Pre-Debate Thread

About one hour to go until the 2nd Presidential Debate. Check back here afterwards to post your reactions.

For those of you with C-SPAN, they've been showing the 10/15/92 "town hall" debate with Bush, Clinton and Perot. Amazingly, it actually seems like a real town hall where they picked people out of the audience who were allowed to direct their questions to the whole group and who were allowed to pose follow-up questions. As I understand it, in tonight's debate, the questions will be asked by audience members, but the questions were all pre-selected, the audience members are not allowed to go off-script, and not allowed to pose follow-up questions. And the moderator isn't allowed to ask follow-up questions, either. And there will be no direct cross-questioning between the candidates.

How is this a town hall, again? And how is this a debate?

Poll Numbers with Buzz

Lots of CSCC people have been reading and talking about Nate Silver's election polling website FiveThirtyEight.com. If you haven't seen it, it's worth a look. (538 is the total number of electoral votes.)

Nate Silver first got major attention on the night of the Indiana and North Carolina primaries when his projections managed to capture the movement toward Obama that all the other polling had missed. In recent weeks, Nate Silver has had a lot of exposure in the Main Stream Media, and he is, as he puts it, "enjoying his fifteen minutes." Silver is careful to note that he's an Obama supporter, but he also has a stake in making unbiased prediction, unlike many of the polls that he interprets based on their track records.

PA GOP gets a case of the nasties

The way the national parties let their state parties do the dirty work reminds me of conservative love of state’s rights. Right to suppress votes, right to limit choice, right to defund schools, right to pollute etc.

Right to smear too, apparently.

Pa. GOP hits rock bottom: Calls Obama "a terrorist's best friend"

“What does it say about the character of Barack Obama that he knowingly associates with terrorists? It tells me that Obama lacks the judgment and character to be our next Commander-in-Chief.”


http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/GOP_hits_rock_bottom_Calls_Obama_in_an_official_release_terrorists_best_friend.html

Biden and Palin debate on SNL

Saturday Night Live continues to have fun with the political season. Tina Fey continues to fly back to NY from California in the hopes that getting us to laugh on Saturday will make us want to watch 30 Rock on . . . what night is it on?

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/blog/2008/10/love_or_hate_he.html

Friday Afternoon Entertainment

It's Friday, so kick back and relax with Earl Pickens:

And by “relax” I meant, of course, get up and volunteer!

Post VP Debate Reactions

What did you think?

Countdown to Meetup & VP Debate Tonight

If you're reading this blog, you probably already know that CSCC has a meetup tonight. If not: hey, we have a meetup tonight! :) 7:30pm, see the website for details.

And then we're going to watch the VP debate together... it's 2 and 1/2 hours away now! Please check back here afterwards where we'll be posting reactions, and you can leave your comments and impressions of the debate.

While we're waiting, here's some links you may enjoy:

• Testimony from someone who has debated Sarah Palin (in the '06 Alaskan Governor race)
• Jon Stewart (from the Daily Show) and his take on the infamous Sarah Palin/Katie Couric interviews