Rise and shine!
The debate is on the minds of the media this morning and pretty much everyone is offering their predictions.
Also, the Sacramento County GOP illustrates the very worst of Republican campaign tactics as they advocate the torture of the Democratic presidential nominee, as reported by the Sacramento Bee. No, I'm not making this shit up.
And, another newspaper endorsement for Obama from the red state of Texas.
Everyone is weighing in on the critical nature of this debate for McCain if he wants to turn this race around. What can we expect?
The AP debate preview looks at Obama's strategy for the debate:
"We're always prepared for him to be hyperaggressive in his attacks," Obama campaign aide Robert Gibbs said of McCain. "I just think that doesn't work in an environment where so many people are concerned about the issues in front of them, not scare tactics they don't see as helping to pay the bills."
He said Obama will try to project an aura of calm leadership during the debate, which Gibbs said he achieved in two previous debates with McCain.
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Mike Madden at Salon asks which version of McCain might show up at the debate tonight (I think we are on, what, version 3.4 now?) and ponders:
With his campaign on the rocks, McCain could hit reset one more time and abandon civility in his final showdown with Barack Obama.
I think he's already abandoned civility (oh, maybe that was version 2.8!), but what the hell. Also:
Obama's advisors, looking ahead to the evening, don't believe that McCain will be able to conceal his contempt for his opponent, and expect his reactions -- while Obama and McCain are both in the same TV shot -- to repel independent voters who dislike negativity.
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The Boston Herald takes a look at McCain's tough challenges for the debate tonight:
Of the two, McCain faces the most difficult challenge tonight - to land powerful punches while controlling his mach-ballyhooed temper.
McCain has promised to “whip” Obama and to take up the Illinois senator’s challenge to confront him over his ties to 1960s radical Bill Ayers. Obama said McCain doesn’t have the guts to.
While GOP supporters and seemingly Obama have pleaded for fireworks, Thomas Whalen, a political historian at Boston University, said McCain, portrayed by Democrats as erratic, risks being seen as unraveling like Captain Queeg in the “Caine Mutiny.”
“People will say, ‘What’s wrong with this guy?’ ” Whalen said. “A TV meltdown will make things worse.”
Here's hoping for a TV meltdown!
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McCain's hometown newspaper, the Arizona Republic, has some advice for the candidate:
Launch the strategy or theme that he will consistently strike for the rest of the campaign.
Um, isn't it a little late for that? With less than three weeks to go to election day, I think that time has passed.
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Bill Cotterell of the Tallahassee Democrat reports on the punditry wondering if an October surprise is coming tonight:
If Sen. John McCain has an October surprise, tonight's debate would be a good time to spring it, some Florida political scholars said Tuesday.
Don't you think if McCain had some big, bad surprise he would have sprung it weeks ago? Some of the pundits interviewed aren't convinced:
Carol Wiessert, a Florida State University political scientist, said the debate format — with both candidates seated at a table, rather than standing at lecterns or roaming a town-hall stage — tends to favor Obama.
"That's going to be harder for McCain, to take off the gloves, which is what some people want him to do," she said. "I can't imagine what he could say that's going to turn people around."
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John Dickerson thinks today's debate is McCain's last chance to win the race:
If McCain wants to take his destiny into his own hands, he has to knock Obama back. The problem for McCain is that pulling off an effective attack in a debate is like making a soufflé in a highway median. (The honking alone makes it very difficult.) It's hard to be aggressive in a debate because the format is so regulated and the risk of coming off as a brute is so high.
And, historically, the candidate who goes negative in a debate almost always comes off poorly. Bob Dole may have secured Gerald Ford's defeat when, in the 1976 presidential debate, he got nasty and blamed Democrats for a string of wars. Jimmy Carter looked cold and snippy in 1980 next to Ronald Reagan. Lloyd Bentsen was the only candidate who successfully got off an attack line with his crack about his friend Jack Kennedy in his 1988 vice-presidential debate against Dan Quayle.
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In another sorry edition of Who ARE these people?, the Sacramento Bee reports that the Sacramento County Republican party website had some very vile material on their website:
Sacramento County Republican leaders Tuesday took down offensive material on their official party Web site that sought to link Sen. Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden and encouraged people to "Waterboard Barack Obama" – material that offended even state GOP leaders.
You can see the picture at the Sacramento News link... I didn't really feel like adding it to my diary. Just another example of why the GOP needs to be completely discredited this election. Republicans should be completely and utterly ashamed of their party. It's disgusting.
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In happier news, Obama is endorsed by the Lufkin Daily News (TX):
It's the working class that are the backbone of this country, and we need someone to help us share the wealth while still encouraging a free market economy. We believe Obama has shown more interest in helping the middle class, and has proposed plans to make that happen.
This paper endorsed Bush in 2000 and Kerry in 2004.
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Some "morning Joe" for Patch Adam:
(Official campaign photo, no photographer name)
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So, debate predictions? I expect a similar outcome from the last two. Just like the previous debates, McCain is stuck between a rock and a hard place... he has to do something drastic - most likely by attacking Obama - but he can't do that without appearing angry and erratic. I'm guessing the gloves will come off tonight, only because it is his last chance to change the race. But, we should remember too that this is only a few days after a major national poll claimed his negative attacks were backfiring. Obama will seek to stick to the issues and be the calm, reassuring presence he was in the last debates and I predict another win for Obama!
*all emphasis in this diary is mine.