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Well tonight is the 2nd Presidential Debate ^[2] at Belmont University ^[3]. I know the a lot of us in DC will be watching and tonight I will try and blog live from DC Metblogs during the debates- providing the “joe six-pack” view. Maybe I’ll even crack open a six-pack; I’m sure good amount of viewers will have their drinking game sheets in hand.

If things go well I’ll be back before the debates and I encourage those to keep DC Metblogs up during the debates and feel free to comment away during the debates!

8:24 PM: Hi everyone (or maybe just myself)! I just emptied my bladder, grabbed a slice of pie, and I’m

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settled down to watch this debate. I’ll be watching the feed from CNN tonight- I don’t know what people think of their use (or overuse) of timers, graphs, and polls. I could definitely feel overwhelmed with information with all that junk up there. However I love it.

Wolf Blitzer just said Al Gore is in the house and so is John King with the magic wall. Who knew that in 2008 we would be analyzing the news using a “magic wall”?

8:39 PM: I won’t be some of the few out there in DC drinking along with the debates but I did decided to track a couple of buzzwords: “Maverick”, “Change”, “Main Street”, and my personal favorite “voted with bush 90% of the time.”

8:50 PM: 10 minutes to go! Listening to talk on the format of tonight’s debate- it will be a town hall format where the candidates will be talking to an audience of undecided voters. Tom Brokaw will moderate and questions will be selected from the audience as well as e-mails that Brokaw selected before hand. CNN just reported that there were over 6 million thousand questions submitted. I didn’t hear that they were looking for questions.

9:00 PM: Here we go, 90 minutes of fierce talking point delivery!

See the rest of the night’s live blog underneath the more tag…

9:03 PM: Alan Shaffer delivers the first question: What’s the fastest, best way to help Americans suffering from economic crisis? Obama basically hits his usual points on government regulation and oversite- McCain takes the energy independence route… and he also wants to buy up the bad mortgages- interesting that he wants a larger government presence.

9:10 PM: Hmm Warren Buffet as Treasury secretary… For those that don’t know about him- his company, Berkshire Hathaway, currently has share valued at $124,000 per share. Pretty good for the world’s richest man- maybe he can raise our stock.

9:14 PM: Obama delivers the first attack on McCain… interesting how the candidates are using language like “bailout” and “rescue”…both have different meanings…

9:17 PM: Everybody is writing letters- don’t people know e-mail is faster? Maybe they should of facebooked the Treasury Secretary- that way everyone can see it!

9:19 PM: Doesn’t anybody wanna be a Maverick in order to solve the economy? Oooh- Obama was so close to dropping the 90% line!

9:23 PM: McCain talks about how he challenged his party- isn’t that being a Maverick? If he would only say it… John, I got a Maverick count at 0 man! People are waiting to take a shot! I should of started a “My Friends” count…

9:26 PM: As I stare at CNN’s dial testing graph- it’s mostly neutral and I can see why. I feel that both candidates are delivery the typical talking points that I’ve heard before. McCain wants to drill and Obama wants reform and tax cuts for the middle class.

9:30 PM: 30 minutes down- it looks like the candidates are taking too much time, but who doesn’t during these things? Both parties agreed to the rules and both parties will break the rules. At least both candidates want to examine the budget. McCain mentions an overhead projector as an example of overspending- but doesn’t want to cut it (and also tries to associate the item with Obama.) That was a weird move.

9:34 PM: Obama talks about how young people can serve- and as a person of this young generation I agree that service is something that is growing and hopefully will grow with every succeeding generation. Also it’s clear that this election has seen a lot of participating from young Americans- and it makes me excited!

9:37 PM: Here’s a difference the two have- selective spending freeze cuts (Obama) vs. cuts across the board (McCain)… McCain just compared Obama’s tax policy to nailing Jello on the wall… I wonder how long he was waiting to unleash that one. McCain directed a statement at McCain Obama- it’s good to see he can acknowledge him!

9:40 PM: Again Brokaw is trying to keep order- I wonder if there has been a moderator that has been able to do that in a debate. Yes! Obama dropped, “Looks like Straight Talk Express lost a wheel!” I hope McCain has AAA.

9:42 PM: I picked the wrong buzzwords- I currently have 0 on all words. For those that don’t know Tip- Tip O’Neill (D- MA) was speaker of the house from 1977- 1987. Interesting to hear McCain mention him and Reagan in the same sentence.

9:47 PM: McCain is mentioning himself working with Joe Lieberman a lot, I wonder if he’s trying to hint at working across the aisle… of course Lieberman is no longer a Democrat…it appears both candidates like any other energy source besides oil- unless you are McCain then you want to drill too.

9:48 PM: Wow- Brokaw is really trying to keep these guys on time, calling out the warning lights. I loved McCain’s response, “Tom, just waive your hand!”

9:50 PM: McCain: “Who voted for that bill [Bush energy bill]? That one! [Pointing at Obama] Who didn’t vote for it? Me.” All I have to say is- OH SNAP!

9:54 PM: On Healthcare- Obama restates his universal plan, accuses McCain of offering tax credits when he’s raising premiums on employers… and also drops the first change reference! McCain: “Let’s put medical records online, it’ll reduce ‘medical errors’ as they call them…” What else would I call a medical error?

9:59 PM: After Healthcare section: Change – 2, Maverick – 0

10:00 PM: 30 minutes to go- so far I think both candidates are doing ok, there has been little jabs but nothing big.

10:02 PM: Talking about jabs- McCain is working the foreign affairs and experience issues against Obama. Obama fights back by trying to link him to Bush- especially with Iraq. When Obama repeats the costs of the war- does it mean more to you with the current economy situation we are in?

10:06 PM: In addressing Sammy’s comment- I heard that as part of rules negotiated for this debate, there were limits on showing reaction shots from the audience. For instance if an audience member asks a question- they won’t show that person’s reaction to the answer. Is it just me or did they bring the audience in more in the first half but now Brokaw is asking more and more questions?

10:08 PM: Oh good an audience question: Katie Hamm asks about military presence abroad.

10:12 PM: McCain wants to carry a big stick- does he have trouble walking? For some reason I feel like I’ve heard this point before… oh ya last week but instead of McCain it was Sarah Palin saying it. You can tell that it’s the same ol’ talking points but now it makes me realize how the VP debates were nothing more than the VP candidates delivering the same points.

10:14 PM: Oh boy Obama wants follow-ups, McCain wants follow-ups to the follow ups…Brokaw must be secretly going out of his mind with this controlled chaos.

10:16 PM: Bomb Bomb Bomb- Iran, is that song available on iTunes? I agree with Frank’s comment- politician’s should be able to figure out how to delivery points in a minute…. McCain knows how to “get him”, but I’d love to know how he is going to do it.

10:19 PM: Shout out to fellow DC Metblog writers Frank and Monica, I’m thinking out loud but maybe we should have a live blog panel for the next debate. None of us are political experts but we are all from DC ;-) Actually I think the whole idea for this was to encourage live conversation, especially with the local crowd (and all of our friends.)

10:21 PM: Wouldn’t it be scary if you looked into someone’s eyes and see any letters? In your eyes- the light, the heat- in your eyes- I am complete…

10:23 PM: Petro dollars- that’s gotta be the new buzzword.

10:24 PM: Brokaw asked both candidates for a yes/no answer and Obama gave him a paragraph and McCain gave him a “maybe”.

10:26 PM: Here’s the “randomly selected” question on Isreal- whoa is that in the rules for McCain to pet the people asking questions?

10:29 PM: Again, I’ve heard Obama’s answer- except it was Joe Biden’s head instead of Barack’s…

10:30 PM: Here’s my explicit opinion and reaction: out of all the points here I strongly agree with Barack’s foreign policy position… we see a little Michelle Obama in the house- but why no Al Gore?

10:34 PM: Last question: Obama wants “fundamental change” (drink!) McCain knows what it’s like to be in the Vietnam war, and wants to serve the country -both candidates really treated the question like their chance for a closing statement.

10:36 PM: Look candidates- you both have disrespected Tom Brokaw by not following any of the rules, but if there is one thing you don’t do, you don’t get in the way of a man’s teleprompter! Tom’s going to have to lay the smack down now!

10:44 PM: Well the debate is over! I have to say that for me it was flurry but a really great experience- thanks to everyone that read along and commented. I think that discussion about the issues and the candidates is an important part of the election process and I encourage everyone to get involved in this year’s election.

Both Obama and McCain delivered their points without any major snafus. CNN right now is saying that McCain needed to gain some ground in this debate- I don’t think he said anything that really did that. Honestly I heard the same old talking points, and I guess for McCain that wasn’t good enough to gain any ground- he had that one little moment where he said Obama voted on Bush’s energy plan and he didn’t. I don’t think that was anything huge.

10:55 PM: Final count: Change – 7 (checking rough transcripts), Maverick – 0 Good night everyone!