Live blogging Debate 3

Debate No. 3, the final one for Election 08 is about to start...

9:04 So they're going to be sitting down around tables (Meet the Press style) instead of at podiums which apparently will make it harder for them to be adversarial. Interesting...they should also be more familiar with this format as essentially every talk show does the same thing.
This also means McCain actually has to look at Obama tonight...

9: 05 Already I like the format a lot better- 9 minute segments with opportunity for discussion and rebuttals and Bob Scheiffer will intervene.

9: 13 "Joe the plumber"- a typical American narrative if there ever was one...

9: 20 Bob Scheiffer is not letting either candidate get away with not being specific- good for you, Bob! As a result these are some of the most clear answers they have given on the economy. They also have the time to speak without some OCD moderator (Brokaw, I'm talking to you) interrupt every 30 seconds).
Edited 9: 59 He also puts his foot down and moves topics along. I'm a new Bob Scheiffer fan.

9: 24 "Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run a long time ago" GENUINELY good line, John. The rest of the answer waffled off but that was the first direct refutation of that Obama campaign point and it worked for me...(a pig with wings just walked by my room)

McCain is actually more effective when he talks directly to Obama- interesting. Obama is not as good- because he tries to be fair.

9: 28 Wow!!! Money question: about the nastiness of campaign "Are each of you willing to say to each others face what you've been saying in the campaigns"

McCain sounds hurt and sad but doesn't go for the jugular with bringing up Aiyers etc.- which he was widely touted to do. So being face to face does make it harder to lie or be vicious...blogosphere comments take note!
Edited at 9: 38 Whoa!!! Comes up with Ayers, Acorn etc.- McCain suddenly seemed to wake up and remember he was told by his henchmen to bring this up...

P.S. He totally went there- by my drinking game, you should be smashed like a pumpkin...

Obama: could have been a lot tougher on this- he should have also listed the racist, threatening stuff that has been said about him. Could have been a LOT tougher.

9: 34 YES! good-when provoked by McCain, he mentions the 'kill him' comment. Good- that needed to be stated.

News flash John, running attacks against your policy platform is NOT negative advertising. Shouting 'kill him', 'terrorist' etc. IS. Clear?

John McCain says he is proud of the people that come to McCain/Palin ralies. If he is proud of this and this , then I rest my case about why McCain would be an unmitigated disaster....There's plenty more of those where these two videos came from.

9: 43 These questions rock! Finally someone asks about VP choices. Tricky but needed to be asked.
Obama plays it safe, Biden is great etc. Poor guy, he can't tell the truth 'she's incompetent and scarily dumb'. I'm saying it for you Barack.

No Obama don't call her capable...you should just have left it at "I think that should be left for the public to decide..."
Of course McCain does not reciprocate the politeness and calls Biden wrong. And then attacks Obama.

9: 54 More picking on Asians, but with a twist. This time the bad guys are South Korea. And the culprit? Obama.

10:00 I've realized the health care plan questions are my 'refresh drink', 'get a snack', 'use bathroom' break. It's important, of course but it puts me to sleep faster than statistics classes... See you in 5...

10: 05 I just made a joke on facebook about Joe the plumber being pretty 'flushed' (get it? get it?) with all these mentions... It is a cheesy joke, but I'm proud of it so I will shamelessly repeat it here...

10: 14 Roe v. Wade question: standard answers. Obama is convincing here-refutes McCain but there is little ground for agreement here.

10:19 Wow..last question and it is about education! Excellent! Good discussion all around.

10:31 Closing Time (like the song)
McCain goes first- fairly typical stuff- and he does mention serving for the country his whole life. Been there, heard that. I actually yawned.

Obama- fairly typical stuff- does the Bush/McCain comparison, talks about change, outlines new policies, come together etc. I yawned again.

Tepid end to a great debate.