Live blogging the presidential debate, Part II

• 9:03pm - Why does McCain always have to bring up some Republican being in the hospital at the start of every debate? Here's a thought - you're a really old guy and you might sicken and die in office; don't highlight all the other old Republicans who are doing that right now.
• 9:06pm - We're doing the Fundamental count tonight. Total Fundamental Count: 1.
• 9:11pm - What does class warfare have to do with anything, Senator McCain?
• 9:15pm - Faced with a tough question on where he would cut the budget to make for a record budget deficit, Obama sounds fiscally responsible without actually answering the question - where in God's name are we going to come up with a trillion dollars to just get even?
  
• 9:17pm - McCain's answer to the same question is much worse - first, we'll spend money buying homes and on renewable energy, then we'll create jobs. That'll take care of that wily deficit! Then he falls back on the Nike approach. How will we save money? We'll just do it! I know how!
• 9:20pm - McCain has a nice line: "Senator Obama, I'm not President Bush. If you wanted to run against him, you should have run four years ago." To make this point, however, he tosses off an unsupported assertion that he can balance the budget in four years. Doesn't say how. Must be the Nike approach again.
• 9:25pm - Matt has a great idea a little too late - I should have done a "hatchet vs. scalpel" count. Damn.
• 9:25pm - Schieffer puts it out there: are either of you willing to say the negative accusations to one another's face? McCain, interestingly, decides not to mention the Ayers comments. Although he does have the cajones to call the kettle black on negative ads. Ballsy.
• 9:28pm - Obama fights back, suggests that 100% of McCain's ads have been negative. Calls bullshit on McCain's suggestion that Obama's failure to agree to a host of town halls engendered the negative ads. Nicely done.
• 9:32pm - Obama demonstrates the size of his own cajones by calling McCain out on the bad behavior of his supporters.
  
• 9:35pm - McCain goes for the jugular. Ayers and ACORN in the same breath. CNN's uncommited Ohio voters - especially women - are not impressed.
• 9:38pm - McCain smirks and looks snide throughout Obama's measured explanation of Ayers and ACORN. Obama provides plausible explanations for both; McCain looks silly and posturing.
• 9:39pm - McCain won't let Ayers or ACORN go. Ohio uncommiteds flatline.
• 9:42pm - Sarah Palin is a role model for women and reformers everywhere? Really? Interestingly, the Ohio uncommited men lap it up; the women flatline. But everyone rallies for special needs babies. Sheesh.
• 9:44pm - Obama points out that special needs funding will require McCain to put his money where his mouth is. The hatchet won't be so useful there.
• 9:47pm - Both candidates suggest that we can eliminate our dependence on Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil within 10 years. What neither candidate addresses - is offshore drilling actually feasible at $70-something a barrel instead of $140-something a barrel? I doubt it.
  
• 9:53pm - McCain makes a silly and rambling point about Columbia and NAFTA. Then he looks ridiculously shifty-eyed while Obama gives a relatively measured and sensible response. Ohio uncommitteds eat it up. On appearance alone, McCain seems to be losing this debate badly.
• 9:57pm - Obama gives another measured response on health care. It sounds like a sensible plan although not particularly sexy or inventive.
  
• 9:59pm - Asked to give his ideas for controlling health care spending, McCain AGAIN mentions putting medical records online FIRST. His plan sounds piecemeal, not particularly helpful, and doesn't seem to have much to do with actual medical care. Then a lot of attacks on Obama's plan. Ohio uncommitted women are hating life.
  
• 10:02pm - Massive bungle for McCain on the health care issue. Obama basically gets to sound sensible twice in a row; in between, McCain sounds useless and ineffectual. And negative.
• 10:03pm - Finally! Total Fundamental Count: 2. Not much of a drinking game tonight. Just noticed that McCain has no flag lapel pin this evening.
• 10:04pm - McCain rolls out the "gold-plated Cadillac" health insurance plan analogy again. These days, those policies are apparently covering "cosmetic surgery and transplants." I'll have a brow lift and a new kidney, please.
• 10:05pm - Total Fundamental Count: 3.
• 10:08pm - If only it were true. McCain espouses the opinion that qualifications and not ideologies should matter when appointing judges to the Supreme Court.
  
• 10:10pm - Obama takes the balanced approach, suggesting that women are the best decision makers with regard to abortion, in consultation with their families, their doctors, and their religious counselors.
  
• 10:11pm - McCain carelessly discards Obama's argument about the Lilly Ledbetter and fair pay. Ohio uncommitted women nosedive.
• 10:14pm - While Obama speaks about finding some common ground on the issue of abortion, McCain sighs dramatically.
• 10:26pm - McCain giggles and smirks throughout Obama's response on education. Whether or not Obama has the best ideas here, why can't McCain keep his facial expressions in check?
• 10:29pm - McCain sounds sensible and sincere in his closing statement. Where was this guy the last hour and a half?

No one is going to be won over to McCain after watching this debate. He was dismissive, condescending, and relentlessly negative. It wasn't a particularly pleasant thing to watch, and it was certainly his worst debate performance so far. Obama was his regular wonkish self although he did pull out some of the bigger guns in response to McCain's negativity. For Obama, it was par for the course. For McCain it was a win for the ultra-conservative base and a loss on every other front.