**Official** 3rd Presidential Debate Thread

[JJChicken]

My Predictions:

Obama will try to play it safe, as long as he doesn't make too great of a blunder he will be okay. This is a dangerous strategy as anyone who watches sports knows - defending the lead gives the opponent alot of opportunity to attack.

McCain will attack Obama significantly. He did well in his previous two debates and should have a strong debate here. Unfortunately, with the economy as the central issue in the debate, it will be difficult for McCain to turn the tables on this one.

I personally hope the debate is moderated well, the moderation in the last few was a JOKE.

Finally, lets see how big the Ayers issue blows up. Should be interesting to watch

What's everybody elses thoughts?

 

[syzygy]

McCain should read some of the vomit Ayers spewed at the time Obama was cavorting with him, at the very peak of their relationship, when Ayers was supposedly a good citizen and Obama an innocent do-gooder community activist.
Punch home the message that this terrorist animal opened his home to Obama's political coming out party in 1995, that Obama's very career as a suck-up politico was BORN in the home of an unrepentant domestic terrorist. Ayers and
his wife sat for an ABC News report where they showed they had no apologies but only regrets that more violence had not been committed. Transcripts are freely available as are identical print statements Ayers made in 2001.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: syzygy
McCain should read some of the vomit Ayers spewed at the time Obama was cavorting with him, at the very peak of their relationship, when Ayers was supposedly a good citizen and Obama an innocent do-gooder community activist.
Punch home the message that this terrorist animal opened his home to Obama's political coming out party in 1995, that Obama's very career as a suck-up politico was BORN in the home of an unrepentant domestic terrorist. Ayers and
his wife sat for an ABC News report where they showed they had no apologies but only regrets that more violence had not been committed. Transcripts are freely available as are identical print statements Ayers made in 2001.

Yeah that'll help McCain's chances:roll:

 

[syzygy]

And just as good . . . McCain can read to the crowd Victor Davis Hanson's timeline of Obama's relationship with Reverend Wright, the hatemonger Obama could no more disown than his white grandmother, LOL.

Show the world that what the unholy Reverend said in April 2008 at the National Press Club was TAME compared to the drivel Obama and family sat through for twenty years and that Obama's break with him was
purely tactical and hardly principled.

Even God rested on Sundays yet Obama bounced from one degenerate to another without pause.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: syzygy
RAGE!!!!!!!

:shocked:

 

[syzygy]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: syzygy
McCain should read some of the vomit Ayers spewed at the time Obama was cavorting with him, at the very peak of their relationship, when Ayers was supposedly a good citizen and Obama an innocent do-gooder community activist.
Punch home the message that this terrorist animal opened his home to Obama's political coming out party in 1995, that Obama's very career as a suck-up politico was BORN in the home of an unrepentant domestic terrorist. Ayers and
his wife sat for an ABC News report where they showed they had no apologies but only regrets that more violence had not been committed. Transcripts are freely available as are identical print statements Ayers made in 2001.

Yeah that'll help McCain's chances:roll:

Well, honestly, probably not .. . in fact, its rather slim he will recover the ground lost to a horrible convergence of circumstances. But
he can expose this chump.

Damn, if McCain had some passion, charisma, eloquence, something to DRIVE these travesties home. I can't believe such a depraved
closet-case is going to ascend to the presidency with a t-shirt slogan. We have to look to some third world banana republic for such a
precedent, not the USA. My God.

 

[Painman]

McCain is the aging, doddering Alpha Dog who cannot look his youthful challenger in the eye, because he knows that a conflict will ensue, and that he will lose, the end result of which is McCain bleeding out or skulking off to a cave where he will die of starvation and gangrene.

Obama has thrown down the gauntlet, and challenged McCain to attack him on the Ayers issue. It's a lose-lose for McCain. He cedes dominance by shirking away from the fight, and can't win it, because the electorate at large doesn't give a flying fuck about what a washed-up, obscure 60s radical thinks, since it has absolutely nothing to do with their shrinking 401Ks. Camp McCain's failure to mention his name prior to Oct. 1 only enhances the "Hello, I'm a Political Ploy" smell. Be on the lookout for Obama's "McCain wants you to focus on the past because he has no coherent plans for the future" meme.

Remenber 1980? Dem talking heads tried to paint Ronald Reagan as too radical, too dangerous. He strode into the debates, looked into the camera, he smiled, and America smiled back.

I think there are plenty of parallels to 1980 here. Failure of the incumbency to lead and inspire, failure of the incumbency to sufficiently tarnish the fresh and new challenging "brand".

The electorate is congealing. McCain needs to put it into the microwave for a couple minutes on High, but all he has to power that nuke box with is a handful of impotent boogeymen that Hillary Clinton already tapped out.

This election is already over, aside from the predictable "who could have imagined" anal-ysis from the usual gang of bobbleheads.

 

[StageLeft]

On my bb so not sure if this was mentioned. Mccain yesterday said he "wants to do half as well as Sarag Palin did against poor ole joe Biden".

Me = speechless

 

[syzygy]

Originally posted by: Painman
McCain is the aging, doddering Alpha Dog who cannot look his youthful challenger in the eye, because he knows that a conflict will ensue, and that he will lose, the end result of which is McCain bleeding out or skulking off to a cave where he will die of starvation and gangrene.

Obama has thrown down the gauntlet, and challenged McCain to attack him on the Ayers issue. It's a lose-lose for McCain. He cedes dominance by shirking away from the fight, and can't win it, because the electorate at large doesn't give a flying fuck about what a washed-up, obscure 60s radical thinks, since it has absolutely nothing to do with their shrinking 401Ks. Camp McCain's failure to mention his name prior to Oct. 1 only enhances the "Hello, I'm a Political Ploy" smell. Be on the lookout for Obama's "McCain wants you to focus on the past because he has no coherent plans for the future" meme.

so sad but i agree. McCain will have a difficult time injecting Obama's depraved history into the debate knowing that Obama will resort to his usual dodge of redirection and also
highlight the move, as you state above, as a desperate last-stand Tactic, with a glaring capital T. It will take more smoothness than McCain is capable of.

Remenber 1980? Dem talking heads tried to paint Ronald Reagan as too radical, too dangerous. He strode into the debates, looked into the camera, he smiled, and America smiled back.

the dems in 1980 were far more radical than their party is today. ted kennedy, lol, was gunning for prez then. its obama who has reintroduced some of the worst elements from that sordid past
which the party post-clinton has tried so hard to eliminate.

even obama, tho, when looking at his healthcare policy, reveals reaganesque and conservative influences with regard to the priority he places on fiscal efficiency.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
On my bb so not sure if this was mentioned. Mccain yesterday said he "wants to do half as well as Sarag Palin did against poor ole joe Biden".

Me = speechless

More proof on how out of touch he is.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: Skoorb
On my bb so not sure if this was mentioned. Mccain yesterday said he "wants to do half as well as Sarag Palin did against poor ole joe Biden".

Me = speechless

More proof on how out of touch he is.

Clearly, McCain is delusional. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be a bar to being President in America.
Right, Mr. Bush?

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: Skoorb
On my bb so not sure if this was mentioned. Mccain yesterday said he "wants to do half as well as Sarag Palin did against poor ole joe Biden".

Me = speechless

More proof on how out of touch he is.

I must give full credit to Obama's campaign team - they've nailed McCain onto the slogan of "out of touch" while giving obama the "change" slogan.

 

[Lemon law]

I have no real idea, but McCain almost needs some real knockout punch on this last debate. With Obama, its the GWB financial meltdown that puts the wind at his back, with McCain, its the stupid economy that is the headwind he can't make headway against.

McCain needs some giant surprise, failing that, he may be toast.

 

[retrospooty]

Originally posted by: syzygy
I can't believe such a depraved
closet-case is going to ascend to the presidency with a t-shirt slogan. We have to look to some third world banana republic for such a
precedent, not the USA. My God.

No, thats what happened in 2000. This is 2008 and the country is correcting itself. =)

You dont like Obama, thats fine. Most of us dont like bush.... No worries. But if you dont like him, just wait and see what he does. If he does something you dont like, then you can whine about it. Dont hate on what you think he will do. Most of that crap is trumped up by the republican machine and isnt true.

 

[mshan]

Jobs, jobs, jobs: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=890882339&play=1

(jobs, in addition to readily available and affordable financing, will be key to putting in a fundamental bottom in the popped housing bubble, which in turn will ultimately determine exactly how costly this Paulson super - SIV Bailout plan ends up being for U. S. taxpayers).

McLame's chief economic advisor, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, was the guy that said McCain invented the Blackberry, and who also previously admitted that Obama's tax plan represented a net tax cut over 10 years -> Link

 

[mshan]

T. D. Ameritrade's "Enlightened Investor" magazine (fall 2008 edition):

The Strategist (page 20)

"But on the horizon are growing concerns over proposed changes to the current capital gains and dividend income tax rates, wich appear likely to rise regardless of who is in office."

"If we have a Democratic president and Congress, we'll probably see a higher capital gains tax, a higher top tax bracket and a lower estate-tax exemption, all of which could hurt the stock market. With a Republican in office, it still looks as though tax rates will go higher, but the estate-tax exemption could be a bit more favorable than under the Democrats. Regardless, any real impact from new tax policy won't be felt until late 2009 or 2010."

Stock market returns (chart on page 3):


Average Annual Returns:
- Democrat: 9.0%
- Republican: 5.8%

Cumulative Return on $10,000:
- Democrat: $315,449
- Republican: $73,536

Average Annual Returns (individual administrations):
- FDR 7.5%
- Truman 8.3%
- Eisenhower 10.9%
- Kennedy 6.5%
- LBJ 7.7%
- Nixon -3.9%
- Ford 10.8%
- Carter 6.9%
- Reagan 10.2%
- H. W. Bush 11.0%
- Clinton 15.2%
- George W Bush -0.8% (through 8/25/08)


(in reconciling average annual returns with the cumulative gain on $10,000 statistic above, I'm guessing that Republican administrations have represented giant boom and bust cycles where lots of money was made, lots of money was lost, but the net overall effect was simply transfer of wealth, rather than gains that hold significantly over time?)

 

[Tab]

Well, if McCain doesn't bring up Ayers/Rezko/etc he'll look like a pussy and if does he'll look like an asshole.

The only real question is - which body part does he want to be?

EDIT - IMHO, I think neither will have any substantial victory over another and it'll just be like the rest of the debates.

 

[nageov3t]

President Obama vs Some Old Guy from Arizona?

not the debates even matter, I probably won't even bother watching it... the past 3 debates, like every other recent presidential debates, have just been meaningless exchanges of press releases with each side claiming victory for their own candidate regardless of what actually happens.

 

[Hugh H]

Originally posted by: Tab
Well, if McCain doesn't bring up Ayers/Rezko/etc he'll look like a pussy and if does he'll look like an asshole.

The only real question is - which body part does he want to be?

EDIT - IMHO, I think neither will have any substantial victory over another and it'll just be like the rest of the debates.

He would gain more from being a pussy than by being an asshole. The pussy way would get the "base" a little frustrated, but it won't continue to turn away independents and Democrats that might be leaning towards him. After, he can keep showing the Ayers ad and continue to inject "fear" into the race.

If he goes the asshole route, it would give Obama a chance to dispel that Ayers crap in front of millions of people, while saying "McCain you are such an idiot for bringing this Ayers crap in the middle of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression."

Either way McCain loses, but clearly the pussy is better than the asshole.

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: loki8481
President Obama vs Some Old Guy from Arizona?

not the debates even matter, I probably won't even bother watching it... the past 3 debates, like every other recent presidential debates, have just been meaningless exchanges of press releases with each side claiming victory for their own candidate regardless of what actually happens.

good point

 

[StageLeft]

If he goes the asshole route, it would give Obama a chance to dispel that Ayers crap in front of millions of people, while saying "McCain you are such an idiot for bringing this Ayers crap in the middle of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression."

Concur.

Potential deflection being "Frankly, I'm not sure we should be talking about a guy who did something when I was 8 years old when today we've had another terrible day on the stock market and are looking down the barrel of a recession. Ayers is pretty irrelevant to how we're going to keep people at work and ensure there's still enough credit for businesses to stay in business and grow in the coming years."

What could McCain say to such a thing? Point to his judgement? Then Obama need ask why McCain's running mate was just found to have abused her power in office by a bipartisan panel that was 70% Republican.

 

[JJChicken]

When's the debate (EST)?

 

[TheSlamma]

Originally posted by: syzygy
McCain should read some of the vomit Ayers spewed at the time Obama was cavorting with him, at the very peak of their relationship, when Ayers was supposedly a good citizen and Obama an innocent do-gooder community activist.
Punch home the message that this terrorist animal opened his home to Obama's political coming out party in 1995, that Obama's very career as a suck-up politico was BORN in the home of an unrepentant domestic terrorist. Ayers and
his wife sat for an ABC News report where they showed they had no apologies but only regrets that more violence had not been committed. Transcripts are freely available as are identical print statements Ayers made in 2001.

Drink Kool-aid much?

 

[TheSlamma]

Originally posted by: Barack Obama
When's the debate (EST)?

9 EST

 

[Blackjack200]

Originally posted by: Hugh H

Originally posted by: Tab
Well, if McCain doesn't bring up Ayers/Rezko/etc he'll look like a pussy and if does he'll look like an asshole.

The only real question is - which body part does he want to be?

EDIT - IMHO, I think neither will have any substantial victory over another and it'll just be like the rest of the debates.

He would gain more from being a pussy than by being an asshole. The pussy way would get the "base" a little frustrated, but it won't continue to turn away independents and Democrats that might be leaning towards him. After, he can keep showing the Ayers ad and continue to inject "fear" into the race.

If he goes the asshole route, it would give Obama a chance to dispel that Ayers crap in front of millions of people, while saying "McCain you are such an idiot for bringing this Ayers crap in the middle of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression."

Either way McCain loses, but clearly the pussy is better than the asshole.

I think one possibility would be to bring it up in a snarky, indirect way. Maybe throw in a one liner about how the President needs to show good judgment of character and the kinds of people they associate with is a good indicator of that. Something that is clearly a reference to Ayers without actually using the name.