Fight Night (The Debates): C-SPAN: CO GOV LIVE, HI GOV, IL GOV, NH SEN + AK SEN

[Torie]

I counted about six or seven crazed/ignorant statements be one of the candidates (I watched it while working out at the gym in the hotel I am staying at, until about an hour into it, some other dude came in, and asked if he could change the channel about into the "debate," and I said OK. I had had enough).

I particular liked the bit about repealing the capital gains tax.  That way, I could sell some of my assets that I have owned since rocks cooled, get a huge step up in basis, and as to real estate, replace it with other real estate, and re-commence to depreciate it, and get a deduction against my income, a second time.  Just how cool is that?

And then there was the bit about the pizza parlor guy making $300,000 a year, who should not get a tax increase.  One of the candidates noted in a rejoinder that the 300K figure was before the pizza guy had to pay all his employees.  I didn't know until this was pointed out to me, that apparently, employee expenses cannot be deducted against income.  No wonder employers are reluctant to hire anyone! Who knew?

[Torie]

I suspect Reid is done. Angle I don't think is perceived as a nutter anymore, among enough swing voters who dislike the stimulus and Obamacare, etc., to save Reid from his fate.

[Torie]

Talking about other debates... have you seen perriello vs. hurt debate?? perrielllo really crushed him. He will be president some day if he survives in november, and today's debate has helped him a lot.

Perriello was impressive in the bit I saw.

[Torie]

Crap, did Rand Paul really just say his favorite KY politician was Jim Bunning?

Well compared to Bunning, Paul looks like a genius. Why wouldn't Bunning be his favorite?  

[Torie]

Gardner just destroyed Markey in their little debate that I just watched on C-SPAN - yes, destroyed. Then the moderator asked if anyone changed their minds, or if undecided, made up their minds. It turned out that everyone in the audience had made a choice prior to the debate, and nobody changed their minds.

And there you have it. Very few will be changing their minds at this point. The huge issue remaining, is whether the Dems show up to vote, particularly Dems of color, and the college kids, and their service providers. (I am not sure if the Dems really want white working class Dems to vote, unless part of a labor union not in an industry hurt by the Obama agenda.)  

[Torie]

The huge issue remaining, is whether the Dems show up to vote, particularly Dems of color, and the college kids, and their service providers. (I am not sure if the Dems really want white working class Dems to vote, unless part of a labor union not in an industry hurt by the Obama agenda.)  

Dems are already making a strong showing in early voting. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101025/pl_nm/us_usa_elections_early

If  you look how these numbers compare to the numbers at this point in time in prior elections, the metric for the Dems is even worse than if you just compare early voting partisan splits to registered votes. These numbers may not be that meaningful really, in this odd election, and the persons to whom I referred (persons of color (except Asians, come to think of it maybe who are going to vote GOP this year anyway)),  tend not to be early voters, except maybe for the college kids (and certainly their professors and the graduate students).

[Torie]

I watched Kirk v the G man in a pretty free form slug fest. It was grand. Both are quite supple performers (yes the G man was to the point that given that he is basically an empty suit with real ethical issues that I came to quite loathe his execrable skills), but G simply is not in Kirk's league. Kirk is very smart, and very skilled, as he finessed the knuckle balls, and gave back hard inside sliders, sometimes accompanied by quite nicely done little charts. He just is. I am quite confident now that Kirk has this one. The G's populist message is just not going to trump bourgeoisie, and those that depend on them, economic angst, who are looking for reassurance. Kirk will be their choice for the more efficacious masseuse of the two.