9:28 PM … Highest spending since Watergate? How can that possibly be true? Wasn’t that just an excuse to say “Watergate”? The highest spending since Watergate? Can someone pull the numbers for that?
9:33 PM … What on earth is McCain talking about? Obama’s attacking vets wearing vet caps?
9:34 PM … Truth Hurts, John. The article everyone’s been talking about. 100% of McCain’s ads negative; 50% of Obama’s ads negative.
9:36 PM … The volcano bursts. Ayers, ACORN …
9:38 PM … Probably wise for Obama just to lay out McCain’s bamboozlement point by point. “Says more about your campaign than it does me.”
9:40 PM … Ayers, and economy and brighter future.
9:42 PM … I will say this: So far I think Bob Schieffer’s doing a pretty good job, simply because he’s actually gotten these two guys debating. That’s great. Put them together and let them argue.
9:42 PM … It seems like we’ve now seen McCain’s Ayers/ACORN primal scream. I’m not sure Obama knocked anything out of the park. But at the end of it, I don’t think McCain landed any solid punches either. And McCain was often incoherent and a bit kitchen-sinkish. Basically a draw, though if recent polls are any indication, the draw in debate terms may hurt McCain since people do not like McCain’s attacks.
(Late Update — 9:57 PM … TPM Reader PG disagrees: “Schieffer made these legit subjects for a central part of the debate — and on that McCain won, he was given the opportunity to keep fragging the guy and creating distraction and confusion without
seeming like that’s going negative. For the next three weeks McCain/ Palin can keep sniping at this as if it was an honest fair question — not that that will play with you or me, but if I’m persuadable and uneasy about Obama — this was not a win for him.”
9:46 PM … Climate control? The AC isn’t working?
9:47 PM … Hmmm … “Senator Obama will tell you, as the extreme environmentalists do, [nuclear energy] has to be safe.”
