Live blogging the debate:
So I've just tuned into the presidential candidates debate between U.S. Sen John McCain and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and On CNN there appears to be an "ER" chart on the bottom of the screen that appears like it will track the responses of Republicans, Democrats and independents in the same way networks test their pilot episodes before small audiences. Wow.
So I'm watching this on my non-HD TV. It's 27 inches. But I'm having a hard time following the lines in the chart. I'm switching to the HD TV upstairs.
McCain says U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy is in the hospital but I just read on Politico.com that Kennedy is already out of the hospital.
9:09 p.m.: Moderator Jim Lehrer chastises the candidates for not answering his question and tries again.
9:10 p.m.: Watching on my 42" TV now and the CNN chart is still sort of tough to follow. Let's try HD ... Holy cow, there are even more graphics on CNN-HD! There's the graph on the bottom of the screen, which so far is telling me nothing, and there's some sort of analyst scorecard on either side of the screen. It looks like six analysts can give positive or negative points to each of the candidates. But what do these mean?
9:12 p.m.: Checking the other channels now. ABC-HD has no extra doo-dads on screen. Nothing special on NBC or CBS. Fox Business Network is still scrolling stock quotes, Fox News Channel isn't in HD and has nothing special. MSNBC has nothing unusual either. back to CNN-HD.
9:16: Whoever Castellanos is on CNN, they're going crazy with their scorecard. Now I'm curious? Who is Castellanos?
9:18: You can tell I'm not a political junkie. It appear this is Castellanos.
9:19: Gloria Borger has not yet weighed in. Did she fall asleep already?
9:20: First "SNL" moment: McCain gives a long, loud sigh into his microphone while Obama is speaking. That could turn out to be the equivalent of Al Gore's eye-rolling. Uh-oh, CNN's audience appears to have flat-lined! They're bored.
9:25: The audience reaction seems to flatline a lot more when McCain speaks. The lines are more separated when Obama talks.
9:27: Interestingly, independents seem to like Obama's energy plan more than Democrats at some moments. OK, now I'll admit, I'm fascinated by CNN's audience reaction graphic.
9:28: Someone needs to check Gloria Borger for a pulse. She still hasn't voted.
9:29: I take that back. She just rang in!
9:30: I wonder if some viewers here Charlie Brown's teacher when McCain speaks. You know, the one that goes "wha wha wha wha." The lines on the CNN graph just really stick together. Although now they're doing that with Obama speaking. Oh, now they're separating but it's independents on top, then Republicans, then Democrats.Oh, a Bush slam, now the lines are back to normal with the Democrats most approving, followed by independents and then Republicans.
9:32: Kudos to Jim Lehrer to trying to pin down the candidates to answer his questions.
9:34: The Republicans are loving McCain's pro-off-shore drilling stance. The independents, not so much.
9:36: CNN's independents are tracking with the Democrats when McCain bashes Obama's health care plan.
9:38: McCain's second use of, "I have not been elected Miss Congeniality" in this debate.
9:43: Just discovered CNN's audience graphic is shown with video streaming at CNN.com.
9:48: Regardless of which presidential candidate you prefer, they both are far more comfortable and successful in discussing the issues and their differences than Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was in her interview with CBS's Katie Couric this week.
9:52: McCain owes up to a mistake in Afghanistan. Good for him.
9:58: I'm getting bored.
9:59: TMZ.com is reporting that Tina Fey will play Sarah Palin again on "Saturday Night Live" tomorrow. I wonder if they're parody the interview with Couric...
10:00: Obama: "I've got a bracelet too..." Sincere or sarcastic? I couldn't tell.
10:02: On the CNN analyst scorecard, Obama generally has more positive points and McCain generally has more negative points, although it's not entirely clear what that means.
10:04: McCain brings up "exestential threat." I heard that for the first time recently and it's still not clear to me what it means. McCain wants to form a League of Democracies. Will Superman be a member? How about Aquaman?
10:08: I can't blame McCain for mangling the name of a foreign leader because I can't begin to spell it.
10:12: What did McCain say when Obama was talking about McCain not meeting with Spain? Was he guffawing or were there words?
10:15: McCain: "Oh, please." His famous temper is showing.
10:30: Obama: "Restore America's standing in the world." Gives McCain credit on torture issue. Obama tends to be more deferential than a lot of political figures. It was true in the primaries and it's true now. McCain is more likely to say, "Sen. Obama still doesn't get it..." Obama also stays cool. He tends to laugh off McCain's dings.
10:35: Obama: "My father came from Kenya, that's where I get my name..." just so all the lunatics who think he's a Muslim are clear on that.
10:37: Done. Let the spin begins!
Posted
Sep 26 2008, 09:01 PM
by
Rob Owen