LiveExamining the Third Presidential Debate

October 15, 10:41 PMPop Culture ExaminerDominic Patten

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   Will it be President Obama or President McCain on Jan. 20? 

 Well that's over and that's it.

Three debates, lots of talk, but not a lot of character.

And that's the thing, in a country that is crying out for someone to say, I'm going to lead with brains and with character, these guys barter it out.

I'm glad the DC School system might be improving but what I'd really like to see is better schools across America.

Here's the thing, these are both DC guys and that's the way they think see the world.

In both their closing statements, McCain, who went first and used that "serious voice" of his that reeks of acting coch, and Obama promised change, fundamental or not, and hope for the future. Both of them are feeling our pain, but of course not actually saying that like that. Both of them are fighters, both of them want your vote and both are humble by the prospect of actually being President.

OK.

At the end, they said "Good job" to each other. They should have said "capable job" because that's all it was.

And, with all the hype, all the effort and even all the money, did anyone change who they are going to vote for based on this or either of the previous debates?

Nope.

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Debate coverage will update every 10 minutes or as the candidates spar

FIFTH UPDATE

I think McCain got Obama's vote on Justice Breyer wrong. He must have meant Justice Alito. Sen. Obama wasn't in the Senate in 1994 when Breyer's name came up for confirmation.

In many ways, this is a pretty strictly party line debate. More government, less government. Pro-Roe v. Wade, anti-Roe v. Wade, etc, etc.

It feels like all sense of change and maverickness has left the building and the campaign. This is truly more of the same from both sides.

And what's worse, this is exactly why Senators make bad candidates for President. They run like Senators trying to be statesmen not like men who have the bravado and the bravery to think they should be the Leader of the free world.

They slumber through the grey areas, which in realitiy is where most of all our lives and the issues facing America are. So, top marks for beign tuned in with the real world but failing marks for raising the bar and the leading the charge.

I don't see a President on that stage.

I see two guys who want to be the number one Senator, which is nice but it is not being President of the United States.

Again with the weird McCainism - Education is "the civil rights issue of the 21st century"? What about privacy? What about the War on Terror?

Look I'm for education, Obama's for education, McCain's for education - I'd love the met the elected official whose against education, just for he or she's sheer courage - but the number one civil rights issue of the21st century.

Nope.

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Debate coverage will update every 10 minutes or as the candidates spar

FOURTH UPDATE

There aren't going to be any fireworks.

I wanted them, I think the election needs them but these two are just not going to give them to us.

They jumped over the mud each campaign is slinging at the other and they're going over pages in Sen. Obama's passports and whether he's been to South America or not.

Now it turns out he hasn't, and he's a Free Trader and McCain's backpeddling into the false argument that Obama wants to sit down without preconditions with Hugo Chavez ... and he compared Obama, based on his policy aims, to Herbert Hoover.

Wasn't Hoover a Republican?

And why doesn't Obama say that and say "John, you've got my polices all wrong."

Funny how it has taken since 1992 when Bill Clinton started talking Health care for both parties to get on the bus with wanting to do something about it. They differ of course, but not that much because what either will put forth to Congress will come back pretty much the same.

Having said that, did John McCain looked like his parachute failed to open when Barack Obama said that in fact his health care plan would not fine or penalize the now famous Joe the Plumber?

Looked like that to me.

And then the weirdness of "Joe, you're rich!" and "Senator Government."

McCain has a very odd way of making a point.

Very odd.

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Debate coverage will update every 10 minutes or as the candidates spar

THIRD UPDATE

A 100% of John McCain's ads have been negative?

That's a very cynical reading of all those ads about McCain the War Hero.

McCain tried to make the dirty business of a rough Presidential election personal as if he could charm his way out of the mud his campaign have flung.

McCain should really back off getting Obama to repudiate Rep. John Lewis' comparison between the GOP campaign and George Wallace because he and Lewis himself already have. Now McCain is lumping all his supporters together, the vets with the yahoos and brought up those nasty anti-Sarah Palin t-shirts.

The thing is neither of them have said anything, " We can have a debate about our campaigns," says Sen. Obama and goes right back to his talking points. He knows McCain is trying to bait him to lose his cool.

And now the Bill Ayers stuff is coming up.

Now the ACORN stuff is out there.

Obama is answering the questions about Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber. "He is not involved in this campaign. He will never advise me in the White House." Obama hasn't answered the real question, which is how you hang out with this person when he is seemingly unrepentent about what he did back in 1972

Now McCain is getting to Obama as the Republican lists off more of his concerns about Ayers and ACORN, you can tell because Obama is trying to talk over his with "that's not true, that's not true."

Now we're on to why my running mate is better than yours. Both could say, "because he/she isn't Dick Cheney" for a much needed cheap laugh.

Instead Joe Biden is, which I never knew, one of the greatest people in American history. Instead Sarah Palin is a real reformer whose going to sweep out the very things that actually John McCain himself after over 25 years in Washington.

Obama can't go after Palin because he has enough problems with women voters after the dust up with Senator Hilary Clinton. McCain can't really go after Biden because they're friends so he calls him out on what he considers the Deleware Senator's foreign policy votes.

Why don't they just thumb wrestle for the Oval Office.

Why do I get the impression, from his weird little remarks and shrugs, that John McCain is probably very funny in person? Oh yeah, because I've seen him on SNL and Letterman a bunch of times and he is funny.

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Debate coverage will update every 10 minutes or as the candidates spar

SECOND UPDATE

I like a good policy discussion as much as the next guy with glasses.

And I think that we need a President who understands the specifics of policy.

And I am glad that both Senators Obama and McCain have those skills to varying degrees and they can light up on what they want to fund and what they want to cut.

But guys, let's get some blood and bones in there. Hachets and scalpels are great for spending freezes, John, but they are even better when you are behind in the polls. Starting cutting.

And why does neither of them make a red tie/blue state candidate vs. blue tie/red state candidate joke?

Ouch - McCain just jumped in with "I'm not President Bush, if you want to run against President Bush you should have run four years ago." And he knows it hit because he had the old man twinkle in his eye that he always gets when he's pleased with himself.

Now when McCain's on his roll, you can see Obama smirking. And now McCain's doing the same while Obama speaks.

I'm starting to really like this split screen.

Obama's trying to get back at McCain for the Bush comment, but he can't quite do it without trying to flatter the Arizona Senator at the same time.

Now they're both smirking.

Now the questions about the smears and attacks.

Whose gonna bite the bile first?

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Debate coverage will update every 10 minutes or as the candidates spar

FIRST UPDATE

So, off the bat, let's hope former First Lady Nancy Reagan is OK and does get better soon.

Then, looks like the boys are having a bit of fun. Sen. Obama has a red tie on and Sen. McCain has a blue tie on. Nice with switching party colors.

Now, McCain knows we're "hurting" and we're "angry." How do I know he knows this? Because he says it twice in a robotic fashion.

After that though, at least he has some passion. Obama comes in and its all policy wonk and no pounding the table and saying "how can we stand for what the Republicans have done.?"

I think Barack Obama forgets he's running for President of the United States not Class President.

McCain's trying to get the jump on economic policy ... but it's not his strong suit and it shows.

Now it's tax plan mets tax plan and who loves Joe the Plumber the most. McCain is stuck on Obama's remark to Joe about "spreading the wealth around." It was a pretty dumb thing to say with so much economic pain out there

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Debate coverage will update every 10 minutes or as the candidates spar

So this is their last match up. Like Jesus Jones said way way back, it's "right here. Right now."

After dozens and dozens of debates in each party's primaries, after two previous head-to-head debates, a massive economic crisis, one VP debate, conventions, balloons, the whole deal - its come down to this for John McCain and Barack Obama - sitting around a table with CBS' Bob Schieffer.

Senator Obama is widely acknowledged to be ahead, Senator McCain is looking for a way to catch up. Will he go dirty? Will he start up with the associations Obama has had with former Weather Underground bomber Bill Ayers or something else? Will it work?

Hard to tell.

As tough as he can be, McCain doesn't usually have the stomach for such confrentation unless he is the one hitting back and these guys are right on top of each other.

And Senator Obama? How tight is he going to play it to ride it out the next few weeks to what the polls say and what he hopes is victory? With the beating the stock market took today, what solutions will either of them offer

Well, here we are. The candidates have hit the stage at Hofstra Universitiy.

Let's get it on!

 CHECK OUT PAST DEBATE AND CAMPAIGN COVERAGE BY DOMINIC PATTEN HERE

SECOND PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

VP DEBATE

FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

LAST NIGHT OF THE GOP CONVENTION

LAST NIGHT OF THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION