McCain just rewrote history.

He didn't call for the resignation of Cox, he was ridiculed because he said Cox should be fired.

McCain wishing well to Kennedy? He HATES Kennedy....

hard to be objective, but I think obama is starting off strong, strong strong.

THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR MCCAIN!!!

1. Where's McCain's flag pin? Is he oneathem trrererrrists?

2. Barack just passed up a golden opportunity to point out that Johnny Mac and his chief economic advisor have their fingerprints all over this crisis...

9:15 Earmark man! Where's his sidekick the Earmark Queen of Wasilla?

I like how obama came out with 30 years of failed trickle down

mccain seems rambling and tired (he even sort of apologized for "feeling bad")

Is it just me or did McCain mix up the "end of the beginning" and "beginning of the end" phrasing?

Is it just me or is McCain blinking incessantly?

Obama, tell McCain that his tax credit for health insurance is effectively a tax increase on health insurance.

I can't wait to see the fact check on this thing tomorrow. Why do I think that McCain is lying through his teeth every chance he gets?

Why does Obama talk about the last 8 years and not the REPUBLICAN PARTY. say it. And then say it again and again. John McCain is a card-carrying, 93% voter of the Republican Party.

yeah georgia cracker, you may be right! end of the beginning didn't make sense to me either!

Obama is looking pretty good. Jim Lehrer is the man!

Glad that Obama didn't take the bait on that one. It's political idiocy to tell people what you would give up easily.

Bombing, drilling, and nukes.
Yeah!

Holy shit..the old man just took a detour to gaga land....Obama's Save 10 billion a month when Iraq has a surplus sends McSenile to energy

Really missing an essential argument against nuclear energy, i.e., the cost of liability the U.S. has assumed in its support.

oh shit! that was just a smackdown!

Obama just called out the maverick bullshit!

"Orgy of spending" THAT WAS FANTASTIC

What 'victory'? this needs to be discussed.

Against Torture but you voted for waterboarding.

"You were wrong."

LOVE IT!

Where's McCain's flag pin? Doesn't he love this country?

Body language: John never looks at Barack. Never.

Because we went into Iraq in the first place we will have to go back to region for decades...

Quote Petraeus(sp?)about there will never be a victory.

I wish somebody would ask McCain to describe his meaning of victory

I hope Barack gets more chances to smile. DAMN he's handsome. (I'm sorry if that was completely inappropriate.)

Good job by Obama to repeatedly hammer McCain with "You were wrong" on the Iraq issues. More of that, please.

Did Obama really say that he would cut off relations with Pakistan?

I got that we need to work with the Afghan government and the Pakistani government to deal with the safe havens that are being given to insurgents/terrorists.

Did Obama really say that he would cut off relations with Pakistan?

I got that we need to work with the Afghan government and the Pakistani government to deal with the safe havens that are being given to insurgents/terrorists.

Obama is doing a much better job with foreign affairs than he did with the economy. He's beating the crap out of McCain here because he is showing passion.

Yes! Obama just him with "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran."

McCain wore a son's bracelet and pledged not to let his death be in vain, but it was okay to bring home troops after the bombing in Beirut killed a couple hundred Marines?

McCain in seven words or less:

Obama doesn't understand and I've got record.

So what if Obama didn't go to Afghanistan? Palin barely has a stamp in her passport!

If John McCain - God forbid - becomes President, I want someone to send a bracelet to John McCain for every soldier that fucking dies because of his continuing the travesty that is the Iraq War.

Fuck you, McCain. Fuck your warmongering bullshit. What a fucking asshat.

Wow, johns first story of his own

Bama is winning on the CNN audience reaction meter

They both had bracelets with powerful stories. Talk about being evenly matched, lol.

Maybe McCain should be wearing 4000 bracelets to remind him that being trigger happy is not the answer to every problem.

A League of Democracies...
Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it, eh, Johnny?

An important point: Iran is stronger because of our actions in Iraq. Not talking to Iran hasn't worked.

And McCain still can't say "Ahmadinejad."

REMEMBER We need a 30 sec soundbyte that everyone can remember.

McCain's just not very bright. His thinking is small and insulated and exclusionary.

For every major point Obama makes, McCain responds with a gaggle of minor ones.

After this debate, I don't think anyone's going to go around saying McCain is mister big picture.

If they do, it's a very bloody angry and vindictive picture.

Seems to me that McCain put himself in a corner a few minutes ago when he said he wouldn't threaten to attack Pakistan -- he actually positioned Obama perfectly to take the more hawkish position on going after the bad guys -- and Obama was all over it. McCain handed his Democratic opponent the ability to seem tougher on defense than he is! Maybe I'm misreading, but this strikes me as one of the largest strategic errors I've ever seen in a debate... and I think McCain's rambling attempt to recover showed that he realized his error.

South Koreans are taller than North Koreans! Take THAT Obama!

GOTCHA with the Kissinger comment. Great stuff.

Ooo, is Johnny ready to blow???

The real Bush Doctrine: Nothing I say is true. McCain is fervent believer. The man just does not get it.

http://www.zazzle.com/he_just_doesnt_get_it_shirt-235622538439668187

sorry, thought this forum was like a chat. However, this debate is a massacre. Comments please

Is it just me or isn't Obama brilliant on Russia?!?

McCain is getting very animated...he's going to lose it.

Re KGB remark-- Johnny's trying to be cute again...

Anybody wonder if they gave McCain something to keep him from blowing his temper? Is there medication for that?

OBAMA JUST LINKED OUR OIL CONSUMPTION TO RUSSIAN MILITARY MOVES! BRILLIANT!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

On the CNN viewer response panel, McCain tanked when he interrupted Obama when talking about Korea.

McCain is a fucking joke. Our country will be the laughing stock of the world if he is our president.

Well, one of them certainly looks and sounds presidential. The other looks and sounds like a baby.

I hate that Obama is being so polite. Makes McCain look stronger just because he can bully Obama.

"Senator Obama doesn't understand..." = The black boy doesn't get it.

Condescending prick.

Blood and treasure?

Just once I want to hear Obama say, NO, it's you that doesn't understand!

Just once I want to hear Obama say, NO, it's you that doesn't understand!

you know jack

Cindy mcCain looks like Paris Hilton at age 65 with lots of plastic surgery.

I read all these comments and I have to say, I think McCain totally took this debate. Obama should NEVER say he agrees with "John", and he was way too polite. McCain hit him over and over that he is the experienced one, and Obama never hit him back, if you are so experienced then why did you not stand up for American's the last eight years instead of hugging George Bush?

McCain lied through his teeth about the veterans and Obama didn't come back on him.

Moderator sucked, in my opinion, and I usually like Jim.

I still don't understand why McCain said his proposal to freeze spending would not include defense spending, when his most specific example of reducing government spending was killing a defense contract.

Just on affect, I'd have to give this to OB on a wide margin. McC was tense, breathing heavily, nervous, groping for his next talking point like it was a life-ring. And Absolutely Every Answer had to take a jab at Obama, even repeating the same jab after it had been refuted 3-4 times. Ridiculous. Sweating. Desperate.

Obama er'ed and um'ed a bit, but never seemed in any way seriously off stride. I thought he scored really well by acknowledging positives for McCain near the end when McCain was clearly rummaging around for The Big Torpedo Shot that he never found. No question who looked presidential here. Not for a moment.

And given that, in the current environment, all Obama had to do was come across as reasonably credible as a presidential candidate, I think it was a slam dunk. McCain was the one who looked like he was on the grim side of the tracking polls and desperate for a way to turn that around.

I'd like to add one more suggestion for Obama...I was waiting for him to go, "Well, there you go again, John..." when answering johnny's many distortions...

Would have hit home big time.

Sorry, our man Obama didn't win. The expectations for McCain were about as low as they could get. He was expected to be out talked by Obama, who is recognized as a great debater. Instead McCain stayed in the same ballpark with him, even managing to score a few points. That goes as a victory for McCain. Remember, far too many voters don't want a smart president. They just want one that will take care of them and sound friendly.

Obama simply gave away too many opportunites. One that bothered me the most was failing to point out that the former Soviet republics, all of which are next door neighbors to Russia, have to be able to get along with their much stronger neighbor. The Georgia president, with help from McCain's staff foreign policy "expert", made a horrible decision to send Georgian troops into areas known to be "protected" by Russian troops. That just can't be done. And, American efforts to get Georgia, as well as other former Soviet Republics into NATO, which is a military opponent to Russia, by design, is far too provocative, but McCain "just doesn't yet understand that". We cannot be Georgia's protector, nor the protector of any of those former Soviet republics. McCain has to learn that before he can safely be allowed to be president.

But Obama let that moment pass. And, he let far too many other moments pass.

For McCain to say that Iran is an "existential" threat is a) proof he was coached from Cheney's materials, and b) proof he will simply mouth whatever old mothballed studies from Rand are still rattling around the neocon cages.

With little expectations, McCain had nowhere to go but up and he did. Obama started off by evading the first freakin question. McSame's lies play well in our short attention span/sound bite/lazy culture. Obama needs to beef up and attack hard in the next debate or Joe six pack is going for Grampy big time. I am so disappointed in Obama- I think he could have done so much better.

Boy, the box is really small, guys, and they're both stuck in it and Barack is no more able to just climb right out than McSame.

Star Wars(missile defense)? Afghanistan? Off-shore drilling? Nuclear Power?

We gotta let go of every one of these money wasters because every one of them is bad for the earth and bad for the economy that must take precedence over the war-premised economy.

Looks like the next 8 years aren't really going to be much better than the previous 70 or so.

Biden on msnbc picked apart grandpa's foreign policy performance with incredible precision, and then went in and tore apart "john's judgement" on the economy

it's like shooting wolves from helicopters

(wink, wink to next thurs)

Outstanding impressions for me: 1) Obama's style of saying "I agree with John" right before he rips off his head and pisses down his neck was subtly effective -- making the harshest criticisms seem polite. I think this style really does set Obama apart from most other politicians we watch. 2) McCain's rudeness, refusal to look at Obama while speaking about him and to him, frequently seeming to sneer.

As usual, McCain spouted politician's platitudes and Obama gave detail-specific answers. I hope this plays well with the general public as it does with me.

Thanks.

mp

While will Lehrer or Obama not just ask McCain to define winning or victory in Iraq. What does that mean -- pin down the specifics. Also -- if a President sitting down and the table with Ahmadinejad legitimizes his position with regard to Israel, does that mean the Nixon's visit to China legitimized communism?

It's always a fine line between scoring points and looking presidential. I think Obama did better at calm, rational, thoughtful points. McCain didn't fumble too badly so it's probably a draw.

I do wish someone would disarm the "negotiation is naive" meme. Here's how: McCain is about 30 years behind the times in terms of what negotiation means. Negotiators have a rich toolkit for dealing with serious bad players.

We have Police and FBI negotiators who negotiate with the worst, most violent, sociopathic criminals in the world. They do so without precondition, because they have to, and because negotiation works. No one criticizes or demeans police negotiators for that, and neither should John McCain. No one says a police negotiator "legitimizes" the criminals by negotiating.

Everyone else seems finished with this thread, so I'll just sum up:
Obama owned McCain tonight.
OWNED him.
Like bought $700 billion of his worthless asset-backed paper.
Our boy done good.