Thursday Oct 16th - day after 3rd Presidential Debate

Last night’s debate was the last in the 4 game series, early polling of independents showed that Obama won this one as convincingly as he and his running mate Joe Biden have won the three previous debates.

Apparently Barack Obama and his buddies at that evil organization they call ACORN have been attacking the ‘very fabric of our democracy’!?

McCain threw everything he could at cool hand BO last night, even accusing BO and his buddies at ACORN of 'threatening the very fabric of our democracy' but came out looking like an angry old curmudgeon. Grumpa McNasty just couldn’t sit still, constantly rustling around in his seat making audible grunts and groans as Barack Obama spoke. When the camera was on him he smirked a lot and adopted more sarcasm than an English Waiter serving a plaid suited Texan, in short he was the most un-presidential curmudgeon imaginable. However, according to the numerous republican pundits employed by the networks for post debate punditry, this was exactly what they wanted to see, yeah don’t ask!

Here’s a few other opinions....
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First, there was this from Tom Daschle on Countdown, I paraphrase: "about 2/3 of the American people see John McCain as an angry candidate, it looked to me that he spent the last 90 minutes, trying to convince the other third."…..brilliant!

Check it out direct Daschle’s about a minute in…

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Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire
Reactions to Last Night's Debate
If you missed last night's presidential debate, CQ Politics has the "bests and mosts."

I thought Obama won. Here are some other reactions.

Ezra Klein: "McCain scored the most points, and lost the debate. He was looking to land shots, and often succeeded. But the effort to find openings and vulnerabilities left him with little time to appear presidential. And if he connected with jabs, he never found his knockout blow. Worse, the attacks came at a cost: The angry energy showed on McCain's face as clearly as in his answers."

David Yepsen: "John McCain lost the final debate of the 2008 presidential campaign Wednesday night. As a result, he may well have lost the election, too."

Chuck Todd: "As for the big pic, it's hard to see how this debate changed the trajectory of this race. It's now clear, for posterity, that Obama won the debate season. McCain won the convention season and that got him in the game, but the combination of the massive economic downturn with the debates has put McCain in as deep of a hole as any nominee has been this late in the process since Bob Dole. The map continues to look more favorable to Obama than McCain. But it's now in the hands of the voters. There's not much more information left to learn."

Andrew Sullivan: "Obama won this for the third time. A small prediction: there will be YouTube mash-ups of McCain's facial reactions on the split screen. And they will have a longer life, for good or ill, than many of the substantive exchanges."

Kevin Drum: "I know I'm partisan, but McCain seemed completely out of his depth tonight. He was flitting from point to point all night without ever putting together a coherent argument, and then grabbing miscellaneous attacks from the rolodex in his head whenever some bright idea popped into his mind. His energy level was weirdly erratic, tired at times but then suddenly perking up whenever he got annoyed by something and remembered some zinger that he wanted to fire off."

Marc Ambinder: "Tonight, we saw a McXplosion. Every single attack that Sen. McCain has ever wanted to make, he took the opportunity tonight to make. Around 30 minutes in, McCain seemed to surrender the debate to his frustrations, making it seem as if he just wanted the free television."

Joe Klein: "The structural weakness of McCain's position was evident every time Obama described a program -- health care, education, energy -- in the third debate. CNN's focus group of independent Ohioans would send the dials on their electric gizmos spinning into the stratosphere. They loved the idea that government would spend more on education or energy or regulate the health-insurance companies."
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Wednesday October 8th - Day after the debate diaries and commentary from around the ethersphere

What a screamer last night's debate wasn't. It had been billed like a classic prize fight, we'd been told that McOlden was gonna come out swinging, this was gonna be a game changer. This was gonna be McNasty in his element in the famed town hall format (town hall meeting my arse), the young pretender wouldn't stand a chance he was gonna be found out by a few searching jabs. The old campaigner was gonna float like a hoveround power chair and sting like an STD, the way they’d spun this thing it seemed all McBitter had to do was show up, but alas, as we’ve come to expect from the McRubbish campaign, it was all less than straight talk.

All we got was the same bitter stumbling old man, remember how McNasty had turned off voters by refusing to look his opponent in the eye? well I wonder what voters will make of ‘That One‘.

Here’s a few other opinions....
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From Sara K Smith at Wonkette

Substantive, Civilized Debate Disappoints

Seriously, what was up with that super boring debate last night? John McCain was supposed to call Barack Obama a terrorist pal, and then Barack Obama was supposed to say “Hey man that is just wrong” and rip off McCain’s testicles and sauté them gently before feeding them to Tom Brokaw with un sauce béarnaise which is precisely how an elitist is supposed to confront a grizzled old war hero in a Town Hall. Instead we got a lot of respectful disagreement, which was dull. Sure, the reaction last night was bad enough. But witness this morning’s sad collection of headlines:

• Brokaw Off His Game in Debate Snoozer


• Downturn in Decibels, Too


• In a Stifling Town Hall Debate, the Tie Goes to the Front-Runner


• Gnawingly dull debate won’t halt the Obama Tide


• A dull debate, but narky old man McCain struggles after insulting Obama as ‘That one’


• Barack Obama wins second presidential debate over John McCain in a snoozer


• McCain wins (narrowly) a boring debate

John McCain has one more chance to show America he’s a steady hand at the tiller, my friends, and that means one thing: next week’s debate will feature something filthy involving Reverend Tony “Rezko” Ayers getting mauled by a moose, or else “that one” will probably definitely be president, unless Florida votes Republican.
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From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

Debate Moves Undecided Voters

Democracy Corps had a focus group of undecided voters in Nevada watch last night's debate:

"Unlike the first debate, when Democracy Corps research showed half the voters remaining undecided and the two candidates splitting the other half, the vote following the second debate showed a decisive shift toward Senator Obama. This debate was a clear victory for Obama who made major gains not just in the vote but also on personal favorability and key attributes like 'has what it takes to be President,' which ultimately drove undecided voters into his column."

In addition, Fox News and CNN focus groups of uncommitted voters also said Obama won.
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From Steven R's Diary on today's The DailyKos

Gallup Explosion!!! Obama 52!  McCain 41!  +11!

Is it over?  you decide...  Check out this!

Obama: 52%  (51%)
McCain: 41%  (42%)

Nearly all interviews in today's report were conducted before Tuesday night's town hall style debate in Nashville. Any movement in voter preferences as a result of this debate will be apparent in coming days.

Voter preferences seem to have stabilized for the moment, as Obama has held a double-digit lead over McCain in each of the last three individual nights of polling.

This is in stark contrast of the bullshit that Hotline is trying to sell (claiming a tie among men = 1% Obama win) and Zogby, who shows Obama +12 among Independents, and just as strong among partisans, yet only up 3 nation wide.

Gallup has earned a long strong reputation, and today's polling confirms that this election is really headed in one direction...

The best news? This is ALL BEFORE yesterday's debate!

Also from Gallup, voters believe that Obama's economic plan is a net plus.

Forty-three percent of voters say Barack Obama's economic and tax plans make them more likely to vote for him, compared with 30% who say this about John McCain and his plans. In fact, more voters say McCain's plan for the economy and taxes makes them less likely to vote for him.

Most voters say the candidates' past positions on the Iraq war will influence their vote. In general, voters tend to view Obama's past Iraq war opposition as a plus -- 43% say it makes them more likely to vote for him, tying his economic plan as the voting factor making the biggest positive contribution to the Obama candidacy. With this positive endorsement of Obama's war opposition, it is thus not surprising that McCain's support for the decision to go to war in 2003 is viewed as more of a drawback in voters' minds.

The surge talking about the surge isn't working...

'Horse Shit...Horse Shit' - McCrappyLiar's mumblings during presidential debate exposed

Thanks to Taegan Goddard's Political Wire I can bring the three readers of Pants this incredible excerpt from last night's presidential debate. You'll have to skip to around the 4.30 mark, but turn up the volume and listen carefully when you do

You'll have seen most of it already but if you skip forward to 4.30 on the tape you'll clearly hear McCrap mumble, under his breath and on national television, the words Horse Shit, TWICE!

This all happened as Barack Obama informed the US public how McRubbish had refused to meet with the president of (NATO ally) Spain.....unbelievable!