Some final thoughts… I don’t think this debate will change much. A tie always goes to the leader and nothing happened to hurt Obama’s momentum. I want that hour and forty minutes back. I think every person who sat through this whole thing deserves some pie.

Full debate blog is after the jump.

9:39pm ET: Describe the moment in your life when you were tested the most: Barack’s answer is not one moment but a quick summary of his life’s story. Clinton plays coy with what moment it might be. And now she’s actually re-enacting verbatim her New Hampshire emotional moment. Whew. She’s illustrating this version with an injured veteran’s story.

9:38pm ET: Last question coming up.

9:36pm ET: Question if the super delegates should pick the nominee. Clinton says “it’ll all work itself out” and again utters the biggest lie of the campaign – that all the democrats will come together around the nominee whoever it will be.

9:35pm ET: Given Clinton’s earmarks, how can she compete with McCain. She gives a rambling answer.

9:33pm ET: Earmarks question. An unfair question given the size of Barack’s ears.

9:30pm ET: Another commercial break.

9:28 pm ET: Barack’s is better. Essentially – the surge is a strong tactic as part of a flawed strategy. And we never should have gone into Iraq.

9:21pm ET: Clinton getting asked about the surge framed in the question of a future campaign against McCain. Clinton gave a looong, rambling answer that the political ends haven’t been completely achieved so it’s a failure. She attached so many caveats. It’s not a very strong anti-McCain argument.

9:15pm ET: Again Clinton is asked if Obama is ready to be commander in chief. Again, she refuses to say directly what she’s being implying for months.

9:13pm ET: Obama responds on the health care question brilliantly.

9:11pm ET: Clinton is asked directly if Obama is ready on day one. She dodges.

9:10pm ET: And we’re back…

9:06pm ET: Another commercial break. Your anti-war candidates brought to you by Boeing.

9:04pm ET: Obama responding to a string of Clinton assertions with pure boredom. Barack’s a great speaker and when he motivates, he fires people up, and when he bores, he induces coma.

9:00pm ET: Clinton gets boos regarding her “hope you can xerox” line.

8:58pm ET: Obama says we’re “getting into silly season in politics.” Great line responding to the ridiculous plagiarism distraction the Clinton campaign was pushing.

8:54pm ET: Obama’s turn. He brings the house down.

8:51pm ET: John King asks Clinton to repeat or justify her attack language on Obama. This is her first time in the debate that she’s off her game. She’s being polite and hesitant.

8:50pm ET: And we’re back…

8:46pm ET: First commercial break. So far… bleh. If all the debates had been like his, the viewership would have go down, not up.

8:43pm ET: On the subject of a bilingual nation – both are saying everyone should learn English but a second language is good. Everyone should learn Spanish or maybe Klingon – I think that was the subtext. A lot of applause for both.

8:40pm ET: Pandertastic border talk!

8:32pm ET: As of now, Hillary has been much more animated (and borderline agitated) than Obama. She’s doing a good job. But so far, the debate is booooring. Nothing new.

8:31pm ET: The questions have been real softball with no efforts being made by the moderators to keep the candidates on point. I actually miss Chris Matthews.

8:27pm ET: Both candidates are asked what makes them different than the other. Both just kind of go on. Neither are really doing that – just hitting their talking points.

8:21pm ET: On talking with Cuba, Obama gets applause for offering to negotiate. Hillary does as well. It’s such a weird sign that we’ve gone so far down the unilateral road that negotiation has become an applause line.

8:05pm ET: Two indtroductions from the candidates. Nice to see them being allowed to introduce themselves again. Hillary is wearing something from Star Trek: Voyager’s Captain Janeway’s wardrobe.

The debate kicks off at 8pm ET on CNN. I’ll be live-blogging.

Thanks again to everyone for the kind e-mails and notes!

– Steve

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