Either Relevant or True » Debate XXI

9:30 - What the heck, Hardball’s still on. I turned off the Mets game for this?

9:49 - Why won’t the debate end?!

9:52 - KEITH! Finally. “The most startlingly tabloid debate” since the beginning of this whole thing. Chuck Todd said it was a tough night for Obama. William Ayers came up, and the Weather Underground. Both candidates are linked, though, and Chuck Todd raises the question as to whether or not debating 60’s radical groups is healthy to the party at all.

“We didn’t hear about FISA, we didn’t hear about waterboarding, or telecom immunity … we heard about flag pins.” - Keith

10:00 - The debate will boil down to “…what somebody one of the candidates knew did thirty eight years ago,” says Keith.

Ugh. At least the Mets won.

The first Democratic debate (of this cycle) was April 27th, 2007. Daaaaaaamn.

I did not know that fifty days was the lifespan of a drone worker bee! Thanks, KO!

When asked if Obama could defeat McCain, Clinton said, “Yes, yes, yes.”

Obama replied, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

…I made that last part up.

10:04 - Clinton invoked Louis Farrakhan in discussing how she would have handled the Rev. Wright situation differently. I begin my breathing exercises …. now.

Oh hey - Hannity and a right wing radio host from NY (another one, I mean), suggested that George Stephanopoulos ask questions about William Ayers this past week.

Howard Fineman! Gene Robinson! A mis-typed script for Keith! Ohhhh, I kinda’ missed these Overtime Pundit Crew nights.

10:10 - “This whole debate was aimed at the superdelegates and the insiders who are trying to evaluate how much problem, if any, Barack Obama will have as a general election candidate,” Howard Fineman says, talking about how it looked as if Obama was already the presumptive nominee.

10:12 - Ohhhhhhhhhh, referring to Clinton as a McCain stand-in tonight even makes me uncomfortable.

10:17 - Hey, it’s Bob Casey (D-PA)! He’s an Obama supporter, and his eyebrows are fascinating. He thinks Obama did well.

10:26 - And now Clinton campaign communications director Howard Wolfson who, I’ll mention in the interest of parity, also has eyebrows. He thinks Obama did poorly.

Keith’s annoyed that there was no real focus on anything of substance. Veterans committing suicide, FISA, the price of gas, the recession … yeah, you know what? The debate’s not a debate. The debate’s a pageant to get undecided voters in [insert Relevant State of the Week here] and superdelegates to remember allllll the stupid bullpuckey that’s come up about each respective candidate in recent memory. The “bitter” thing, bowling, learning to shoot, shooting back Crown Royal, Bosnia, the Weather Underground business, blah blah blah blah.

10:33 - Keith makes Wolfson laugh. The sound is deeply unsettling.

10:37 - Keith describes tonight’s debate as “…the faint-praise face-off…” — Oh nice, Clinton did comment on her commitment to do whatever is necessary to make sure a Democrat is in the White House come January. She also apologized for misstating her experiences in Bosnia.

Rachel Maddow! Pat Buchanan! Jesus — Uncle Pat, if you’re right and in the eyes of the voting nation the “flag pin issue” is one of Obama’s biggest liabilities? I f***ing quit.

Rachel thinks the format of the debate — invoking portions of the constitution — was kind of cheapened and/or wasted when they followed it up with … discussion of cookies and the Weather Underground. She says tonight, though, was a good look at how Obama holds up under criticism. “…he says ‘um’ a lot…”

Hey, but so far he hasn’t unilaterally declared war against a country for no reason, so — he’s still lookin’ good to me.

“Senator Obama’s a nice guy,” Uncle Pat says, “he’s a very pleasant guy. He’s not a knife-fighter.” Ohhh, but if he was…

Pat Buchanan, when not raving, looks profoundly sad.

Rachel doesn’t think Obama did a terrible job, but she’s taken aback by the non-substantive things that made up the bulk of Obama’s issues tonight.

Pat brings up the huge point that Clinton mentioned “massive retaliation” against Iran if it advanced on another nation in the region (I think she name checked Israel for that one). Oh my god, nearly an hour into the show and this is the first time someone’s brought that up? And that someone is Pat?

10:53 - ….Oh my god, MSNBC is doing a text message thing. “Who won tonight’s debate? Use your mobile phone to text your vote.” Is this Seacrest’s doing?

10:58 - Rachel questions Clinton bringing up Iran, and the “neo-Con myth of Persian aggression,” saying that Iran hasn’t actually invaded anyone since like the 1700’s.

At the Correspondents Dinner tonight, Dick Cheney addressed “comedian” Mo Rocca on the dais, and noting that Rocca used to host a show called Things I Hate About You, said: “I’ve seen that program, except I believe it’s called Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”

Oh god. Quick, someone put security around both The New York Times building and Keith’s skull.

And that’s it for us tonight - again! We’ll see you next time.

Hi!

Blatant pandering first: Love this site, love KO, so cool that he has his own “Nation”!

The blogs are abuzz about how awful this debate was. I actually called and left a message with ABC. And emailed them. Keith has got to do a special comment on this mess! And why was George S. a moderator? Conflict of interest anyone?

Both candidates looked extremely tired. Both candidates’ voices sounded worn. The entire debate was depressing. I’m tired, worn and depressed about the whole thing. We’ve had enough of this cr*p already!!!

If all the MSM and presidential candidates can discuss is tabloid non-issues, maybe the next debate can be moderated by the hosts of “Extra.”

And, Keith is right, these debates are a new TV reality show, with as much credibility. In fact, the entire campaign is rapidly crashing into that sewer, as the ABC debate demonstrated.

I can see it coming tomorrow:

“Nurse Wratchett. Today’s WORST…PERSON…IN THE WORLD!

The debate was terrible, ABC should be profoundly ashamed. Who the hell is Charlie Gibson to demand commitments as to each other as running mates. The arrogance of that was sickening. Although, when Obama “scolded” George over the tabloid nature of the questions, that was great. Plus he gave Sen. Clinton a pass on the Sniper-gate, very high road.

Keith was great last night. He said exactly what I was thinking and feeling about the debate. I was surprised that Chuck Todd said Obama did so poorly. (Howard Fineman also said that.) But Keith stood his ground and rose above the pundit class to hit the nail on the head, again, as usual, as always. Great stuff, I’m feeling very inspired by him (and Obama) today.

Tom Shales of the Washington Post gave a scathing (and spot on) review of the last night’s debate. I have a feeling Mr. Shales will be a “Best Person’s” tonight on Countdown:

“Gibson sat there peering down at the candidates over glasses perched on the end of his nose, looking prosecutorial and at times portraying himself as a spokesman for the working class. Blunderingly he addressed an early question, about whether each would be willing to serve as the other’s running mate, “to both of you,” which is simple ineptitude or bad manners. It was his job to indicate which candidate should answer first. When, understandably, both waited politely for the other to talk, Gibson said snidely, “Don’t all speak at once.”

“To this observer, ABC’s coverage seemed slanted against Obama. The director cut several times to reaction shots of such Clinton supporters as her daughter, Chelsea, who sat in the audience at the Kimmel Theater in Philly’s National Constitution Center. Obama supporters did not get equal screen time, giving the impression that there weren’t any in the hall.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041700013_pf.html

I stopped watching all ABC programming after their dreadful “fact” based (i.e., lie based propaganda piece) movie on 9/11 that was written by some neo con hack.

A singular event, such as a Presidential debate gets a pass, but given that movie it is hardly surprising to me that they would stoop to something that is even lower than what I would expect from FOX “news”.

Much as I may be appalled by people such as Rush or Bill-O having a fan base, it is still relatively small in terms of the entire viewing/listening audience.

ABC is one of the three major networks, and for them to run a lurid piece of crud like this should call their license into question.

We are plunging into a depression, we are fast closing in on peak oil if we have not already reached that point of no return, there are already food and water shortages in the world and hints of it in parts of this country.

I am one of the millions with no health insurance (my company refused to renew on the anniversary date after I was diagnosed with RA and Fibro Myalgia, and no one else will insure me with that diagnosis), I see people all around me who have either lost their jobs or had their wages and benefits slashed.

Bridges are crumbling, roads and collapsing, and we are mired in a senseless war.

And, then those thrill seekers on ABC, so puffed up with their own imagined importance go on and on about nonsense.

Just as oil and perhaps water supplies are peaking, the ability of the US to survive as intended is also near peak, and this election may be the make or break point.

Empires collapse, all of them, dragged into oblivion by their own greed and hubris.

Unless we fast give up this notion of Empire and return to being a true Republic, we are in deep kimchee.

Seeing Stephen Colbert this week at Constitution Hall, with the Liberty Bell, etc., has been such a strong reminder of the Conscious Intent of the great men (and we know there were great women prodding some of them on) who created this nation. What a glorious experiment because it was done by the best and the brightest.

Now we are down to who chugs a beer best or bowls without a gutter ball? Who does or does not wear a flag pin? (And, are women required to wear them, too?)

Ah, I rant again. I shall stop.

One the folks over at Crooks & Liars posted this link (in relation for Gibson’s “flushable” debate questions he asked last night). In a weird ’sea-monkey’ kind-of-way, it’s kinda cool:

http://www.fishnflush.com/about.html

BTW, Crooks & Liars are BIG fans of Keith and post a lot of his segments. Yeah C&L!

[…] Stef alluded to in her post-debate live blog, comedian Dick Cheney made a funny last night: Among his other credits, Mo (Rocca) used to host a […]

Mrs. O looked beautiful on Colbert. Really.(Sorry, I think I posted that in the wrong place and was not really aiming at one of those Debbie The Newsbabe positive transition things.)
But I’m used to thinking of her as tough and devoted…”hot” was kind of new.(/shallow)
Keep your knees loose, Rafismom.

GM: I assume that that tank calls for bottom fish. And, attractive as the Fish and Flush may be, I could not help thinking of it from the point of view of the fish and what they would see and their excitement with each flush, and I could just imagine the ongoing cartoon ala Pearls Before Swine as the fish deal with this bizarro world.

It might be one way to train cats to use the toilet, though.

Why is it that Obama as Knife Fighter inspires visions of West Side Story to me?

Didn’t see the debate but heard is was horrid. And George Stephanopolis (?) as a moderator? Yeah, why don’t they just slap Dick Morris up there while they’re at it.

And seriously, if somebody asked me if I “loved the flag” or if my pastor “loved America” as much as I did, I’d probably tell them to go eff themselves sideways, so kudos to Barack for, you know, not doing that.

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