Live-blogging the first presidential debate

Obama shows "competence" on foreign policy vs. McCain "experience," but whiffs or passes on numerous chances to pin tail of Bush to plans of McCain

8:00 McCain tries to avoid talking about lenders' bailout and go for sympathetic father figure by talking about Ted Kennedy being rushed to hospital.

8:07 First McCain lie – that House GOP was excluded from lenders' bailout discussion.

8:10 McCain doesn't go POW, but does invoke Ike in a way totally unconnected to matters at hand.

8:14 McCain trying to separate himself from "GOP."

8:17ff Obama misses BIG opening to bring up Palin pushing for Alaska earmarks.

8:22 Obama nails McCain on effective tax rates for business taxes.

8:23 Obama also gets McCain on taxing healthcare.

8:23ff... Obama seemed stiff at the start and loosening up now.

8:24 When has McCain ever before mentioned supporting a flat tax, or a quasi-flat tax?

8:24 Second clear McCain lie, that Obama wants to start tax hikes at $42K.

8:26 I thought this was a foreign policy debate? Lehrer's determined to get into domestic policy.

8:29 McCain third lie, that Obama is "the most liberal member of the Senate."

8:33 "Freeze spending" a typical conservative gimmick.

8:33 McCain now goes Jesse Helms on looking to cut foreign policy.

8:34 Reprocessing nuclear fuel opposed by a LOT of people, Sen. McCain.

8:34 McCain drops, subtly, the Hillary Clinton card.

8:35 Obama does good framing job, "When I am president..."

8:37 Obama pins Bush tail on McCain.

8:40 McCain won't admit Iraq a mistake; still defines it in Vietnam "win" terms.

8:43 McCain oversells the Surge; the reason it appeared to have worked is primarily because rebels laid low/moved around the country.

8:44 "John, you like to pretend like the war started in 2007 ... you said the war would be quick and easy ... you said we would be greeted as liberators. ...

"So, if the question is about ... using our military ... we can look at our judgment."

8:48-49 I think Obama still has given too much daylight on whether the Surge succeeded or not, but his past words, giving too much credit to the Surge, are on the record.

8:53 McCain seems to score a point by saying "You don't just announce things like (unilateral strikes against Pakistan)."
But... he ignores that George Bush did just that.

8:57 Pakistan a failed state? I disagree, McCain. That gives Musharraf way too much credit, as well as giving authoritarian government a thumbs-up.

That said, regular readers here know that I think BOTH ARE WRONG on Afghanistan.

9:00 Obama "No soldier dies in vain," as a refute of McCain playing a backdoor version of the "patriot card."
That said, I'll go Ted Rall and say, hell, no, PLENTY of soldiers do die in vain. About 57,000 died in vain in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh in 1954 was nationalist first, communist second, and about 20 years of U.S. intervention got nothing in terms of geopolitical settlement that we couldn't have had in 1954.

9:04 Time for vote pandering – Jim Lehrer brings up Iran.
McCain rises to the bait with "second Holocaust" comment.

Fourth McCain lie – that Iran is responsible for the rise in improvised explosive devices in Iraq. That was shot down a full year ago.

9:08 Fifth McCain lie – that Iranian President Ahmadinejad is talking about the "extermination of Israel" in New York tonight. First, he didn't do that this spring, despite the wet dream misquoting/mistranslating of previous statements of his. And, he's not doing that tonight, nor did he do that in the UN General Assembly earlier this week. (Lie repeated at 9:13.)

9:12 Obama punks McCain over his Zapatero "misstatements" of last week.

9:15 McCain is either repeating lie No. 5 or just an idiot.

9:16 Lehrer goes to Russia – get ready for both candidates to lie about Georgia.

9:16 Obama tells his first lie, about who started the Russia-Georgia war. He does qualify it by saying he doesn't want a Cold War.

9:18 McCain tells the lie more strenuously, although he then gets at a major truth – it's about energy. That's why both want Georgia in NATO. So, here, Obama has a hypocrisy factor – Georgia is Iraq in the middle of the Caucacus.

9:22ff Wrangling over alt-energy. McCain is on the side of Big Oil through tax breaks if nothing else, and is not as "green" in general as he makes himself out to be.

9:26 Lehrer asks about 9/11.

9:27 McCain talks about 9/11 commission. That would be the commission whose chair, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, deliberately stalled out Part II of its investigation and report due to political reasons.

9:30 McCain lie six – that Reagan's Star Wars forced the Soviet Union to his knees.

9:34 Good closing by Obama to tackle a bit of his foreign heritage before the national audience. Should he have gone further?

Postgame - on PBS. I do agree with David Brooks that Obama can still be a little distant at times.

That said, McCain seemed determined to talk around, rather than talk about, the economy in the first part of the debate.

Michael Beschloss is right that Obama didn't tie Bush to McCain as well as he could have.

Mark Shields follows that up with noting how much McCain strived to separate himself from Bush.

Overall grade? Obama a B, McCain a C++. But, because Obama didn't score that high, and didn't score any telling points, I don't expect much of a bump out of this.

It's a good thing Obama's camp soft-pedaled their expections of him, because, whether due to flop sweat or his singing a hymn from the gospel of Kumbaya, he blew some opportunities.

Finally, both candidates are lying in their tax reduction talk; we can't afford it.