you cut it? Taxes, cut spending, grow economy. How about all three? Why do we have to throw out one entirely?
2127: Mitt hit a home run with the borrow to China thing, with the Big Bird thing, and with the liking Jim thing. That said, I rather like PBS, except for when they call me CONSTANTLY as they are now. They’re almost as bad as the Red Cross.
2129: Mitt’s patronizing smirk is bothering me. Not gonna lie.
2130: Good for Obama, both revenue and spending cuts.
2131: Mitt’s trillion and “hey, you had 4 years” business was good work. He’s totally wrong about the bi-partisan budget plan. Obama let that rot on the vine. That was bad. He had to grab that and work off of it.
2135: Yes, eliminate government subsidies. Start with biofuels.
2136: Just got bored. Zzzz…
2137: I think Mitt has allergies are something. He’s looking nostalgic.
2139: I kinda like states covering the poor. “States are the laboratories of democracy”. Good.
2143: Bess just had a good Pelosi joke.
2143: I grilled some cabbage tonight for dinner. It was tasty, as far as cabbage goes.
2145: Romney and Ryan have such a complicated relationship. They both want to keep the stick of the other off of them, but they need each other to maintain their internal, Republican power base.
2147: Romney’s blinking a lot too. He has eye problems, medical ones. I’m not sure I need to hold his glassiness against him. What do you think about the voucher system Mitt?
2148: Obama has made universal healthcare the standard. Now Romney needs a plan which includes some aspect of universal health care. In that sense, Obamacare is a success.
2152: Jim’s getting catty. I’m losing focus.
2153: We did a reasonable job on regulation. Dodd-Frank is too complicated. Was their too much oversight? Obviously not.
2155: Good point on clear regulations for Mitt. Nobody’s winning this debate. Jim wants to go to Health Care. I thought we were already talking about that.
2156: I hate personal stories. People from Wisconsin and small businesses blah blah blah. I hate it when they put a human face on things. I’m with Elliot – how about we get some real numbers, and look at those. If there’s anything that needs a good statistic, it’s government.
2158: We’re in an anecdotal evidence fight now. A family in Sheboygan, Michigan pitted against a small business in Duluth, Minnesota. Grudge match.
2159: Another personal tidbit, I was up at 4:45 this morning so that I could start a bench shift at 6 AM.
2159: Does anyone else think that kids should grow up sooner? Move off the parent’s health insurance?
2200: Obama just charmed his way out of the 2-minute warning. And that little point to the side was him motioning for the Navy Seals to be deployed to Jim Lehrer’s house. I see a neck snap in his future.
2202: What if they mandated that states guarantee insurance? Cut a bunch of federal aid if they don’t do it. Is that a terrible idea?
2204: Reduce health care costs = make medical school cost less + make liability less of an issue.
2205: Obama likes buying health care in bulk and trying to find efficient testing methodologies. What’s the downside there? By the way, my health insurance at work costs a whole lot more than it did 4 years ago. Just saying.
22:06: My eyeballs are tired.
2207: Something funny just happened off stage. Was there a streaker? I wish I could see what Barack was looking at.
2207: A while ago, Hanna “I” told me I could never run for political office. Now, I am pretty good with words. But I could never do a debate like this – these guys are so well drilled. In addition, I’d be fidgeting like crazy. Would people find it endearing? Probably not. Bess would make fun of me.
2210: This has been a good debate. Maybe not particularly exciting, but Mitt is doing well, and Obama is his normal eloquent self. He’s becoming more sacrastic and ironic though.
2211: Jen wants to punch Mitt in the face for pushing Jim around. Obama did it 10 minutes ago, but was charming about it.
2214: Even when Obama bumbles, he does it well. Everything he says sounds halfway epic.
2217: Mitt is doing a decent job answering the role of gov’t question. He really is doing quite well.
2218: Romney just called “low income” kids “poor” kids. Who does he think he is, a normal person? A president can’t call people poor.
2219: Budgets reflect principles says Obama, good point. Non-detailed Republican trend, says Obama, good point.
2220: I am getting bored. Jim really is giving Obama more leeway with the time thing.
2222: He’s still going. Cut him off. President not entitled to his own facts, says Romney. Romney is doing a good job hammering the green job thing – by the way, government subsidies in new technologies is not bad.
2224: Jim just used 1 of those last 3 minutes warning about the lack of minutes left.
2225: Bess keep hammering Mormons, and I’m cool with that, since they made up their religion less than 200 years ago and use a bastardized version of Christianity as their basis. But Obama is nominally protestant, and we’re not a whole lot less evangelical in our worldview.
2227:53: Obama starts his “two minute” closing statement. Here’s more “people”. Woman in NC, company in Minnesota. Auto workers in Toledo and Detroit. How many conceptual names can he drop? I wonder if those people or businesses actually exist. No one could call him on it, as they are too vague to be verifiable. 2230:07 – not bad.
2230:10: Romney’s up. Boy, he’s been pretty good. His campaign’s decision to make him into the underdog was a good idea – he was not overmatched here. He hasn’t fake name dropped yet. 2:01 for Mitt! Wow.Good timing.
Man. I’m going to bed.
2233: Look at all those robot children Romney has! That was a nice moment, those families milling about.
Words 
Nostalgic. Yes, exactly.