I will keeping a running blog of the debate as I watch it. If nothing interesting happens, this post disappears into the ether never to be read. But if you're reading this, something wild and wacky must have happened...or I got lazy and posted it anyway.

8:00 PM: So the candidates don't get to ask each other questions? That's no fun. Instead, Mr. Lehrer gets to lob softballs at G-Dub where he can talk about the war in Iraq like a rattlesnake roundup.

8:04 PM: "Do you think you could do a better job than Bush at..." what did they think he would say, no?

8:07 PM: I still can't hear anyone referring to Libya without thinking of Back to the Future. I'd like to see Christopher Lloyd up on stage with wild hair and that manic look in his eyes screaming "1 point twenty one jigawatts!"

8:11 PM: Kerry just referred to Bush outsourcing the job of catching bin Laden to warlords. I'm surprised he didn't have them do some of our software engineering while he was at it.

8:17 PM: "The main reason we will succeed [in Iraq] is because the Iraqi people want to be free" What? That doesn't mean anything.

8:19 PM: And we've had our first "if you don't support the war, our troops will lose morale and fall into deep depression and then everyone will be sad" argument. For some reason, this one really resonates with Republicans, despite the fact that it's patently ridiculous.

8:23 PM: "We're modernizing our borders" Awesome! Let's see all those Canadian terrorists get in now...

8:34 PM: I'm getting bored. Bush is parroting his "wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time" line like a broken Teddy Ruxpin. Kerry needs to pull of his mask and show the world that he's Clinton in disguise, something to jazz things up a bit.

8:42 PM: If I've learned anything from our ill-spoken president tonight it's that once I make a statement on something I should never, ever change my mind. Using his logic, humans should still stubbornly think we're at the center of the universe and that the Earth is flat. But that's our story and we're sticking to it.

8:45 PM: Isn't it about time for a commercial break or halftime or something? It's been so long since I've seen a commercial that I'm starting to forget which beer is cold brewed and transported in cold trucks.

8:48 PM: OK, Bush is seriously repeating the same "point" over and over and over and over again rather than actually responding to anything Kerry has said. At least Rush Limbaugh will have a sound bite tomorrow.

9:02 PM: It's amusing that Bush laughs and grins like an idiot but has not made a single fact-based or plan-based argument yet. He loves to refer to vague ideas like "fighting against freedom" (Yooooooo Joe!), but doesn't like actually saying anything of substance. It's a Saturday-morning-cartoon mentality from someone whose mental capacity isn't too much higher.

9:11 PM: Oh boy, a question about character, here comes the real trash...

9:12 PM: And surprise surprise, instead of talking about character, Bush goes right back to his party line of "changing positions". Somebody needs to flip over the tape, I think he's starting to skip.

9:18 PM: Bush just pulled a statistic out of his ass about spending to stop nuclear proliferation. If anyone bothers to research it, I'm sure they'll find it's completely false, but it sure sounds good on TV!

9:22 PM: Hahahaha. Bush plays the follower and claims that his #1 priority is also preventing nuclear proliferation, but if you do a search on his website under Safety and Security for "nuclear proliferation" it finds 1 document. He has an entire section about "compassion and values", doesn't that seem more like a #1 priority to him? Even if you search the main page, it finds 50 documents but the vast majority of them are ridiculing Kerry's nuclear proliferation policies. A similar search on John Kerry's website finds 140 documents. Hmm...which one considers it more of a priority?

9:30 PM: OK, I draw the line at watching the talking heads discuss the outcome. Kornheiser and Wilbon they ain't...

Posted by: Eileen at September 30, 2004 10:50 PM