Democratic Debate Liveblog/Open Thread
I’m going to open up our Liveblog/Open Thread a little early this time; give people an opportunity to jump on in, plug their websites if they have one before we actually get this show on the road.
You can read my preview here, and if you can watch the debate on tv on CNN, or if you’re like me and don’t have cable or can’t get to a television, you can join me in watching the debate on CNN.com. More about how we do the liveblogging below the fold.
It’s pretty simple. We welcome everyone to join us and chip in on the commentary. For this reason, we don’t do the liveblogging in the post body, like most people do, but in the comments section. So you’ll be joining us.
Just a few requests. If you have a website you want to plug, please either plug it before the debate starts, or you can email me (click the “contact us” link off to the right), and I’ll be sure to plug your blog tomorrow when I do my post debate analysis.
Next, please try and keep your language civil. The occasional bomb here or there is fine, but if you’re dropping them all over the place, you are not welcome here.
Finally, this is not the venue for your spam. If you’re trying to sell sex toys or Paris Hilton videos, do it elsewhere. In fact, if you’re trying to sell anything, please, go away. This is a conversation for those interested by the Democratic debate only.
Thanks, and I hope you’ll speak up and join us! I’ll be kicking in with comments shortly.
Hey D!
Well, to answer you question, you have to make it an education issue. It’s like getting your driver’s license, you have to be able to read English at a certain level, or else you’re simply not safe.
English should be the common language, but we are a nation of immigrants, and making it the official language sort of turns our backs on that.
We’re at our first break, and you know, the gloves have stayed on, the tone has remained civil. Hillary sounds the more practiced, but Obama sounds more cerebral thus far. He sounds like the college professor here, and Clinton sounds like the politician.
No blows have even been thrown though, let alone landed, and in the game we are looking at right now, that does not bode well for clinton.
And we’re back on.
Ah Kyle you spoke too soon
Question to Clinton: Are you saying your opponent is all hat and no cattle, and can you say that after the past forty five minutes?
And she goes STRAIGHT TO BUSH BASHING ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
SHE’S WORMING HER WAY OUT OF DISSING OBAMA ARE YOU KIDDING? “POSITIVE AND EXTREMELY CIVIL” WTF?!?!?!?!!?
Oh, why did she say that about the state senator from Texas. Not good.
Ok, that makes sense to me. I’d like to see some fleshing out from the candidates on that but I can see why it’s not top priority.
Hmmm, this is a good question for Hillary about the attacks she’s levelled lately. And she goes with the resume answer, which isn’t an answer at all.
I’m sorry, I’m throwing the bullshit flag on this one. I can’t even get into this…
And she brought up the Obama supporter who couldn’t name an obama accomplishment, and her mood meter dipped…
She got a nice respones with actions speaking louder than words, but the mood meter did not like her answer, and neither have I.
And in response Obama goes into the resume response, but right here, it’s totally appropriate, and the Walter Reed line just killed.
He’s killing her on this question. Absolutely killing her.
You just can’t answer that question better than he is answering it right now. Good lord, he just won this debate.
That was the biggest audience pop of the night.
Oh dear, now we get to the plagiarism issue.
AND HE KILLS THE PLAGIARISM QUESTION AS WELL!!!!
He nailed both of those, hard to see how someone could have come up with a better anwer than that.
What time is it?? Call it now
That was a great answer about his speeches and specifics.
He’s running away with it.
Look, it’s hard to describe, you have to be watching it, but he’s going head on with every challenge that he’s all style and no substance. And like I said, she’s done.
OOh…
SHE’s breaking.
Her mood meter is in the 40%
She’s shooting herself in the foot.
Did she really just cite Youtube?
She is going to go down to the 30′s on the audience meter…yikes.
This is a train wreck.
The time is in at 55:00 on.
Now she’s agreeing with President Bush…What??
Oh my goodness.
I didn’t think it would happen.
But it did… the audience is barely even clapping…
She got booed.
Her mood meter is stagnant.
She’s lost.
She lost the debate.
She took the bate.
And Obama’s raising a finger to get in on the debate, and I think we’re about to see how deep a hole she’s dug for herself.
citing YouTube does not sound good.
Damn this is killing me! I hope CNN replay’s this thing later for us West Coasties.
This jumped to Health Care, he’s not nailing her to the wall on all the negative politics, and that’s probably for the best.
That was great. Obama says he’s just going to address the issues she mentioned. Not the ridiculous “you lifted whole passages” statement.
She self destructed, Mike, absolutely self destructed. she has leant credance to all the calls that she is a negative campaigner.
Hey Michael, it’s available at cnn.com if you want to watch it live, that’s where I’m getting it.
wow.
He’s at work.
Trying to connect to the CNN.com Live thing but having issues. ARGH.
You know, I’ll be the first to admit that in past debates he has not done as well. But tonight, he is totally on point and really relaxed.
Okay, second break, and I have to admit to being a little taken aback and… well… a little speechless. If you go back a bit in the thread, you’ll see that I really couldn’t say a whole lot but gibberish, but that is because Hillary really did lose control, she really did go negative in a debate, and she really stepped her foot in it. The audience booed her, the mood meter dropped down to thirty, you can tell, people REALLY didn’t like her answer at that point.
she wanted these debates, and they really have not helped her at all.
Obama went even further in that, after defending himself on the plagiarism charge, refused to get in the mud with her and went right back to the issues.
This will dominate the coverage tomorrow, no doubt.
He wins this debate, no question.
CONNECTED!
I have about 20 minutes before I have to leave.
Here’s a gage on how well Obama is doing tonight. Taylor Marsh is saying that Clinton “needs to up her game. Obama is even with her.”
that translates to “He’s kicking her ass.”
And more boos for Clinton as she ducks the “ready on day one” charge, and goes back to answering health care. More light boos, and her mood meter is in the forties.
I like this real time reaction thing. Thanks Mr. Luntz.
Oh, she’s goig to kill herself.
Okay, Obama needs to pull out of this debate, he’s getting dragged down too.
Health care is important, but there ARE other issues.
I think she’s accomplished what she wanted to though, which is taking control of the conversation and ducking the question she was asked.
To Clinton: are you suggesting Obama is not ready to be commander in chief?
And she immediately goes to dodging the question and jumps straight into a resume question, but it’s the best response she has gotten so far since the meltdown.
She is not going to say why he isn’t ready to be commander. She’s just going to talk about herself…
and apparently current events.
Are you suggesting Senator Obama is not ready to be the Commander in Chief.
No answer.
Look I really question the fact that she claims her time as the First Lady as time in leadership. She was not elected, she did do quite a bit but it was not as a leader. If she can claim that time under her belt then she can not begrudge Obama his time as a State Senator.
Which is the best response she can give… dealing with the question after that meltdown earlier is only going to reinforce the negativity narrative tomorrow.
Obama on Foreign Policy, and he goes for the Iraq vote. He called Clinton wrong on judgement, and took a little dip there.
D is right, she just got spanked and if she deigns to go negative again, she may as well bow out tomorrow.
To Clinton: Look at Iraq now, the security situation is better. Is Iraq better now because of the surge?
Look at her baseline – sitting between 60 and 70. I am not seeing her dip at all. Granted I missed the “meltdown” but she has been received more positively than Obama since I started watching. He starts talking and he drops back down to 50.
Argh, I’m afraid I have to head out for a while… liveblog the crap out of this so I can see what happened when I get back online later tonight!
Here comes the rise, he needs his cadence!