Obama clearly won. McCain was in such a tough spot, damned if you do-damned if you don’t…type of scenario. He was being encouraged by his base to lay into Obama, go after him to his face. It was like the build-up to a Grade school playground fight “Ooooh did you hear Johnny is gonna kick BO’s ass after school? Oooh!” So if he didn’t “lay into” Sen. Obama he would be labeled as weak, a man that can’t stand up to him face to face, but only throw mud from afar. So there he was, inches from Obama, with the pressure of millions of his base egging him on, his talking points on paper, reporters posed ready to respond if he didn’t follow through so he did. He jabbed and jabbed and never landed a punch. Obama was cool, calm and collected and deflected the attempted punches from McCain. He stayed on point and focused on what I know the majority of us want to hear. And poor McCain yet again, came off looking old, cranky and very much like “Grandpa Simpson” from the Simpson’s show. If this election wasn’t so important a lot of his and Sarah Palin’s behavior would be truly comical.

JOE THE PLUMBER, What a joke!!! UPDATE:MSNBC Turns out that Wurzelbacher IS related to Charles Keating! UPDATE: MSNBC has confirmed that Wurzelbacher has no plumbing license. msnbc.com staff and news service reports updated 3:04 p.m. CT, Thurs., Oct. 16, 2008 COLUMBUS, Ohio - Joe the Plumber, America’s most famous tradesman, said Thursday he doesn’t have a license and doesn’t need one. Joe Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, the nickname Republican John McCain bestowed on him during Wednesday’s presidential debate, said he works for a small plumbing company that does residential work. Because he works for someone else, he doesn’t need a license, he said. His boss, Al Newell of Newell Plumbing and Heating Co. of Toledo, is a licensed plumbing contractor in Toledo, records show. But anyone working under Newell should have a journeyman’s plumbing license or an apprenticeship license, officials said. And the county Wurzelbacher and Newell live in, Lucas County, requires plumbers to have licenses, but neither is licensed there, said Cheryl Schimming of Lucas County Building Regulations, which handles plumber licenses in parts of the county outside Toledo. Wurzelbacher, who voted in the Republican primary and indicated he backed McCain, was cited by the GOP presidential candidate as an example of someone who wants to buy a plumbing business but would be hurt by Democrat Barack Obama’s tax plans. Wurzelbacher said he was surprised that his name was mentioned so many other times. “That bothered me. I wished that they had talked more about issues that are important to Americans,” he told reporters gathered outside his home. ‘I’ve got a lot to learn’ Wurzelbacher, 34, said he doesn’t have a good plan put together on how he would buy Newell Plumbing and Heating in nearby Toledo. He said the business consists of owner Al Newell and him. Wurzelbacher said he’s worked there for six years and that the two have talked about his taking it over at some point. “There’s a lot I’ve got to learn,” he said. Wurzelbacher said he started his day with an early morning workout and came back to his suburban Toledo home to do live interviews with TV networks. Reporters camped out by his house overnight and by midmorning there were 21 people on his driveway surrounding him, holding cameras and notebooks. He said he was surprised that his name was mentioned so many times during Wednesday night’s debate between Obama and McCain. Wurzelbacher talked about his desire for Americans to be informed voters in November. When reporters asked who he was voting for, he politely answered: “At this point I’m not telling anybody anything.” Wurzelbacher said Obama’s tax plan wouldn’t affect him right now, because he doesn’t make $250,000. “But I hope someday I’ll make that,” he said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27229397#27229369 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27229397#27229397

As for the debate, McCain won and everyone knows this. (just lots of kids texting in I hear.) Joe the plumber? this will ONLY backfire in the Democrats face! The obama camp went after one of the very voters that they WANT to vote for obama. HA!

Obama clearly won, though he didn’t do it with a lot of FLASH and PITHY TALKING POINTS FOR PEOPLE W/ADD, which have become the hallmarks of the “winner” to many. McCain looked terrible — he kept stumbling over his words and gave the appearance that he was literally choked with rage at Obama at times and could not get his words out. And what’s this McCain is saying about class warfare? Someone with 7 houses actually feels that a call for higher taxes on the upper 5% income bracket constitutes a declaration of class warfare? McCain’s desire for a war to win (so that he can erase the failure to win in Vietman) is leading to absurdity! He wants to declare a class war that he will win if elected! The man is losing it!

Courtesy of the WSJ: McCain camp making robo-calls about Ayers and ACORN…if you subscribe—visit the online site for the WSJ, and where you see the link that says ‘listen’, click and you can actually hear them for yourself….the links do not transfer to here: October 16, 2008, 7:44 pm McCain Blankets States With Automated Calls Laura Meckler reports from New York City on the presidential race: John McCain’s presidential campaign is blanketing battleground states with automated phone calls that accuse Democrat Barack Obama of working closely with a domestic terrorist, of holding extreme views on abortion and of “putting Hollywood above America.” Automated calls have been an under-the-radar communication tool in recent elections, as they are hard to track and cheap to make. Hundreds of thousands of calls can be delivered before the opposition or the media is aware of them. But today, a barrage of McCain-funded calls came into the open. Democrats have tracked them in 10 competitive states: Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Virginia, Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Maine, where Republicans hope to snag a single electoral vote given to the winner of the northern congressional district. The calls are tough on Obama. The one that has been tracked in the most places picks up on McCain’s message from the stump and in TV ads to tie him to William Ayers, a 1960s era radical who is now a college professor. He has a loose association with Obama: the two sat on a board together and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama years ago, but Obama has said the two are not close. The McCain campaign has said that the issue is not the relationship between the two but Obama’s candor about it. But the automated phone call raises the relationship itself: “Hello. I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. capitol, the Pentagon, a judge’s home and killed Americans,” the recorded message said. “And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the judgment to lead our country.” The call ends with the legally required disclosure, informing the listener that the call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee. (Listen) Asked about the calls, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said: “They are 100% factual, and the mission of this campaign is to ensure that voters are informed on Election Day and the presidential vetting process is complete.” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor responded, “John McCain’s campaign has admitted that the economy is a losing issue for them, so he’s chosen to launch dishonorable and dishonest attacks like this.” A second script, picked up in Virginia and North Carolina, warns, “Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats aren’t who you think they are.” It goes on to say that Democrats do not understand the terrorist threat. (Listen) Another recorded message, which Democrats say was made to North Carolina homes, talks about an anti-abortion measure that Obama opposed in the Illinios legislature. (Listen) A fourth message accuses Obama of spending more time at a Hollywood fundraiser than working on the financial crisis. (Listen)

Anybody who thinks McSame won that debate is deluded enough to………………., well,… to vote for him. As far as those “crank calls” the McSame camp is making, don’t they know it was those kind of dirty tactics that turned so many people away from them in disgust. The only people who are impressed by that kind of thing are the dregs of their base, like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8XmerZEyHE Then again, that’s what votes for them.

This about says it all: http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2008/10/03/five-my… And a fine Rolling Stone article on him: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_re…