I'm going to put any comments under this one item. So if you're checking in during the debate, keep refreshing for the latest…
6:05 — Well, they both dodged the first question. It was about the best and worst of Washington, not what your running mate has contributed.
6:10 — Sorry, Sarah. No one's going to buy that when McCain said "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," he meant, "U.S. workers are great!"
6:12 — If you were debating and I was your speechwriter, I could have anticipated these questions and written you an answer you could have memorized.
6:20 — Biden won the exchange about health plans…but Palin ain't doing badly. Gee, I wish they could each talk a little longer.
6:30 — Biden's repeating himself. Not a good tactic. He's also talking like John Moschitta, trying to get everything in. But Palin seems to think she can convince America that John McCain's the guy to regulate business. I can't imagine too many people buying that. And that line about not giving tax breaks to oil companies is going to be flagged in a lot of fact checks. They're proposing a tax break for all big companies, Exxon included.
6:35 — Half an hour in, I haven't heard anything that would sound silly coming out of the mouth of Tina Fey.
6:40 — I think Gwen Ifill's questions are predictable and dull. But no one can accuse her of favoring one candidate over the other.
6:45 — Biden could have done a much better job explaining how Obama didn't vote to not fund the troops.
6:47 — If you're playing a drinking game where you take a shot every time someone says the word "fundamental," you'll be dead by 7:10.
6:50 — Where was this Sarah Palin in the Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson interviews? I don't think she's doing Obama/Biden any damage but she's not giving the world a lot of cringe-worthy YouTube moments.
6:59 — Okay, Palin's little speech about how "change is coming" is the Palin that folks are laughing at. The reason her side is losing is because Obama is the change candidate. And no one believes we're not killing civilians in Iraq. She loses points for that one.
7:00 — Biden's too deep into some of the details…and he keeps saying, "I shouldn't say…" But really, it's impossible to discuss Pakistan and Afghanistan in 90-second chunks.
7:05 — Isn't the NATO commander named McKiernan? She keeps calling him McClellan.
7:08 — Palin's not going to convince America that John McCain has been consistent in his positions and Obama hasn't been. And what's this line I keep hearing about how McCain knows how to win wars? Which was the war that John McCain won?
7:10 — Biden's line about polling the folks at Home Depot about the economy was just as vapid as Palin's about asking people at a soccer game.
7:15 — I think Biden won the "what would you do as vice-president?" exchange handily. He'd actually participate and her answer was barely coherent.
7:21 — Is there a candidate in this election who hasn't made a speech that involved sitting around the kitchen table and discussing problems with your family?
7:28 — Palin's using a lot of the same lines of attack that have put her ticket into, at the moment, a losing position. That line about how she prefers to speak to the American people without the "filter" is silly, coming from someone who's been hiding out from the press. There are plenty of media venues that would gladly interview you on live TV, governor.
7:32 — Biden's closing statement wasn't bad. I get the feeling a lot of America is disappointed that no one's pants fell down. I'd rate it as close to a draw…but I thought that last time and Obama did about as well as anyone ever could. I don't think Palin's going to fare well in the fact checks but she might do well in polling, with viewers saying that she wasn't the bimbo they were expecting.
7:36 — Poor Gwen Ifill. Everyone's up on stage chatting and being friendly…and because of her broken ankle, she's still sitting down in the moderator chair, all alone. To the extent that her job was to knock these folks off their scripts and get them to say something new, I don't think Ifill did very well. But maybe she didn't think that was her job.
7:38 — Ah, someone noticed and now everyone's going down to say hello to Ifill. That's nice. I hope someone thanks her for the softballs.
7:44 — Palin did well…not as well as Pat Buchanan's now trying to convince people on MSNBC but she did a good job. The problem was that she was selling all the same talking points that America has already heard about McCain and which haven't sold very well to date. I don't think the voters who are leaning Obama are now going to go, "Oh, McCain is the candidate of change!" People who want the war to end are not going to decide McCain is the guy to make that happen. She said a few rambling, baffling things but overall, her problem is that people aren't buying what she's selling.
Then again, I called the last one wrong. So don't go by me.