In Case My Live Blogging Bored You

Just in case, you can check out some professional live blogging over at Comedy Central. Incidentally, when I voted in their poll on who won the debate, 93% of voters had chosen Obama, yet the McCain campaign purchased an advertisement on the live blogging page that proclaimed, "McCain Wins Debate!" AWESOME!

Also, if you were paying attention earlier today, apparently Wonkette discovered the McCain campaign actually started putting this ad up hours (10:30 AM today) before the debate even took place (more coverage here), back when nobody knew of Johnny Mac was even participating.

League of Extraordinary Democracies

After our play with Johnny Mac's League of Democracies during the debate this evening, I did a quick Google Image Search and came across these:

Live-Blogging(ish) the Debate

So the first Presidential debate is on, after all the strange happenings of the week, and I'm planning to jot some thoughts up here as we go... hopefully it will be somewhat coherent, maybe even interesting.

Here we go!

9:02 PM - Wow, the subjects of the questions are so secretive, Jim Lehrer's eyes so dark and mysterious!
9:07 PM - Um... speaking of eyes, John McCain's eyes (left most especially) are kinda freaking me out.
9:10 PM - Me Too! Me Too, says McCain! I warned about this too! What about responsibility? Interesting response after that, where he makes reference to WWII and then somehow he makes reference to his recent crazy headhunting where he called to firing a guy who most people that seem to know a bunch about this are saying isn't responsible for all of this.
9:13 PM - THEY WILL NOT FOLLOW DIRECTIONS! Talk to eachother? Huh? No! Neither presidential candidate knows how to do that!!! Stop trying to make them talk to anyone other than that guy with the beard behind the camera, Jim Lehrer!!!
9:20 PM - UPDATE!!!!! Obama talks to McCain! Johnny Mac still refuses to talk to Obama!
9:29 PM - Nice line, Mr. Mac, the "It's hard to reach across the isle from that far left." Even Obama chuckled at that one.
9:32 PM - Will Obama be attacked for claiming he invented Google, given that he just talked about setting up a, "Google for government"???
9:34 PM - Jim Lehrer says, "Can I possibly get either of you to answer my question"??? Tip here, Jim: No, You can't.
9:36 PM - Can someone rewind and see if John McCain's "recipe for an... er eh um stable er uh... economy" was even vaguely coherent???
9:38 PM - Why does John McCain keep taunting Sarah Palin for being elected Miss Congeniality???
9:49 PM - Why say Patraeus and Bin Laden are the same in any way? That seems warped and strange to me.
9:56 PM - Oh NOES! Obama just called out Johnny's awkward kareoke moment. We all thought that was behind us.

10:00 PM - OH NO!!!! No, Barack, "I've got a bracelet too" is such a bad line (caption: the photo above is Brian Williams sporting a Stephen Colbert 'WristSTRONG' braclet)!!
10:02 PM - Did John McCain start a war in Waziristan while I wasn't looking? Can someone comment with a link to a map of Waziristan? I'm sorry if I sound like a stupid douche asking this question.
10:04 PM - YES! CALL IN THE LEAGUE OF DEMOCRACIES!!!
10:05 PM - Distraction: just noticed: PHILLIES WIN! Go Phils!!!
10:12 PM - Wow! Obama twists the Spanish knife! Pow! Damn, that's cold, my friends. Oh, wait, "my friends" is Trade Marked by McCain. Crap.
10:15 PM - The best and testiest moment of the debate has just passed us, and it was... well... testy and... crap, I already forgot what was happening, but there was a lot of what movie makers might call, "Cross talk"
10:19 PM - Did John McCain just admit that Putin gives him halucinations? He sees letters in peoples eyes... hmm... This section of the debate is very compelling, however. I keep thinking of a movie favorite, Spies Like Us with Chevy Chase and Dan Akroid (spelling??)!
10:22 PM - Wow, based on Matt's comment, I just flipped from CBS where I've been watching the whole debate to CNN... I'm completely overstimulated by all the doohickies on CNN. Lines, score cards, Brazile, Borger, I'm literally overwhelmed. Things are "boiling over" according to Obama but I can't make sense of anything. Breathe, John, Breathe!!!! Ok, petrodollars, and we're back. Hmmmm... need to post more about petrodollars. Petrobux? Petrodollar$$$?
10:25 PM - McCain likes None Lugars... He's a big fan of the lugies.
10:26 PM - McCain talking about Liebermann, I tuned out... not a fan of Ole' Joe. While I was ignoring Libertalk I found out Waziristan is a region of Pakistan. McCain is at war with NW Pakistan.
10:29 PM - WTF? Obama is pro-missile-defense? Orly? For realz? Ayeee. Ok, over it.
10:31 PM - Damn, CNN, your lines are tantalizing.
10:32 PM - Wow, Obama is popular across the isle when he talks about how evil China is. Fascinating. Also, why does this Castellanos grade everything while nobody else seems to be using their score cards in the Analyst dept. @ CNN?
10:37 PM - Gosh, in conclusion I had almost nothing to say, until I realized it's interesting that their mics stayed on after the debate "ended" so that we heard Obama say, "Good job, John" to McCain as they shook hands, and, "How are we doing, honey" as he walked over to Michelle.

And now it's Anderson Cooper time! Or Keither Olbermann Tweety Matthews time depending on your preference... or you know... whoever the heck is on Fox, I dunno.

Nice liveblogging experience everybody. Thanks to the commentors! You both rock my friggin world!

"It's Like a Really Bad Disney Movie..." It Was Only a Matter of Time

The fine folks at College Humor have provided us with a lovely mock-up of the trailer for Matt Damon's nightmare Disney movie, "Head of Skate." It's a heart-warming story of "just your average hockey mom," unexpectedly tapped to be Vice President by an aging somewhat confused old man.

Check it out below, and tell me if this is not hilarious (and honestly if nothing else just incredibly well produced). Watching I could believe Disney is making this movie and slating it for air time right after High School Music 17. Favorite line: "I've got to pick up Algebra from hockey practice!"

hat tip: Purple State.

Wifty Week Leads to... Not-So-Strange Conclusion

So, the debate goes on, both the debate nationally and on Capitol Hill about the merits and features of our government buying $trillions in bad debt from Wall St. entities that perhaps should have known better than to take on these risks in the first place. Simultaneously a debate is going on around the subject of who has been helping or hurting the process of negotiating this whole mucky weird deal from getting done.

Somehow, out of all of that, John McCain has realized that his choice earlier this week to "suspend" campaigning in favor of working on the bailout compromise was a miscalculation. Both he and Barack Obama are headed to Mississippi, and this evening's debate will go on. Strange strange choices this week, not, to me, an entirely unexpected or surprising conclusion.

The Foreign Policies of Obama and McCain

Interesting article this morning in the LA Times, which talks about the similarity between McCain and Obama on issues of foreign policy. Not to toot my own horn, but I have felt the same way for a while. Republicans like to portray Obama as a weak-kneed sissy; Democrats like to portray McCain as Doctor Strangelove. In reality, they are both pretty well inside the American mainstream, and not only on foreign policy. Another question entirely is whether this similarity is a good thing. Should voters have more choice? But even if they did, would it make a difference? the vast majority of people would vote for Obama over Kucinich or McCain over Paul. The key insight comes at the end of the article:

"As a rule I think our presidential candidates are punished for anything that veers too far from the conventional wisdom," Saunders said.

And for better or worse, that is probably true.