Welcome to The Collegian’s Live-Blog! Feel free to add commentary about the debate.
Dan Petty, our online editor, was blogging live for The New York Times. Click here to read his posts.
10:37 p.m. — Debate ends. Thank you for joining us!
10:34 p.m — Obama said we are spending too much money on the war, and that’s why we can’t provide healthcare for Americans.
Obama said he wants to restore America’s standing in the world. He credited McCain for bringing up the torture issue.
10:30 p.m. — Obama: Biggest threat we face is not nuclear missiles across the skies, it’s in a suitcase.
The students in the Brown-Alley Room are glued to the screen. There is not a lot of shifting or text messaging. For a Friday night, this is an impressive crowd. The room is full.
McCain: We have a safer nation, but we are a long way from safe.
10:27 p.m. — Obama argued that McCain was wrong by saying Obama opposed nuclear waste — he just said we have to know where to serve waste.
10:23 p.m. — Obama: We have to have foresight and anticipate some of these problems.
10:22 p.m. — Obama and McCain are sparring over the American approach to Russia. McCain continually mentions that he has been places such as Northern Pakistan and Georgia. The message is that he has more experience than Obama.
10:14 p.m. — McCain said the average South Korean is three inches taller than the average North Korean. Students laugh and start talking. They are hushed by other students.
10:13 p.m. — Students laughed when Obama said McCain said he would not meet with Spain.
10:12 p.m. — Obama and McCain are going back and forth on the idea of meeting dangerous world leaders without preconditions. This is becoming very contentious. McCain is continually talking over both the moderator and Obama. It’s beginning to get uncomfortable. This is playing into the McCain narrative that he has a bad temper.
10:11 p.m. — McCain stumbles over pronunciation of Ahmadinejad
10:07 p.m. — Obama: We do need tougher sanctions, but I do not agree that we cannot work with countries like Russia. We will have to engage in tough, direct diplomacy. He said that was a big difference.
10:03 p.m. — McCain: We could impose painful and significant sanctions on Iran that would have an effect.
10:02 p.m. — No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain. We honor the service they provided. The question is are we making good judgments on how to keep America safe?
10:01 p.m. — Obama: “I’ve got a bracelet too.”
10 p.m. — A woman asked McCain to wear her son’s bracelet (that he said he was still wearing) and she asked him to make sure that her son had not died in vain.
9:57 p.m. — Obama: “If we have Bin Laden or his lieutenants are in our sites, and Pakistan is unwilling or unable to act, then we should take them out.”
9:54 p.m. — McCain: “I’m not prepared to cut off aid to Pakistan, as Sen. Obama said he is ready to do.”
9:50 p.m. — The CNN cameras panned on the GOP viewers, showing elderly white Americans, and the Democratic viewers, showing black Americans.
9:49 p.m. — Obama: “We need more troops and more resources there. We have been successful in Afghanistan. We don’t have enough troops to finish the work in Afghanistan because those troops are in Iraq.”
9:45 p.m. — McCain said that the surge is bringing peace and prosperity to Iraq.
9:40 p.m. — McCain stressed the need to reduce wastefull spending. Obama asserted that we need to fix a healthcare system, which is crushing our economy from the bottom up.
McCain: “What I want to make sure is that we don’t hand our healthcare system over to the federal government. Mr. Obama may want to reconsider some of those new spending programs.”
Obama: “It’s astounding to me that a man who has agreed with George Bush over 90 percent of the time can change our direction with more of the same failed policies.”
9:35 p.m. — McCain: ”We need to consider a spending freeze on everything but defense, veterans affairs and entitlements.”
Obama retorted McCain’s statement that he was the most liberal senator in the Senate.
Obama: “John mentioned that my wild liberalism. Most of that is my opposing George Bush’s failed policies. We now give $15 billion in Medicare to private insurance companies.”
9:30 p.m. — Question: “Sen. Obama, what are you going to give up to pay for your program ideas?”
Obama: “Some programs will have to be delayed but there are certain things that we need to do: energy indepence, fix the broken healthcare system, focus on education and fix the infrastructure.”
That seems to be just about everything he has been running on.
McCain: “The first thing we have to do is get spending under control. We need, very badly, to understand that defense spending is vital, but we need to have fixed cost contracts.”
9:26 p.m. — Obama: “There are so many loopholes in the tax system that our corporate taxes are among the lowest in the world.”
Obama is focusing on the need for greater regulation to limit corporate fraud.
McCain is focusing on reducing spending.
McCain: “Senator Obama has voted in the Senate to raise taxes for those who make under $42,000.”
Obama: “Thats simply not true.”
9:21 p.m. — The moderator has been assertive about having the candidates talk to each other, but both Obama and McCain have insisted on talking to Jim Lehrer.
9:19 p.m. — McCain: The worst thing we can do is raise taxes.
Question: Are there fundamental differences between what Obama and McCain would do to bring the country out of the the economic crisis?
9:16 p.m. — McCain: “We republicans came to Washington to change it and Washington changed us. Obama has requested nearly $1 million for every day he has been in the Senate. The first thing we have to do is get spending under control.”
First comment where McCain questions Obama’s experience.
Obama: “We have to grow the economy from the bottom up.”
9 p.m. — Hi everyone. I’m Kimberly Leonard, the online managing editor of The Collegian. Along with David Larter, the online community reporter, I am covering the Presidential Debates screening in the Brown-Alley Room here on campus. About 100 students are attending.
To contact staff writer Kimberly Leonard and David Larter at kimberly.leonard@richmond.edu and david.larter@richmond.edu
Nov. 20, 2008
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Richmond/Hanover, VA
After watching the candidate’s debate last night, it became apparent that Obama would be better to play the President in a movie, but McCain is the man who can actually do the job. Obama is like a movie set. He looks good, but behind the facade, there’s nothing there. When you have no track record, like Obama, all you can do is criticize and attack America … whereas McCain, who has actually contributed to this country for decades, obviously loves America. I never felt like Obama has sincere pride and love for this country, he just seems to be in this for personal ambition.
Gina.
You have seriously got to be kidding me!!
What are those? Fox News talking points? Rush Limbaugh quotes? (Old) McCain camp attempts at painting Obama as a “celebrity”?
I am sorry Obama was not born to serve in WWII, or old enough to serve in Vietnam, but that gives you no right to accuse him of being anti-American. He is one of the best public servants in a long time and someone who gave up lucrative job offers to work with communities that needed help. Since when has offering a new approach and a new direction in American politics become unpatriotic and an “attack” against America? Since when has inspiring Americans to engage in the electoral process and hold their government acccountable become a “facade”?
Since when has HOPE become an un-American ideal?
(Perhaps, since those of us, like yourself, forgot our civic duties as citizens and the great values of this nation that sets it apart from the rest.)
Do you know who has harmed America–and its image and national interests–more than anyone and anything in the last decade? The Bush Administration and the unnecessary, illegal invasion of Iraq.
And, guess what? (Surprise, surprise) John McCain was and still is one of the biggest supporters of the administration and its failed and misguided policies in the middle east.
(Though, to be fair, he has been critical of the handling of the war.)
Where have you been? You ever read anything? Or, follow (real) news?
I suggest you do.
For starters, here is an article that shows how Americans reacted to the First Presidential Debates:
http://www.thecollegianur.com/2008/09/27/obama-1-mccain-0/
Best of luck!
p.s. Please refrain from posting such outrageous comments–whatever the reason may have been. It simply does not reflect well on your understanding of this election, the history and values of this nation, or anything else that an educated citizen ought to know.