Live Blogging: Second Half Hour

9:55: Obama's reference to his mom's death was pretty powerful...I think his best moment so far. And he seems much more at ease discussing health care and defending his plan than McCain does explaining or defending his.

9:54: McCain: Health care is a privilege. Obama: health care is a right.

9:53: The organizing principle of McCain's health care plan is that it IS a commodity to some extent.... the questioner wants to hear that health care ought to be taken out of the market.

9:52: I love Tom Brokaw... and I wish he would use the follow up question time to pin these candidates down instead of broadening the topic.

9:51: Am getting a lot of e-mails about McCain's "THAT ONE."

9:50: Obama asked if health care should be treated as a commodity.. uses opportunity to outline his health care plan.

9:49: The candidates have a substantive exchange on off-shore drilling and nuclear power.

9:48: McCain points at Obama: "That one" -- as in -- "That one" voted for the 2005 energy bill. That was a little too aggressive.

9:47: This is the worst debate format ever. Seriously. Whenever the format itself becomes a topic, the format is a big problem.

9:43: Seems like there's a fifth wall dividing both candidates from the audience.

9:42: Don't mean to criticize Gallup's real people, but these questions aren't very good; they allow the candidates to posture and give their stump speeches.

9:40: McCain answers entitlement question more directly, but WHY DON'T THE CANDIDATES TALK ABOUT MEDICARE?

9:37: Obama feels need to clarify tax policies.... "I want to provide a tax cut for 95% of Americans." "If you make less than a quarter million dollars a year, you will not see a single dime of your taxes go up."

9:35: McCain: "Nailing down Sen. McCain's various tax proposals is like nailing jello to the wall."  McCain compares Obama to Hoover. McCain: "I am not in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy."

9:33: So far: both candidates pretty good. No big moments yet. Nothing striking. McCain
sounding a little more senatorial than Obama. But Obama's a little discursive.

9:32: A reader wonders, I think, accurately: who would have thought Obama would nail the sacrifice question and McCain would flub it?

Comments

Sooooo glad Sen. Obama mentioned McCain's vote AGAINST SCHIP the insurance plan for kids.

Posted by Lori | October 7, 2008 10:00 PM

Why is this moderator limiting Obama’s air time and giving McCain all the time to make a point.

Is this a Tactical approach to underpin Obama?

Ashwin Sreekumar
Australia

Posted by Ashwin Sreekumar | October 7, 2008 10:00 PM

McCain said "on the job training" for Obama? His VP choice would need a bib and training wheels.

Posted by doug | October 7, 2008 10:02 PM

9:11: Another question about what the bailout will do to help regular people. McCain: "What you describe as bailout, I describe as excess."'

Pretty sure he called it a rescue

Posted by Peter | October 7, 2008 10:23 PM

Has anyone else noticed that McCain is taking notes and even had to write down the three part question that was asked of him earlier in the debate? It makes him look forgetful and reminds us of his age. Obama has not touched his notepad.

Posted by Paige | October 7, 2008 10:24 PM

McCain answered entitlement question? If you are referring to the Social Security question, he said there was a solution, an easy solution, but he never said what it was!

Posted by Sabo Pike | October 8, 2008 12:28 AM

Brokaw was a travesty. Yes, please mind your lights, Tom. We really care.

I understand the idea of fairness under a set of rules to keep a debate unbiased, but this was just ham-handed and a slap in the face to anyone who was watching the debates for anything but gaffs.

Posted by Joel | October 8, 2008 4:21 AM

I am a foreigner, I am from Portugal, Europe. The rest of the civilized world is with Barack Obama but we cannnot vote, we are not US citizens. How is it possible that Mccain stil has such a large percentage ???? He is generally so poor ...

Posted by Rui | October 8, 2008 5:11 AM

Both candidates were guilty of rehashing their platform to some extent but Obama seemed to have more facts and figures concerning what he will do.
McCain, as most politicians, talked around everything without giving any straight answers. About the only thing he convinced me to do is check his website to see if he pins anything down there.
Obama's stance, posture and stage presence are much more reassuring than McCain's although he had his share of stammers and mis-statements also.
If asked to who won the debate, I'd have to lean toward Obama.

Posted by Tom | October 8, 2008 7:42 AM