Liveblogging the Debate

7:02 Good that Obama chose the word "frustration" rather than that divisive term "bitterness."

705: "Continue to fulfill" what "promise," HRC?

Break: Good luck with moderating the time if one candidate speaks longer than the other (Hillary)

7:07: Why use the Constitution? It's gone.

7:08: Running mates? Hell damn no. And I'm not so big on keeping the Democratic Party together, Obama, and I don't think that anybody else really is, either. Let me just repeat: I will NOT vote for HRC.

7:12: Oh here we go with the "bitter." "Patronizing?" No, it's the truth, I was born in a small town and I grew up in a small town and I have no idea if that's where they'll bury me, but nevertheless, Obama's comments were TRUE. Yes, Obama, good, "wedge issues"...stay on the point. I'm guessing HRC is about to jump all into that.

7:15: There she goes, no such thing as religion overtaking politics. No, you don't believe it, HRC, of course not--you've spent too much time introducing those wedge issues in the past two months alone. Liar.

7:17 Hate to go lowbrow here, but can't believe she'd say "cauldron" in public. Excuse me, that was below the belt.

7:18: Obama, will you please point out that Gallup polls show you 11 points ahead of her?

7:20: Yeah, you're right, Obama, it's not going to help the person at the kitchen table trying to pay the bills. "The politics we've been accustomed to" and "using the same tactics." Yes, he's nailing her.

7:21: Hillary, nobody would have even noticed anything wrong with his "remarks" if you weren't telling them they were being condescended to when they're not even. HRC: "A proven record of results"??? Yes, and I wouldn't brag about that, either. A bunch of poor people killing each other is what I've been seeing in the past decade.

7:23: How predictable, we'll spend a (yawn) half hour talking about Jeremiah Wright's (also true) comments. Good, Obama, just don't even get into it.

7:25: Well, here's two minutes, now HRC has to go Jeremiah Wright. Oh.my.god. Yes, his post 911 speech would have been "intolerable" for you, HRC. See above use of "cauldron."

7:29: Six minutes later, George Stephanopolous (sp) on Jeremiah Wright. (yawn) I'll be back when this part is over. Ha: Do you believe he's as "patriotic" as you are? "He was a Marine." That'll cover it.

7:31: HRC back on Jeremiah Wright. I cannot believe HRC is talking about "overcoming divisiveness" and "bitterness." See "cauldron," above.

7:32: 6 in 10 people don't believe HRC is honest and trustworthy? What are the other 4 in 10 thinking? "On a couple of occasions, I just said some things that I knew weren't the case!"--HRC Oh lord. But having gone to Bosnia gives her "an advantage" in this campaign? Shaking the little girl's hand? What I said "Didn't jive with what I knew to be the truth"--HRC

7:36: Obama's getting mad now, fired up--"we're involved in two wars!" Thank you. Ooh, "obsessed with these kinds of errors." (Ooh people clapped, too!)

7:38: "Dew you beleeeve in the American flag?" Ima have a heart attack.

7:41: George Stephanopoulous brings William Ayers up on Obama's ass. Really digging here. I questioned whether to watch this cat piss and think now I shouldn't have. Ooh, Obama, that "doesn't make much sense, George!" Ooh, Obama's madder now. Good. "Anybody I know, somehow their ideas are attributable to me??"--Obama

7:43: HRC slams Obama on Ayers after he just gave her a high-minded pass on her freakin' lying her ass off. She will stoop to any level. Don't forget "cauldron," above. Obama cannot run against John McCain because he knows William Ayers?? HRC stoops again. Has Obama stooped?? I haven't heard it. Ooh, here we GO: "Your husband PARDONED members of the Weather Underground!" Ha!

Commercial for Lunesta: You should tell your doctor if you take Lunesta and you drive while sleeping. Not making this up.

Where are these "questions" coming from?

7:54: HRC is going to make it clear to the Iraqis that they do not have a blank check from the United States. I doubt that they are perceiving mangled bodies, broken infrastructure, raped and tortured people, etc., as a "blank check," but of course I may not be as familiar with Iraqi culture as HRC is. HRC: "Iraqis have to take responsibility for their own future." I'm sure there's a problem with laziness in general among the people in Iraq.

That weird blue light on the audience is awful.

7:59: Notice that Obama said nothig of "blank checks" or failure of responsibility among Iraqis. Commentators raked him over the coals on Israel before the debate started. He's disappointed me with the lockstep with Israeli policies.

8:01: HRC and massive retaliation. I find that not hard to believe. Oh, HRC is complicit with possible invasion of Iran. Obama may have just said he was, too. I hope not. Dogs were barking. Oh, here we go again after Iran. Now she's agreeing with Bush on Iran. She's gonna get the rest of the world on our side, though.

8:04: Hope is going to raise taxes. "Audicity" (McCain). HRC is about to make a read-my-lips claim about not raising taxes on the middle class. Taxes are not my problem. Are they yours? "Making college affordable and so much else"--HRC. No middle-class tax increases of any kind.

8:06: Obama will "offset" payroll tax on middle-class. Again, yawn, taxes are not my problem. I used to be middle-class and taxes were not my problem then, either. "Lack of oversight on lenders and 185 million from lobbyists for lenders." Now we're talking.

These blue people in the audience, except for Chelsea and Mayor Nutter, who are not cast in blue, are making me nervous. Chelsea and Mayor Nutter make me nervous, too, but at least they're not blue.

8:10: Obama refers to infrastructure, additional 420 billion in debt under Bush, Obama says. Charlie's got to hammer his baloney conservative argument from the pulpit there.

8:11: HRC claims that in the 1990s there was an "economy that worked for everyone." I was alive then. And my long-term and short-term memory are still working. And there was not. Oh, HRC says if she'd been president a year ago, we'd've avoided foreclosures. She said "Ed Rendell saw this coming." HRC saw it coming, too. That's why she worked on the you-can't-claim-bankruptcy bill.

Charlie Gibson and GS are reminding me why I don't watch network tv.

Very loud train going by.

Ooh, Obama tattles on HRC for saying she'd consider raising tax cap as soon as she got off camera. Ha.

8:17: HRC takes credit for Clinton legislation and suggests that he'd have saved social security. What? She's gone after Obama for praising Reagan and now she's doing it.

8:18: Ha, "that commission raised the retirement age!" says Obama of HRC's praise of Reagan. HRC is confident we'll work everything out.

Why have we not seen Michelle Obama or the children in the audience, only Chelsea and Mayor Nutter? Is Michelle lost in the blue light somewhere? Have I been typing while she was on camera?

8:25: Oh, geez, here we go with the individual's right to bear arms. Oh and HRC tells us that Mayor Nutter is here when she refers to the gun violence in Philadelphia. Obama's looking at HRC like she has lost her natural mind as she goes on about police outgunned. She'll reinstate automatic weapons ban. Setting the bar low. 80% of the guns are in the hands of THAT CRIMINAL...sounds like Charleton Heston. I've heard about enough of "keeping those guns out of the wrong hands." HRC is going to strike the right balance, protecting people from guns in the wrong hands. Oh good. She's gonna put more cops on the street.

8:28: Obama states that individuals have a constitutional right to bear arms and that govt has a right to constrain that right. Oh he's talking "common sense" approaches just like HRC. "Common sense" arguments bother me.

GS looks at HRC like he's in middle school and wants to ask her out.

8:32: HRC likes what works in New York City. Manhattan, I'm sure. Gun control is not working in Manhattan; pushing out everyone who doesn't make about 200K is.

8:33: Of course, GS goes to Obama with a question about how to make sure that rich African-American kids are not getting advantages and that poor white kids are? Surely, I misheard. Obama confirms that race is still an issue in America. Oh lord, Obama has gone and said that he still believes in affirmative action, undercuts that by condemning quotas. I hope HRC is not about to say the word "entitlement." HRC thinks we should achieve our goals differently, to enable people to fulfill their god-given potential...has to talk about the global society.

8:36: Oh HRC has met with a group of truckers in Harrisburg and is going after these gas prices. She believes there to be some kind of chicanery going on. People are not going to be able to afford to drive to work! she says, as though she's just discovered America.

Now Obama is looking at audience like HRC has lost her natural mind.

8:38: Obama repeats HRC's points on gas but in a less folksy way.

HRC believes in "using" former presidents according to GS. Sorry, below the belt again. Oh, she's not even going to exclude GWB from use as a former president.

8:40: Well, at least Obama is not going to "take advice" (avoids the word "use") from GWB but rather from his father. Praises Bush I's foreign policy. Well, looks good in comparison. Low bar.

Thank goodness this is over soon.

8:47: Yawn. HRC is going to convince superdelegates to support her. She's gonna make everybody feel that they're part of the American family again. She can't do it alone. Says she wants people to look at her "track record." You know she's addressing those who cannot read here. Blah blah. Oh, she's demonstrated "over a lifetime" that we can count on her.

8:49: Obama answers the same question about superdelegates. Reminds us he's not taking PAC money or money from lobbyists. Yes, he has raised money in record numbers in small contibutions. Bottom-up argument. Can form a new coalition.

Sigh. Lackluster debate. Spelling and grammatical errors to be corrected later.

Update: "Lackluster" because it's so clearly rigged by MSM to focus on wedge issues. Glad Obama called those tactics what they were several times, but that didn't keep everybody else's focus off wedge issues for approximately 78 of 90 minutes. Those in power are clearly very angry at Obama for talking outwardly about wedge issues because they believe that this type of talk should be left to elistists behind closed doors. Without wedge issues, ABC, whoever owns ABC, whoever owns whoever owns ABC, and the vast majority of politicians, especially the Bushes and the Clintons, would be out of business. Powerful people are clearly trying to make Obama pay for talk like this by subjecting him to the in-your-face homage to wedge issues that we witnessed last evening. Somebody probably whispered, "And there's more where this came from," "You've gone WAY too far now," and probably much eviler things into his ear as they shook his hand and patted him on the back afterward.