Wow. What the hell was that? Seriously, I'm a bit stunned. The level of discourse has reached a new low -- a very new low. To be clear, I don't think the debate was a disaster for Obama. He did fine. I think it was a disaster for our political system.
It was the worst debate ever. Gibson and Stephanopoulos were horrible. The questions were literally right out of right wing talk radio. Atrios provides an opportunity for action:
Complain about this atrocity.
Main ABC switchboard: 212-456-7777 Update: Use this number: (818) 460-7477 Comment via the ABC Web site here
And, for Hillary Clinton to get so giddy about the Wright question was really just sad. She was the official purveyor of fringe talking points. Shockingly so. And, she seemed to enjoy it. There's a reason people think Clinton is dishonest as we saw today in the findings of the Washington Post-ABC News poll. She's not only in this to win, she's in it to win dirty -- and to destroy Obama. She invoked Louis Farrakhan tonight for no reason -- just to say it. Give me a break. Throughout this campaign, Clinton has pursued GOP attacks against Obama. He has not gone there against her.
Jacki: Ok, first off, I went to Facebook to see what people were saying there since ABC promoted it. Seems everyone there agrees with us here. This debate was just horrible. Too much time wasted on useless nonsense. From a media perspective, I am not sure why Stephanopoulos was in the mix at all. He didn't add much, and if anything, his history with the Clintons had the potential to take something away. I thought Gibson was especially rough on Obama, and I think ABC did not do themselves any good with this debate. If I weren't liveblogging, I would have switched to AI.
