Download | Play    Download | Play

I'm a little late with this because we put so many videos up Tuesday and Wednesday, but Frank Luntz on the FOX News post debate show ran another one of his focus groups with swing voters in Arlington VA, and they resoundingly picked Obama.

He communicated his message and he got to me.

He spoke to the person, the voter, myself instead of the intangible things he actually said this is how I'm going to help you and this is how much it's going to cost.

He wasn't snide, he answered his questions. There was seven different times where McCain just didn't answer the question, but when a head and answered something else. And McCain kept making snide comments about Obama himself.

When Luntz said that the group thought McCain was better on the economy, Brit Hume was flabbergasted.

Hume: But they agree that McCain did better on the economy?

Luntz takes another hand count.

Frank: Half of them...

Download | Play    Download | Play

Senator Biden took to the stage today in Tampa, Florida to defend his running mate from John McCain's pathetic character assault. Reminding voters that McCain has permitted his running mate to raise the most vile of innuendos and that he's hired the same people who personally destroyed him in 2000, Biden knocks it out of the park.

"Last week I had a debate with Governor Palin. Well, at least I think it was a debate. And last night Senator Obama had his second with John McCain. I know I'm prejudiced abut my ticket, but if this were a best of five series, it would be over.

We want a leader, an optimist. Not an angry man lurching from one position to another.

When you vote with George Bush 90% of the time, you're best hope is attacking your opponent 100% of the time."

Robert Gibbs, Senator Obama's communication director and senior spokesman called out Sean Hannity for using the likes of Andy Martin as a source that appeared on his own show to attack Obama with. Good for him and that's how it's done. (rough transcript)

Gibbs: Let me ask you a question. Are you anti-Semitic?
Hannity: Not at all.

Gibbs: On your show on Sunday, the show that's named after you, right? The center piece of that show was a guy named Andy Martin.

Hannity: I know you're reading your talking points.

When I interviewed Al Sharpton, when I interviewed all these controversial figures, you see on FOX we actually interview people of all points of view whether we agree or disagree.

Gibbs: Andy Martin called a judge a crooked, slimy Jew, who has a history of lying and thieving common to....Martin when on to write that he understood better why the Holocaust took place given that Jew survivors are acting like a wolf pack...

Hannity:I find those comments despicable...

Gibbs: You put him on your show. It's the Hannity Show...Why am I not to believe that your'e anti-Semitic, why am I not to believe that everybody that works for the network is anti-Semitic cause Sean Hannity gives somebody a platform that thinks Jews are slimy?

Hannity: I'm a journalist that gives...

Gibbs: You put your whole show around him...

Gibbs:I don't think your Jewish viewers are going to take it very well that you had somebody like that on your show.

Hannity: I'm the biggest supporter of Israel and I've got a thirty year history of, a , on the record....

There you go. Hannity went on about the Ayers nonsense and brought up every slimy thing he could think of. Gibbs actually had Hannity defending his own record on Israel.
Hannity's a journalist too? Wow, who knew.

Holy Jeebus, is the McCrankypants going to yell at him to get off his lawn next?

UPDATE: And he won't shake Obama's hand at the end of the debate either. Afraid of cooties?

UPDATE #2: You gotta love the entrepreneurial spirit of Obama supporters

Second Presidential Debate
Belmont University
Nashville, TN
Town hall format; domestic/foreign policy

How long will it take McCain to pivot from tax policy to William Ayers? Will Obama respond in kind and bring up McCain's much more controversial associations? Will Brokaw make up facts again to help McCain? Will either candidate get thrown a curveball from an audience member? We're about to find out.

Consider this another open thread. You can find the "McLiar Bingo" drinking game here.

***

Continue reading »

Download | Play    Download | Play

There's a whole lot of rationalizing going on in media circles over the laughable and admitted stump-speech-disguised-as-a-Vice-Presidential-debate last week. Moderator Gwen Ifill apparently thinks that if the candidates themselves weren't worried about staying on topic or engaging one another, it wasn't her job to make them do so.

The understanding was that we were going to have a debate. And one of the interesting things about debates, that people forget -- especially with this one, there was so much obsession about Sarah Palin -- is that there are two people on stage. And their job – you know this, you’re doing this Tuesday night – are to debate each other. The moderator’s job is to control their debate. If they have decided, as Joe Biden decided, that he was going to debate John McCain and she decided she was going to give a stump speech to the American people, there’s very little a moderator can do, other than say, “No, no, no, listen, I ask the questions! Please, please answer!” So I guess I knew going in that they all had their goals for that debate.

I was taken, going in, it can now be said, by how many of the questions that people volunteered to me were all about her. There was 99%, I would say, was all about her. 99% of the analysis afterward were about her. It was as if Joe Biden wasn’t part of this deal. And if she wasn’t challenged on the things she said that were not completely correct, or if she wasn’t challenged on changing the subject and answering the questions, by her competitor, I had another job to do at the table.

By her own admission, Ifill recognizes that it's the moderator's job to control the debate--and says that Palin "blew her off"--but since neither of the candidates called out the other for not following the debate rules, she has "another job at the table". Um, huh?

Why bother having a moderator at that point, Ifill? What other job was monopolizing your time?

Transcripts below the fold:

Continue reading »

Download | Play    Download | Play (h/t Heather. big video file)

Saturday Night Live offers yet another instant classic with their take on last week's Vice Presidential Debate:

IFILL: Now, tonight’s discussion will cover a wide range of topics, including domestic and foreign policy matters. Each candidate will have 90 seconds to respond to a direct question and then an additional two minutes to for rebuttal and follow up. As moderator, I will not ask any follow up questions beyond, “Do you agree?” or “Your response?” So as to not appear biased for Barack Obama in light of my new book, The Breakthrough: Politics of Race in the Age of Obama, coming out on Inauguration Day and available for pre-order on Amazon.com. And finally, we would like to remind our audience that , due to the historically low expectations for Gov. Palin, were she simply to do an adequate job tonight, and at no point cry, faint, run out of the building or vomit, you should consider the debate a tie. All right, let’s begin. Sen. Biden, how as Vice President would you work to shrink the gap of polarization that has sprung up in Washington?

BIDEN: Well, I would do what I’ve done my whole career , whether it’s been dealing with violence against women or putting 100,000 police officers on the streets. I would reach across the aisle. Like I’ve done with so many members of the other party. Members like John McCain. Because look, I love John McCain. He is one of my dearest friends. But at the same time, he is also dangerously unbalanced. I mean, let’s be frank. John McCain – and again, this is a man I would take a bullet for – is bad at his job and mentally unstable. As my mother would say, God love him, but he’s a raging maniac. And a dear, dear friend.

IFILL: Gov. Palin, how would your administration deal with the current financial crisis?

PALIN: Well, first of all , let me say how nice it is to meet Joe Biden. And may I say, up close, your hair plugs don’t look nearly as bad as everyone says. You know, John McCain and I, we’re a couple of mavericks, and gosh darn it, we’re gonna take that maverick energy right to Washington and we’re gonna use it to fix this financial crisis and everything else that’s plaguin’ this great country of ours.

IFILL: How would you solve the financial crisis by being a maverick?

PALIN: You know, we’re gonna take every aspect of the crisis and look at it and then we’re gonna ask ourselves, “what would a maverick do in this situation?” and then, you know, we’ll do that.

  Pat Buchanan gets laughed off the Hardball stage by Tweety and Bob Shrum for saying that Palin won the debate because she topped Biden on the Drudge and AOL polls. Forget CBS and CNN, you know, the real pollsters. If non-scientific polls on sites primarily frequented by right-wing nutjobs say Palin won, then dammit, she won.

Download | play   Download | play  

Buchanan: "Well, I mean Drudge found it 70-30, AOL found it 500,000 split."

Matthews: But those aren't polls. Those are people emailing in on conservative blog sites. We can do those! [laughter]

Shrum: "For Pat to be citing, like, the AOL poll or the Drudge poll which is set up, shows us how much he wants to do cartwheels because she didn't commit a pratfall on stage."

Download | play    Download | play   (h/t Heather)

MSNBC goes to the strange bedfellows tag team of Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan to give the post-mortem on the performance of the Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.  I'm reminded of my reaction to the first presidential debate.  I had been disappointed in Obama's performance, noting far too many opportunities to score points not taken by Obama.  John Amato reminded me that it's not the decideds like me for whom Obama performed; it was the undecideds.  Similarly, Maddow's and Buchanan's perceptions mirror exactly how the Palin's performance will strike the decideds on both sides of the fence:  Maddow found her scripted, lacking in genuine emotion and light on substance.  Buchanan responded to her viscerally, caring neither for her flubs nor her lack of details, but just finding her stimulating through her attractiveness.

But will it sway the undecideds?  According to the CNN poll, it looks like substance won over folksiness: 

Fifty-one percent of those polled thought Biden did the best job in Thursday night's debate, while 36 percent thought Palin did the best job.

But respondents said the folksy Palin was more likable, scoring 54 percent to Biden's 36 percent.

Both candidates exceeded expectations - 84 percent of the people polled said Palin did a better job than they expected, while 64 percent said Biden also exceeded expectations.

But on the question of the candidates' qualifications to assume the presidency, 87 percent of the people polled said Biden is qualified while only 42 percent said Palin is qualified.

So perhaps Rachel wrapped it up correctly:  "Boring, But Right" versus "Exciting, But Wrong."   That’s America’s choice.

Transcripts below the fold

Continue reading »

The Obama campaign has already released an ad using footage from last night's VP debate and they've scored another direct hit.

The ad targets Sarah Palin from last night's debate as she proudly announced John McCain's disastrous health care plan that allows a $5000 tax credit for Americans to purchase health care -- and then strikes right back with Joe Biden's brilliant response, reminding people that in order to offset the credit McCain's plan would tax American's health insurance premiums for the first time in American history. The ULTIMATE bridge to nowhere.  Brilliant! (h/t Jamie)

Joe Biden scoffs at Sarah Palin's assertion that John McCain's plan to give every family a $5,000 tax credit to pay for healthcare will actually be adequate and shows how the numbers just make no sense at all.

Gwen, I don't know where to start. We don't call a redistribution in my neighborhood Scranton, Claymont, Wilmington, the places I grew up, to give the fair to say that not giving Exxon Mobil another $4 billion tax cut this year as John calls for and giving it to middle class people to be able to pay to get their kids to college, we don't call that redistribution. We call that fairness number one. Number two fact, 95 percent of the small businesses in America, their owners make less than $250,000 a year. They would not get one single solitary penny increase in taxes, those small businesses.

Now, with regard to the -- to the health care plan, you know, it's with one hand you giveth, the other you take it. You know how Barack Obama -- excuse me, do you know how John McCain pays for his $5,000 tax credit you're going to get, a family will get?

He taxes as income every one of you out there, every one of you listening who has a health care plan through your employer. That's how he raises $3.6 trillion, on your -- taxing your health care benefit to give you a $5,000 plan, which his Web site points out will go straight to the insurance company.

And then you're going to have to replace a $12,000 -- that's the average cost of the plan you get through your employer -- it costs $12,000. You're going to have to pay -- replace a $12,000 plan, because 20 million of you are going to be dropped. Twenty million of you will be dropped.

So you're going to have to place -- replace a $12,000 plan with a $5,000 check you just give to the insurance company. I call that the "Ultimate Bridge to Nowhere."

Actually, I'm curious how even McCain/Palin can claim that $5,000 could cover anyone adequately.  God forbid you have a pre-existing condition.  $5,000 wouldn't even cover my family for half a year.

The Obama campaign's Rapid Response department issued the following fact check on McCain's healthcare plan:

Continue reading »

Download | play    Download | play   (h/t Heather)

There was a moment in last night's debate that sent a cold shiver down my spine.  That moment was when moderator Gwen Ifill asked Sarah Palin whether she agreed with Dick Cheney's rather extraordinary claim that the Vice President's office is outside of the Executive Branch (truthfully, Cheney argued that it was outside the Legislative branch too, apparently occupying some nebulous and untouchable fourth branch of government).  Wouldn't you know?   That pitbull with lipstick agrees with Cheney.   

Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation. 

The mind shudders at the thought.  Thankfully, Joe Biden knew exactly how to respond to someone who admires the least popular Vice President in American history (and if you were watching the debates on CNN, you'd know that those dial pollsters loved his response too):

Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that. [..] The idea he's part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

See, Palin, that's real straight talk.

Transcripts (courtesy of CNN) below the fold

Continue reading »

There were no game changers in last night's Vice Presidential debate, but the American people were treated to more rambling, incoherent non-answers from Republican Sarah Palin.

Among the head scratching moments was this rant about nuclear weapons. Palin starts off on one of her "US Americans -- such as" answers about how America uses nukuler weapons safely, yadda, yadda, yadda. Here's the money line:

" Uh, nukuler weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people and too many parts of our planet so those dangerous regimes again cannot be allowed to acquire nukuler weapons, period."

Huh? Notice how once she realizes she's not making any sense and talks herself into a corner, she changes the subject. One need look no further than this clip to see that she is the most unqualified, unfit candidate to run for Vice President in modern U.S. history.  The thought of this person being anywhere near our nukes scares the living daylights out of me. How about you?

  In one of his strongest responses of the night, Joe Biden lists all the issues where McCain has proven himself to be the complete opposite of a "maverick."

Download | play   Download | play   (h/t Heather)

Transcript via CNN:

Look, the maverick -- let's talk about the maverick John McCain is.  And, again, I love him. He's been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things that matter to people's lives.

He voted four out of five times for George Bush's budget, which put us a half a trillion dollars in debt this year and over $3 trillion in debt since he's got there.

He has not been a maverick in providing health care for people. He has voted against -- he voted including another 3.6 million children in coverage of the existing health care plan, when he voted in the United States Senate.

He's not been a maverick when it comes to education. He has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college.

He's not been a maverick on the war. He's not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table.

Can we send -- can we get Mom's MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester? We can't -- we can't make it. How are we going to heat the -- heat the house this winter?

He voted against even providing for what they call LIHEAP, for assistance to people, with oil prices going through the roof in the winter.

So maverick he is not on the important, critical issues that affect people at that kitchen table.

Something tells me Rush Limbaugh himself does not have enough Oxycontin to stem the pain this evening is going to bring.

The whole "debate bingo" game has really caught on.  There's one version at Bob Staake.  And Mother Jones has a .pdf version with multiple game boards.

And, while this blog does not promote the abuse of alcohol, the drinking games are here and here.   Our favorite from both:

When Palin claims she said “Thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere: demand a new drink from your hosts, say “thanks but no thanks,” and then when no one’s looking, take it anyway, then claim you never wanted it.

Let us know what's worthy of comment tonight.   Veep Debate Open Thread below...