Is McCain going after Biden? Woah.

McCain just creamed Obama on health care. This may be the first time in recorded history that a Republican has actually bested a Democrat on a core Democratic issue.

What the heck does that mean? We don’t have to pay for it. Obama vamps and talks about “working with your employer” to reduce health care costs. Computerized records? Who would have thought!?

He comes alive and goes back to the Bush-Cheney vote and does his “drill now” pitch. That’s a winning message.

…McCain is doing in an otherwise boring, passionless debate is pound Obama on the chasm between his rhetoric and his record. It’s probably the most effective way of connecting Obama’s very, very liberal record with his penchant for obscuring that record during the campaign.

“Senator McCain and I actually agree on something…”

“That one,” says McCain, indicating Obama. He gets going when he’s having fun.

On CNN in HD, they are showing a running scorecard. It will astonish you to discover that five out of the six are giving it to Obama going away.

Brokaw is like the substitute teacher who can’t get the kids to pay attention.

For a guy who is usually hard to control, McCain is delivering tight, crisp, and extremely effective answers. Every answer has a similar structure: (a) I care about this issue (b) I’ve stood up against Bush/special interests on this issue (c) Obama has never taken a stand, never acted on this (d) so let’s compare records. Is it enough to win the debate?

…was invented by a bunch of government scientists? Well, maybe, Senator Obama, but the silicon chip — the real cause of the technology revolution — was invented by a few guys in California.

Every time Obama speaks he looks like he’s about to give us a lecture.  Does it come off as condescending?  Not sure.

He’s on the money substantively, but he’s stumbling delivery-wise. He just described the challenges that “climate change opposes.”

“Not that hard” to fix social security – just sit down. On Medicare: Come up with a Commission and then do an up-or-down vote. Back on taxes: Obama voted 94 times to raise taxes. He said he’d vote for a middle class tax cut when he ran for Senate and never proposed anything.  I think I’m with John– he is doing very well, in part become Obama seems disjointed or sleepy or both.

Just as this debate was picking up and McCain launched his broadside against Obama’s planned tax increases, Brokaw stepped in to make sure that Obama couldn’t directly respond. Then he introduced a dull question about entitlements and, to add insult to injury, asked the candidates to “pledge now” on some Social Security issue. This was right out of Tim Russert’s old playbook. James Fallows called the pledge question on of the worst types of debating tropes.

McCain’s best case for himself. Well expressed.

McCain finally seems to have gotten back his energy.  He’s now on a roll on Obama’s tax record. 

But since he’s talking about taxes and economics, it’s not clear his incoherence hurts him very much.

Linda, I’m not sure that’s right. He’s getting a lot of information across.