Liveblogging the debate

It's at 9:00 PM EDT tonight. I will be liveblogging it so that people can have immediate access to my unique insight and commentary.

PRE-DEBATE THOUGHTS, 8:17 PM

* For the last few days, McCain's advisers, smart people all of them, have been stuffing Palin's head full of talking points and sound bites. If she says anything tonight that sounds intelligent, it was the smart people behind the scenes speaking through her. But will she be able to pull out the correct talking point or sound bite when faced with a novel question? Based on what we've seen in the Couric interview, she's not very good at that.

* This will be the most-watched vice presidential debate ever. Unfortunately for the McCain campaign, it's similar to the way people look at a train wreck. There's a chance that Palin could fail in a way that has never before been seen on a nationally televised debate. It could be a lot worse than James Stockdale turning off his hearing aid. People want to see if something horrible will happen. It reminds me of the O.J. Simpson car chase.

9:04 PM

Biden pisses me off: attacking Bush's policies while stating absolutely nothing specific that Democrats would have done differently.

9:06 PM

Palin recites what's pre-rehearsed statement that's not directly responsive to the question.

9:09 PM

OK answer from Palin sticking up for McCain.

9:12 PM

Biden says the crisis because Republicans didn't have enough regulations. This is false. The really story is that Republicans wanted to regulate Fannie Mae, but Democrats opposed it.

9:23 PM

Palin is bragging about raising taxes on oil companies in Alaska?

9:31 PM

I have no clue what the hell her "climate change" babbling is about.

9:37 PM

Biden sounds like Giuliani, talking about exporting alternative energy. The real answer here is that there's no practical transportation fuel other than gasoline. Wind and solar energy produce electricity, which isn't generated from oil in this country. Furthermore, the produce VERY EXPENSIVE electricity. Nuclear power is the only proven scaleable alternative to buring fossil fuels to create electricity.

10:00 PM

This liveblogging thing isn't working so well here as it did when I liveblogged the Republican debates a while back.

Comments

[amir]

HS: Have you seen these clips from Palin's Alaska governor debates?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/01/why-sarah-palin-is-a-bett_n_130742.html
It seems like a completely different person than we've seen in the Palin interviews.

[Snorrebrod]

In the car I heard someone from CBS news explain that this VP debate would cover "a wide range of topics." I think the McCain/Palin campaign got snookered pretty good if they agreed to that plan.

Biden's been around a long time. He has a superficially reasonable answer for every question, or else a slick way to change the subject. Not so Palin, but she could have been more effectively coached to the semblance of depth in one or two topics.

[Nathan]

I don't understand why HS is so damn giddy about putting down Palin.

Know this, if she does poorly tonight, then that will probably sink McCain's chances of becoming President.

I guess HS is such an elitist that he would rather have Obama as President than risk the chance that Palin could become Prez if McCain dies in office.

[RottonPickle]

We'll either come out of tonight thinking "Wow, where's she been all this time!" or we'll be resigned to our fate of sitting in the back of the bus with all the rest of the minority white kids.

...er, wait, I think we're going there regardless!

[The Undiscovered Jew]

I wonder who has the lower IQ, Palin, Biden or the negress, Gwen Ifill?

[Richard H]

First question, started well and now her voice is shaking. Biden brings up deregulation, she's not bringing up minorities. This is the problem of the Republics.

[JewishAtheist]

But will she be able to pull out the correct talking point or sound bite when faced with a novel question?

She couldn't handle Couric because Couric asked follow-up questions when she was non-responsive. My understanding of the rules of this debate is that follow-up questions are not allowed.

What a charade.

[Richard H]

"I'm not going to answer the question the way you or the moderator wants to hear."

????

[Days of Broken Arrows]

Here;s her problem: she doesn't know when to end a sentence. She rambles on and on and starts to sound nonsensical -- undercutting her original point.

Great orators -- and writers, for that matter -- know brevity is the soul of wit. Bill Clinton learned this the hard way when he was booed off stage at the 1988 Dem Convention for rambling.

How could McCane's advisors be so lame as to not notice this HUGE flaw in Palin's style? Aren't these Ivy Leaguers supposed to be smarter?

[ResidentCynic]

She's rambling, but she's not getting destroyed (so far). She'll lose the debate, but that won't matter - she doesn't completely suck which counts as a victory for her IMO.

[Mr. Mercy Vetsel]

This is so pathetic and depressing. Neither Palin nor McCain can articulate small-government conservatism.

Is it really that hard to explain how the GSE's, that is the GOVERNMENT Sponsored Entities caused this problem?

Good grief.

I'm so annoyed that the morons on the Christian right like Dobson didn't get on board with Romney.

I hope they enjoy Obama.

-Mercy

[Billare]

Like HS, I'm skeptical about her fitness for the job, but she's doing fairly well from the little I've seen. I don't doubt she worked very, very hard on preparing for the debate.

[Underachiever]

"I'm so encouraged to know that we both love Israel" -Palin
Israel is a small somewhat unimportant country. HS, the US's foreign policy is to support Israel.

Also, Palin has been well trained to improve this much in such a short time. She still sucks though; I have heard very little about fiscal conservatism beyond platitudes.

[weeeee]

"Nuclear power is the only proven scaleable alternative to buring fossil fuels to create electricity."

But what about nucular power?

[anon137]

i think the only conclusion to draw is that this is the most disappointing choice to make for the presidency, perhaps ever.

[rob]

It's a sad world when Democrats sound better on war and national security.

Did Biden refer to Bosnians as Bosniacs? He also sounds inconsistent on Iraq: Sunnis and Shiites will always hate each other. People said Bosnia would fail because they'll always hate each other, but Bosnia and Kosovo do work.

[david]

she's winning by being an idiot.

[Spungen]

Dammit, Sigma, where's your misogyny when we need it? She's a babbling idiot.

[Mr. Mercy Vetsel]

Why are Palin and McCain such stalwart defenders of Israel? Is it because they're afraid they'll lose the 10% of the Jewish vote that they get or is it because of all the support from the Jewish writers at the NYT?

I think they'd get more votes if they spoke the Jimmy Carter line on Israel.

I'm sure that they'd win over 10 Israel haters from the idjut wing of the Democrat party for ever voter they win with the "Israel is our closest ally line".

Hey, Sarah, why don't you try eliminating greed from Washington? We're not sending you to Wall Street!

-Mercy

[Spungen]

Can anyone think of any other prominent politician who had such a thick, singsong prairie accent? I can't.

[The Undiscovered Jew]

The Luntz group thinks Palin was good.

McCain will still lose of course. But hopefully because of Palin's performance will keep Osama's margin of victory be small and the House-Senate Republicans won't suffer huge loses.

[Vim]

I don't know if anybody noticed this but she mispronounced "Kim Jung Il" ...

I think the set up was pretty brilliant. She starts out by saying she's not going to answer questons the way the moderator and her opponent want ... ie ... I've memorized my answers and there is a high probability they won't match anything anybody else is saying.

[ziel]

"McCain will still lose of course. But hopefully because of Palin's performance will keep Osama's margin of victory be small and the House-Senate Republicans won't suffer huge loses."

Yes - that is key. It's important that Obama does not go into the White House thinking he's got middle (i.e, white) America in his back pocket. It will be critical that President Obama be kept honest. True, a close election did nothing to keep Bush humble, but I think Obama is more cautious than Bush.