Nightwing

Okay, glad I wasn't the only one who saw that. 48 points for Palin and 26 for Biden? I mean, Christ. Even the other Republican rated Biden (barely) ahead of Palin, and put her down for 4 times as many negatives (I think. I believe it was 9 and 2 on the negatives).

One of the women on CNN calls out the Republicans bullshitting about "Palin's good performance early on in the debate" by pointing out her continual evasion. Good.

Wait, she was calling someone "General McClellan" all night?! HOW DID I MISS THIS?!

Man, Biden proved his detractors wrong. No big gaffes, just a lot of ass-kicking.

I think she was referring to John Winthrop. Time to pull out the scarlet letters! Woo!

Her connection to the Heartland... via Alaska. Biden's personal experiences are going to fucking SMOKE her.

There's a lot of flexibility as to what the Vice President can do? Sure, I suppose if you want to count things that don't have to do with the government, you can do a lot of things as Vice President.

I do love the "LOOK OVER HERE! OVER HERE! No, not there, that's bad! OVER HERE!" strategy of the McCain campaign.

Yes, John McCain has won a war. ... Wait a second...

I loved him going after the "Giving up 12,000 for 5,000" thing, which is exactly like damned school vouchers.

As an aside, this debate is incredibly well-ordered. If only the Presidential debates could be as controlled as this.

It didn't start that way. She was winning the women in the first ten minutes big time. ... she lost them. I wasn't paying attention at first, but it seemed like the women in that poll have much more extreme opinions, as that little orange line is going up and down a heckuva lot more than the guys. The men seem positively bored. The only thing she seemed to score on was talking about energy policy.

I love the evasion there in "Yeah... but let me say how nice it is that we both love Israel." I have to say, I love the little CNN line thing. Its great to see the absolute indifference to her opinions and Biden absolutely NAILING things.

Wow. Biden looks presidential right now. How weird is that?

I read a piece by Glen Beck on CNN.com a few days ago talking about how, becuase this was such an epic crisis, the bailout is absolutely neccessary. To be fair, he was talking about the pork that was added, and saying that McCain was completely ignoring what he said earlier about the bill and how he wouldn't vote for one that had earmarks (Which this is apparently full of). A broken clock is right twice a day, I suppose.

Barrack Obama. Did you know his middle name is Hussein? That shit is crazy. I know his middle name. The problem is, she didn't place it in the middle. *Slaps forehead* First off, what he said wasn't intolerant. It's not like we are talking about an unabashed racist or something; he was making a point that, while incomplete and one-dimensional, was still a point that could be taken care of quickly. It's not like he was saying "All gays are evil" or something like that. It can actually be addressed, like I did. Secondly, At Home shouldn't have gone on some sort of rant how he can't be called into question on the topic because he plays devil's advocate and such. That's a shitty defense (being completely anecdotal and off-topic) and made him come off as holier-than-though to me (And yes, it was). He didn't even address what the original post was about (Though the original post wasn't really on-topic, either). Simply put, all he needed to say was "All parties treat outsiders with some level of condescension, so it's unfair to single out the Democrats on it. More to the point, Obama isn't being condescending, as evidenced by his demeanor at the debate. If anyone is being "elitist", it's McCain for constantly saying he 'Doesn't understand' how things work." Is it really too much to expect something like that?

And talking about how you "play devil's advocate in International Relations class" is any better? He might be trolling, but then your response is only fueling that, and I think you realized it after you posted. It came off as self-righteous, and I wanted to say it was a bad response to what he was talking about. You proved his point... at least, as much as he had one. I'm sorry, your little rant about your international relations class sort of did that to you. It sounded exactly like his "I'm back to undecided" speech. I didn't say that he was completely right. I just thought your post was bad because you essentially proved his point. The more effective way of doing it would be to simply explaining your position correctly, rather than going on some rant about how you play devil's advocate in International Relations class. I don't even understand why you did it, because it completely undermines what you're trying to say. It's not like he's made some incredible observation; I quickly dismantled most of it. Is it truly that hard to point out how one-dimensional his observation is without preceding it with a weird rant? But whatever. It's not like I disagree with you on the actual point, anyways. And who the hell is B.O. Hussein?

Okay, first off that's not what whistleblowing is. It's playing the Devil's Advocate. Whistleblowing is breaking with a group to tell an authority figure they are doing something wrong; playing the Devil's Advocate is presenting an unpopular opinion to keep up debate. While Matt's points haven't blown me out of the water, I can understand why he's doing it: It's simply not fun or interesting to circle-jerk about how much you love/hate someone. I tried it until I just got tired of McCain going against his previous positions to appeal to the Republican base. Wow, in your incredibly self-righteous defense (OMG YOU PLAY DEVIL'S ADVOCATE EVERY NOW AND THEN!!!1! U R IRREPROACHABLE!!!), you completely missed his point and managed to prove it in one fell swoop. He never talked about squelching debate. Re-read his post; he talked about ridiculing the other side's view. I can certainly agree with him to an extent, though you can say that every party condescends to outsiders in some way. If I have any comment against that, it's simply because I don't think Obama comes off that way at all. He's honestly a candidate who I feel welcomes discussion on a topic rather than simply shoots it down (Which, ironically, McCain did all Friday night). He may have misinterpreted your post, but his point isn't that bad, and your defense is absolutely miserable. On-Topic: An interesting article here, with some nice trend graphs.

Amazing.

It seems McCain's theme tonight is "Around the World in 80 Personal Anecdotes".

Don't back down, Barack. Don't let him get that sort of outburst in.

Oh God, John... Obama correcting him on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's name is not good. You have to know how to pronounce their name if you intend to deal with them. The better point? Obama saying "we aren't punishing these people by not talking to them". He's right.

They aren't outright lies; It's horribly deceptive spin, but both sides have done enough of that (Like "100 years of Iraq" talk). But again, the bigger point here is that Obama is coming off knowledgeable and strong on foreign policy; he's not falling into the John Kerry traps of "consulting the UN" and such, which instantly turns many Americans off. McCain tried to paint him badly with Pakistan, and I feel it worked out to Obama's advantage, saying that he will act and will strike when he gets the chance. He's will be decisive, but he won't use his power without proper reasons. Very nice. McCain, on the other hand, is relying on too many anecdotes, and just attacking too much. Yeah, Obama's getting his jabs in, but McCain is using it like a crutch. Again, if you aren't talking about yourself, you're losing. Obama keeps turning the spotlight on himself, and I think he's going to be much better off from this. OMG BRACELET PARTY! DO YOU HAVE THE LIVESTRONG ONE!?

Obama's points on Afghanistan are the hardest-hitting yet. It dispels the idea that he's the "cut-and-run" guy that the Republicans would like him to seem to be. As mentioned above, his outlining of points versus McCain's anecdotes are winning this for him. Biggest plus? He's not saying "Check it out at BarackObama.com". Thank God.

They really need electroshock collars to prevent them from interrupting each other.