Liveblarghing

[prog]

9:00 Katie Couric stumbles over the second word she says to the camera, and then the cameraman seems to panic with a random zoom. Everyone's already freaking out about this!



9:02 Ifill: I have instructed the crowd to STFU.

9:02 SP right out of the gate: HAY can I call you Joe!! OK.

9:03 JB: I love you all.

9:04 Seriousy, HDTV. I can see Biden's individual eyelashes. How long will it take for video games to pick up on this?

9:05 SP Tee hee! soccer! Well, she doesn't sound like a moon unit any more but she looks petrified.

9:07 SP: U-S-A! OMG they have an entire team of mavericks now?

9:09 SP: "Americans are craving something new and different!" John McCain is not a Swanson family chicken dinner, dude

9:10 SP: Americans are only joe sixpacks and hockeymoms. Everyone else is evil corrupt predatory rargh. Well, there's your populist card played.

9:11 JB: Mostly talking about McCain, too. They're both talking about McCain. Joe! It's a trap!!

9:12 JB: Mentioned how he talked to a gas station guy about the price of gad, and then mumbled about middle-class tax relief at the end. Dude, focus! SP is setting up a softball for you to whack out of the park now...

9:12 JB: Obama didn't raise taxes like that! It was John McCain! John McCain!! I don't like how this is going

9:14 SP: Oh snap, she just started out by saying (paraphrase) "I know I'm gonna get moderated down for this, but..." geezus

9:15 Ifill: Your time is up. SP: ok

9:16 JB: OK, finally talking about Middle Class. Nooo! He's talking about McC again! And how he'll tax all up ins the MC but srsly dude

9:17 Wow, apparently under the Obama plan, tax law will be changed so that businesses will be treated as individuals! Well shit!

9:19 JB: Uh OK it's not communism to tax the rich guys. And then he whacks down the business/individuals confusion, though he coulda done it harder.

9:21 Oh DUDE he's been waiting to spring that "bridge to nowhere" line. I bet he's gonna be a lot looser now that he's unloaded it.

9:25 OMG BIDEN JUST SAID "I AGREE WITH THE GOVERNOR" IT'S ALL OVER

9:27 Now Ifill is saying "John McCain" a lot. I have to laugh.

9:28 JB: Obama foresaw the mortgage crisis! Meanwhile, johnmccainjohnmccainjohnmccain

9:29 SP: "East coast politicians" are friends of FOREIGN COUNTRIES. Who SELL US OIL and HATE US.

9:31 SP: Yes, we must have other nations follow America's example in the fight against climate change! Okay Also apparently there's no proof that global warming is from humans, but we should still lessen CO2 in the atmosphere, for some other reason I guess

9:34 Hahaha! JB mockingly said "Drill drill drill" and SP corrected him. "The chant is Drill baby drill." Awesum.

9:36 I predict many interweb jokes about how SP supports drilling even in the case of outer continental shelf rape or incest.

9:36 Ha ha! Joe should say "Obamabiden" more. I did not know he's 100 percent for same-sex marriage.

9:37 SP: Hey, you can totally be gay if you want. I won't pass laws against you visiting your gay buddy in the hospital! OK.

9:38 Wait, what? OK, he doesn't support same-sex marriage, but... I'm not sure what actually. Duhr OK. Ifill: OK! You agree! Audience: LOL?

9:41 I have to say that this debate is anything but the complete trainwreck that "everyone" was expecting / hoping for. Sorry everyone.

9:42 SP: On iraq, "Um... [seconds pass] Your plan is a white flag of surrender." Joe, m'man, you can't let that stand plz. "Also how can you leave your own son in the national guard while Obama is voting to cut all funding to the military, huh??" eech

9:44 JB: johnmccainjohnmccainjohnmccain. Sigh...

9:45 JB: PAKISTAN! GRR ARGGH I don't hear much about the obamabiden ticket's insistence that Pakistan is a sleeping dragon of some sort, but here it is again.

9:47 I'll say it again. "nucular" is an acceptable pronounciation. The "bush in a skirt" meme-spreaders are high-fiving each other now though.

9:49 SP repeats the McC line that talking to national leaders at all means that you approve of all of their national policies. JB is smacking this around as he should. This is the first time this is sounding just like last Friday, actually.

9:51 JB "He wouldn't sit down with Spainnnnuh." oof

9:52 SP name-checking the Holocaust again, just like McC did. Whee

9:52 JB has third-personed himself at least a couple times tonight. Look for his SNL doppelganger to do it about 57 times.

9:54 This is whetting my appetite for the pres candidates to talk about Isreal/Palestine next week.

9:54. WHOA, JB just made some kind of reptilian hissing noise like the Gorn at Palin. what KIRK I WILL GIVE YOU A QUICK DEATH

9:55 I await the dance remix of "I can't tell how his policy on ____ is different from georgebushiz!" x 10 Actually is this the first time anyone's mentioned G. Bush by name in this whole debate cycle? Just a lot of "this administration".

9:59 Heh heh... when Biden sees the time-up light flashing he stops attacking McCain and then compliments Obama. Oh there he goes on McC again OK.

10:01 Yeah we're back to using John McCain as the frame for everything going on across the whole globe. I'm going to take a little break here.

10:03 SP invokes John Kerry, and then talks again about how Americans are craving John McCain and his 11 herbs and spices. mmmmm. This is as goofy as she's getting, though. Sorry everyone.

10:06 Joe says MCCAIN SUX for three minutes, and then Palin did a funny little dance to pause for words before delivering NO WAI MCCAIN RULZ. This is getting boring yo

10:08 On "What would you do if the prez died or sumthin" Joe says: we must get away from premptive war and towards prevention and cooperation. Palin says: ANWAR! Also, destroy the evil east-coast snooty-snoot plutocrats!

10:10 Joe is talking about gas station attendants again.

10:11 OK, Palin's waiting-to-spring-it-line was "Say it aint so, Joe!" Uh-huh. And now she's imitating Tina Fey imitating her going "Pew pew pew!" i guess

10:13 Ifill extends extra credit to ALL CHILDREN

10:13 SP: LOL! IT WAS A JOKE ^_^ The audience is getting punchy now.

10:17 Joe is ripping into Cheney now. I am not sure why.

10:18 SP sounds like she's delivering her closing remarks a little early. I am awesome and experienced and etc and America is numba 1!!

10:20 Joe Biden will be a great VP because of johnmccainjohnmccain. What the - he seems to be claiming sexism against himself now. Wha? (Edit: Reading other blogs, I see now that this was part of a reference to a family tragedy in his past, and his getting slightly upset at Palin's statement that she's qualified because she's a mom, implying that he's less qualified because - what, he's a dad?)

10:25 Sorry, I'm fading on this. I really am looking forward to the final debate now, I'll tell you that much.

10:28 SP: You will either vote for the pro-job ticket or the KILL JOB ticket.

10:29 SP: Oh yeah and the media is an evil liberal east-coast filter and y'all may go back to ignoring it now. kthxbi

10:32 Joe's got the stronger close, but the righty bloggies are gonna be analyzing what he meant by "Selfishly, may god bless the troops" at the end, which was a little random actually.

OK all done.

Comments

[keimel.livejournal.com]

You didn't blog "Can I call you Joe? " ? :)

=)

[prog.livejournal.com]

Dude, second line!

[keimel.livejournal.com]

Hrm, how did I miss? *shrug*

[daerr.livejournal.com]

"9:21 Oh DUDE he's been waiting to spring that "bridge to nowhere" line. I bet he's gonna be a lot looser now that he's unloaded it."

Yeah, he really was.

This is good

[radtea.livejournal.com]

I really can't stand the thought of watching the debate (and besides, there's a Canadian leaders debate on too) so I really appreciate being able to follow it here.

Re: This is good

[canadianpuzzler.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but what about those of us who can't stand the thought of watching either debate...?

Re: This is good

[radtea.livejournal.com]

I gave up on the Canadian one when they got onto arts funding. Yawn.

It was pretty fair up to that point, with fairly polite, fairly substantive exchanges, at least by the standards of a bunch of power-mad three-year-olds.

I love Duceppe's Quebec-centric spin on every question. Layton and Harper were both pretty strong, and they clearly loathe each other, so that's ok. Dion, who has actually got me thinking of voting Liberal for the first time in my life, is hard for us deaf folks to understand, but I think he's as sincere and rational as a politician can be, which is not very. May is fair.

The basic dynamic: NO ONE believes a word Harper is saying. He's like Brian Mulroney on steroids. I'm a big Mulroney fan, and even I thought he looked like a liar. Harper is the real deal, and from what I can see has absorbed the Republican/Subjectivist/Humpty-Dumpty epistemology so prevalent in the US, where you define your terms to mean anything you damn well please and then USE them as if they meant what a mentally sound person would mean by them.

I'm still swithering between the Liberals and the Greens, and what I saw of the debate didn't change that, but either Harper or Dion would be adequate leaders, I think. May is not ready for prime-time, and Layton is such a cartoon socialist it would be funny if this wasn't the 21st century.

Re: This is good

[canadianpuzzler.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong that I don't believe outright what any one of them is saying?

This job (the prime ministership, that is) is like any other, in that the applicants will pad their resume with what they think you want to hear, and then will revert to form after the position has been filled. The "tough part" is picking a person/party who is best for the position at the time by picking the signal out of the noise: who who will not screw up the important things? who will show initiative while still fulfilling the duties his/her employer (the electorate) requires in a way that is satisfactory to that employer? And so on.

I mean, I do pay attention to the policies, and objectionable policies are a red flag for me much as they would be for anyone else. But the bottom line is that most governments that govern for any significant length of time are going to run up against something more vexing than anticipated, or even completely unanticipated.

I think I agree with you about having two adequate choices to lead the country, with one caveat: I think if Dion were to actually get elected (and not cause economic problems by a botching a green shift phase-in during a period when the economy is less than robust), he might very well have a rough first twelve to eighteen months of it because the Liberal strategists have been more focused on scoring political points against the Conservatives over the past few years than they have been on rebuilding a strong policy base following the near policy vacuum that was the Martin prime ministership. Dion is enough of a policy wonk that he should be able to handle the policy areas that currently have "under construction" signs on them without any ensuing disasters, but he'd probably need to exercise tight control over his party and his message like Harper did to pull it off.

Re: This is good

[radtea.livejournal.com]

I think it's pretty reasonable to not believe any of them. Having grown up on the West Coast during the Trudeau era I long ago came to the conclusion that politicians are paid to lie: if they don't lie, we don't elect them.

Picking the signal from the noise is indeed the problem, and I agree that an ability to deal with the unexpected is the important quality. Every government slowly accumulates mistakes and unpopular decisions until we decide to kick them out, which is why having a strong opposition is so important, even in our overly-party-disciplined parliament. We need a government-in-waiting.

The thing about the current Liberal party is that while I think Dion has issues, I like his potential replacements even less. I see no evidence that Bob Rae has learned anything since he body-checked Ontario's economy in the '90's, and as a defacto American Ignatief is not fit to hold office.

I feel particularly strongly about Ignatief because twenty years ago I had the same choice: I was a post-doc at a first-tier American university (Caltech) with a clear and inviting career path ahead of me, but to take it I'd have to effectively become an American. I chose to return to Canada because living here, and raising my children here, was more important than my career. Ignatief made the opposite choice, and for him to come parachuting back decades later is simply not on.

So I'd like to see the Liberals do well because I'd like to see Dion get a chance to consolidate the party.

[dictator555.livejournal.com]

I think by "Selfishly, may god bless the troops" he was referring to both his and SP's sons being sent to the war. It wasn't as strong as it could've been, but it didn't seem random.

[prog.livejournal.com]

I predict it'll nonetheless get taken apart by wingnuts as JOE BIDEN IS TOO ASHAMED OF OUR TROOPS TO SPRAY THEM WITH GOD WITHOUT BLINKING

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

Aw crap! this was tonight? Arg... Maybe I can see a replay on PBS or something.

When it comes to games like 'go' or 'chess' I've heard that people who excel at the game are sometimes thrown off their usual game when they play an opponent at a much lower level because their opponent keeps making all these confusing and unexpected moves ("did my opponent just do something really stupid.. or is this some strange and amazing strategy I'm unaware of ")

[queue.livejournal.com]

Phil Hellmuth complains about that all the time at poker tournaments.

[prog.livejournal.com]

The entirety of BoardGameGeek complains about that whenever it has to play Puerto Rico with strangers.

[kahuna-burger.livejournal.com]

"I only lost because you made that stupid move! Why did you make that stupid move?" Throws open the door to the backroom when the gang has been remote coaching his opponent to play based on a chess computer, "Which one of you told him to make that STUPID MOVE!?!?!?!"

Ah Cheers, it's been so long....

[radtea.livejournal.com]

"but we should still lessen CO2 in the atmosphere, for some other reason I guess"

Ocean acidification?