Live from suburban St. Louis…it’s the 2008 Vice Presidential debate

8:58 – I think the last time I was remotely interested in a veep debate as anything other than background was in 1984.  Aside from the obvious, there’s really no comparison.

MSNBC is being weird about their coverage, so for tivo purposes, we’re watching CNN.

9:01 – here we go…

9:03 – CNN ticker is interesting…looks like Palin is taking her facial cues from her running mate…

Gee, it took all of 2 seconds for Palin to talk about being a soccer mom.  You betcha.

9:06 – good look to Biden with “People in the senate”…but the attack doesn’t seem to go over well…

9:08 – economy = workforce?  Did she really just wink?  Who the hell sent her out there with her hair in her eyes?

9:09 – go Gwen, but if you really think you are going to keep them on topic, you are in for a loooong night.

Darn right it was the predator lenders…she is doing better than I’d have expected – there is a lot of debate left to be played…

I wonder if her hair is so firmly behind her ears to try to show she couldn’t be wearing a wire?

9:12 – The undecideds don’t like the practical answer from Biden.

9:13 – Interesting use of first name, Sarah. Good press on 400+ tax increase votes, there.  She is obsessed with the taxes.

9:14 – she’s already going after Gwen Ifel.  She may not answer the questions the way that doesn’t fit with her canned soundbite.  She’s going to say the word TAXES as many times as she can. :P

9:15 – Biden on taxes – middle class tax cuts – this is for you, not corporate America.

9:17 – “redistribution of wealth” = socialism for Palin.  She’s middle class?  That house of theirs would be 2.5 million here.  Ooh, free market regulation worked so well with the banking and mortgage industry.  $5000 credit is nothing if you’re buying healthcare on the open market.  Have they looked at a hospital bill recently.

9:20 – the voter reaction ticker is irking me.

9:22 – Not paying taxes is not patriotic?

9:23 – She is starting to fall apart…bless her heart.

9:24 – To be fair, both of them are pretty much ignoring Gwen.

9:26 – I cannot even follow her and we’re what, 27 minutes in?  We have John McCain to thank for what?  A toxic mess on main street is affecting wall street?  Is she really trying to blame average Americans?   I think she means the other way around.

9:29 – Why is she back on energy?  Independent Ohio voters are not happy…but she brought it around to oil drilling – good save.

9:30 – Sooo…as the only Arctic state, climate is changing and I’m not going to think about the causes (because heaven’s forfend we acknowledge human responsibilities)…we need to reduce carbon emissions by increasing oil production?  Maybe patriotic oil has no carbon emissions…kind of like how eating standing up has no calories.

9:32 – take no prisoners, Joe.  Clean coal…way to win Pennsylvania and West Virginia…

9:34 – Drill baby drill?!?!?!  Resident physicist calls foul on “clean green natural gas”…

9:36 – Same sex benefits…Joe makes a constitutional issue of it, thus assuring Ms. I-Don’t-Know-SCOUS-caselaw will have no idea what she’s talking about.

Wow…Palin want’s us all to know that she has gay friends…or…maybe not.

9:38 – Joe, dude, if you think that there are no civil rights differences between gay couples and straight couples then CIVIL marriage should be legal.  Don’t be an ass.

9:39 – Sarah, honey, Joe has a son in Iraq too.  SurgeSurgeSurgeSurge…imagine it to monty python’s Spam song.

9:41 – Ooh, good one – no plan, McCain voted the same damn way.

9:42 – Sure, Sarah.  I’m sure our troops would much rather stay over there instead of coming home to their families.  Supporting the war /= supporting the troops.

[You know, this is not proving quite as amusing as I’d hoped.  Where the drama?]

9:44 – This is important kids – John McCain voted against funding for the troops.  And you, are no John McCain…or something  like that.

9:46 – Iraq/=terrorism.  Word.

9:47- Well, at least she can pronounce Akma..you know what I’m talking about.  Nice mention of Israel for the Left Behind crowd.  And there’s that whole sit down with dictators thing…although she would still bomb the hell out of them and tell them in a cafe.

9:49 – if diplomacy is hard work for serious people – does that mean Obama is not serious?  Or that McCain and Palin are not serious – the latter I suppose, since she seems to be saying that they wouldn’t be directly involved.

9:50 – I’m surprised John McCain doesn’t know…nice one.  People aren’t buying the Spain thing.

9:51 – Resident psychologist sez – it’s sort of refreshing to see people not buying it.

9:53 – Destroying Israel /= holocaust, at least not in the sense that Hitler made it.  HEY!  Ladies and gentlemen, we now have Godwin.

9:54 – “I am so happy to see that we both love Israel.  I’m happy to agree with you on that.”??????

So, we’re going to attack you about negativity…by being negative.  Her argument makes no sense.

But Joe, honey, don’t say we’re not the best nation…don’t even suggest it.

9:57 – Did Obama *really* say that we were killing children?  I’m sure we were…

9:59 – Oh, nice switch from going after McCain to a good story about Obama working cross-aisle.

10:00 – You know, a lot of this comes down to, do we believe Biden’s interpretation or do we believe Palin’s interpretation.

10:01 – I stomach success.  There’s a slogan.  And nuts too.  Right now, I have a stomach for nuts and a really nice Savingon Blanc.

10:03 – I’m such an outsider, I was for it before I was against it.  Isn’t that something like draining the whole bottle in the drinking game?

10:04 – Does she really not realize that governing Alaska is not the same as governing the United States?  For a state’s rights Republican she sure doesn’t seem to have a handle on the difference between federal and state law and what “we” can do.

10:05 – You can say what you want to say? Yeah…so can you, Sarah.

Wow, yeah, John McCain did a bang up job with that military strategy in Vietnam.

10:07 – Gwen…that’s quite a loaded question…since John McCain could very well die in the next few years.  Ah, the fabled Bush Doctrine.

10:09 – A team of mavericks.  He has never asked me to check my opinions at the door…because I totally forgot to bring them with me in the first place.  What is with the insistence that Obama is going to raise taxes on the middle class?

10:10 – I want to go to Home Depot with Joe Biden.  He should totally donate that to a fundraising auction.

10:11 – There are so many things to say about Palin’s education comment that I cannot even parse them.

10:13 – Good save, Sarah.  But…so, she’s going to drill, baby drill into those veep powers in the Senate, eh?

10:14 – Biden, the back up singer.

10:15 – Ifel brings up Cheney…nice.  Soooo, now the Constitution is flexible.  She better get on the same page as her The-Constitution-should-be-interpreted-exactly-as-written running mate.

10:16 – I haven’t mentioned the Ohio undecided recently – the love this answer of Biden’s.  It is off the flipping charts from the moment he called Cheney dangerous.

10:18 – What does her state doing again?  And why do I care?
…and she walked uphill both ways in the snow to that kitchen table…
Worldview – another sop to the fundies.

10:20 – Joe Biden knows your pain.

10:21 – And people all around the country are securing their hangovers – it’s a maverick, baby!

10:22 – I knew a maverick.  A maverick was a friend of mine.  And John McCain is no maverick.

10:24 – Ch-ch-ch-changes, turn to face the pain, ch-ch-changes…
Ooh, bringing up Bork is a gamble, given his defense of Clarance Thomas.

10:25 – quasi-caving…there’s an interesting concept.  And if it works in Alaska, it will work EVERYWHERE!!!  Lather, rinse, repeat.

10:29 – Damn, she didn’t actually say gotcha journalism.  Do I still get bingo if she stopped just short?

10:30 – Aw, they totally coached him on being a gentleman.

And, it’s a wrap.  We have mass of white people.

[10-7 – Editing to add cut and relevant links.]