Townhall liveblog

Didja hear? There's a debate on!

10:30 Final question: What don't you know, and how will you learn it? Interesting question, but unfortunately all to easy to avoid with a pivot into pabulum. Both candidates close by saying, basically, that they don't know what challenges might lie before them during their presidencies. And that they love America. Now it's spin time!

10:26 Brokaw: Russia, evil empire? Yes or no! McCain: Russia might be an evil empire. It depends how we deal with them.

What?

It's a dumb question, of course, and McCain's right not to answer one way or another. If he says yes, then it's Cold War II. If he says no, he'll be accused of exculpating Russia for all of its sins. But c'mon. He's gotta be able to come up with something better than that.

10:19 I really have come to enjoy the back and forth between Obama and McCain on capturing or killing Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The specter of John "Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran" McCain accusing Barack Obama of being too hawkish (telegraphing his punches) for announcing his desire to capture or kill al Qaeda in the warlord-dominated region of Pakistan is pretty rich at this point.

10:04 Obama sounds a little clumsy on the issue of humanitarian intervention, but he's basically saying the right things. He could have mentioned the genocide conventions (go U.N!) and invited a fight with John McCain over international institutions, but he got through it quietly, and then McCain went on to say how wrong Obama has been on Iraq (a winning position if ever there was one) so now it's on to... bombing Pakistan!

10:00 Where's Bill Ayers?

9:51 Obama breezed right past it and concisely crushed the McCain health care plan. But if "that one!" doesn't go down as "the moment" of the night, then there really is no use whatsoever for a media that only notices superficial flaws in the candidates' performances.

9:48 Once again McCain hits Obama for his support of the 2005 energy bill. But last time he didn't gesture angrily to Obama and refer to him as "that one". Ugly. No way he gets away with it.

9:44 McCain gets a lot of money from Big Atom, so I know there's a conflict of interest here. But sometimes--just sometimes--I really think he believes we can just Nuclear Reactor our way out of the climate crisis.

9:37 Silly point. I admire Obama's desire to hit back when McCain lies about his record or his policy proposals, but as dumb as the format is I think he hurts himself when he tries (and ultimately fails) to interrupt or nudge in a response when the moderator's ready to move on. It's the sort of thing that talking heads would have jumped all over if they hadn't decided to jump all over McCain's scowl instead.

9:31 "I will never be pessimistic about America. As president, I promise you that. I am America, and so can you."

Somewhere in here Obama ranked his priorities: 1). Energy, 2). Health care, 3). Education. Good for him. And I basically agree.

9:25 I hate this framing. The national debt is X. The deficit is Y. X and Y are huge numbers. Considering how big those numbers are, what crucial national programs would you sacrifice as president?

9:20 Twenty minutes in, my feeling is that Obama's doing extremely well. McCain says he loves this type of event, but that's only, it seems, because he gives a terrible speech. Meanwhile, I've sat in a small gathering with Barack Obama, and I can vouch. He's very convincing when he's answering your question.

9:15 Obama very shrewdly answers the question by saying "let me say what this bailout means for you." And does so quite deftly. Then he corrects McCain records. THEN says to the questioner, "but, look, you don't want to hear politicians pointing fingers at each other." Pundits notice that kind of thing.

9:12 McCain blames the financial crisis on Fannie and Freddie very explicitly, saying they operated with the support of "Senator Obama and his cronies." McCain says he was sounding the alarms the whole time. This is, of course, a very multifaceted lie.

9:08 Brokaw does a followup! Who might you appoint to Secretary of the Treasury? McCain blanks at first, trying hard I imagine not to say Phil "mental recession" Gramm. Then he names... wait for it... Obama supporter Warren Buffet! Setting a lighter tone perhaps? Then he said Meg Whitman of E-bay. He must not have heard the news.

9:06 McCain jokes, "Senator Obama, it's good to see you at a townhall meeting." Referring to Obama's refusal to appear at a series of them with McCain over the course of the campaign. He followed it up with a particularly hideous scowl. Nobody laughed.

9:03 McCain looked Obama in the eye, but it very clearly took every ounce of will in his body to do so without bearing fangs.