Oh, yes they did. Senator John McCain finally brought up the William Ayers question. Senator Barack Obama called out McCain's supporters for threatening him during McCain's rallies. And both men made the case for the real star of Wednesday night's final presidential debate: some guy named "Joe the Plumber," who seems to have replaced "Joe Six-Pack" as the generic face of struggling America in the waning days of this presidential campaign.
It got ugly, and it got personal.
So, who do you think won the debate?
John McCain failed to land the knockout blow he needed, and Barack Obama still pulled his punches a bit more than he should have. The debate's format stunk and prohibited the candidates from really talking to each other. One CNN pundit said he learned that McCain wanted to "buy everyone a house" and Obama wants to "give everyone free health care," commitments that are "remarkable for a country that's broke."
McCain made too many references to the past and weird jokes about hair transplants, while Obama pulled a Clinton-esque move and hung around shaking hands and talking to voters in the venue long after McCain had left.
Our old friend Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post lamented that "there was no game changer," saying each man stuck to their tried-and-true attacks, with McCain's condescending reference to Obama at one point as "that one" getting "HUGE" play in the immediate aftermath of the debate, what he termed an unlucky break for McCain on what was probably just an offhand comment. And, indeed, the talking heads on CNN repeatedly brought up the gaffe, saying it could come to define the evening and take its place alongside Bill Clinton's reference to "that woman" when discussing the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Read more...
He won. She totally won. At least she didn't fall on her face. Thank God he kept it brief. Does anyone really buy all this "betcha, gosh, golly wow, Joe Six-pack" crap? What was that dude even talking about? It's kind of hard to fail when the bar is set below the bar. Is winking a debate tactic? What about crying? Does it count as an answer if you don't really answer the question and just talk about whatever you want to talk about? Do vice-presidential debates even matter? Is anyone seriously going to be swayed by either of these two?
Those are just some of the rants, raves and rhetorical questions that came up in the MTV News editorial meeting on Friday morning following Thursday night's vice-presidential debate between Republican Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Democratic Senator Joe Biden. Except for the copious cursing, it was probably not unlike a million other conversations that took place at those now famous Average Joe and Jane Six-pack breakfast tables all across the country.
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By Dave Romanski
It's October, and if we're being perfectly honest, despite the economy collapsing, despite the mortgage crisis and the war and all the issues facing the country right now, we have to admit this is the most fun election ever. And one source is responsible for a lot of that fun: YouTube.
Remember when a candidate used to say something stupid on the campaign trail? We used to be satisfied with a healthy run on the 24-hour cable news cycle, where a few pundits would dissect said statement and either shake their heads in righteous outrage or nervously try to appease whatever constituency was offended.
Even with cable news, you started to get the impression that politicians only said stupid, self-destructive things occasionally. And then YouTube happened.
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