Liveblogging The Mississippi Presidential Debate

We've been waiting for this a long time — it's time for the first presidential debate of the 2008 election cycle. Tonight's debate will be held at the University of Mississippi in Oxford; we'll be bringing you the hot bits of the debate live here at the Blue.

8:00 CST: Jim Lehrer starts off by noting that today's debate will focus on foreign policy and national security, "which will necessarily include" the current economic crisis.

Lehrer quotes General Eisenhower: "We must secure both security and solvency. In fact, the foundation of military strength is economic strength." So where do the candidates stand on the financial recovery plan?

Obama starts off: "I can't think of a more important time for us to talk about the future of the country." A zing at McCain's trying to skip out, I'm sure. We're in the middle of two wars and the worst economic crisis we've seen since the Great Depression. A fix requires oversight, the possibility of getting the money back, no golden parachutes, helping homeowners. Final verdict on eight years of failed economic policy. Fundamentals of the economy have to be measured on whether the middle class is getting a fair shake.

McCain -- a sad note: Senator Kennedy is in the hospital. Starts with the defense to the implied "why are you here" question by talking about how Republicans and Democrats are starting to work together on the problem. He obviously won't note that they had negotiated together *before* he walked into the negotiations, and his appearance basically caused them to fail. Need to eliminate dependence on foreign oil.

Lehrer says, "ok, so back to my question: how do you feel about the deal? Talk to each other. We can broker a solution right here." Jim Lehrer is now my favorite person for the day.

Obama: I've talked to the Treasury Secretary about the shredding of regulations well before this. We have to assure oversight, and we have to get rid of the failed idea that all regulation is bad.

8:09 McCain is asked if he will vote for the plan, and he avoids the question. He says we're missing accountability, and notes that he's been criticized for asking for the firing of the head of the SEC.

Obama answers that he agrees we need more accountability, but the problem is we don't just need it in times of crisis. For eight years we've had Republicans gutting regulation, and now they want to add more oversight -- we can't just do that sort of oversight at times of crisis, because avoiding it is what got us here.

Lehrer asks McCain for points where he disagrees. He says that we do need to reform the system, and that Republicans have lost their financially conservative bearings. And the first thing that needs to be limited is earmarks — the "gateway drug" of government spending. Sends a barb to Obama re: the amount of earmarks he's been sending to Illinois.

Obama notes that he suspended those requests until the earmark problem is fixed. McCain notes that the suspension of requests came after running for president, and that along with his tax cuts, he wants to increase spending by $800 billion.

Obama says he doesn't know where he's getting his numbers: he spells out that he wants to close tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthy, and he does want to give tax cuts to the middle class and bring about universal health care but he's paying for every dime of it.

McCain -- the problem with Obama's tax on business is that we have 35% business tax. Ireland has 11%. We lose business to countries like that.

Obama clarifies again his tax proposal: 98% of Americans will pay less taxes. No one who earns less than $250,000 a year will see a tax increase. And the issue with business tax is that on paper we have high business taxes, but there are so many loopholes -- which McCain supported -- that they actually pay one of the lowest tax rates in the world. McCain's tax plan also wants to tax health benefits. And McCain wants to give oil companies tax breaks and offshore drilling benefits, and he's currently opposing the energy bill on the Senate floor because it strips those away.

8:27 Lehrer asks what priorities need to be adjusted because of the bailout cost. Obama talks about how we need to end reliance on these oil companies and encourage alternative energy. We also have to fix the health care system, and we have to invest in education, and in science and technology. We have to fix our infrastructure that's falling apart — roads and bridges, telecom, and energy grids.

McCain says we have to cut spending. He says it takes bipartisan work; says Obama had the "most liberal voting record in the Senate" (how many times does that have to be debunked?) and that it's hard to reach across the aisle from that far on the left. He'd get rid of ethanol subsidies. We should scrub every government agency, looking for ways to cut spending.

Lehrer pushes on what *major* changes the candidates want to make because of the crisis.

Obama: We need energy reform, but the implementation of it may be slowed by the crisis. Yes, we need to cut spending. For example, we pay $15 billion in subsidies to private health insurers that don't do a better job because of it. Fixing the health care system cuts spending. Also, transparency controls spending; he worked with one of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate, Tom Coburn (bipartisanship zing!) to list every dollar of federal spending.

McCain: We should seriously consider a spending freeze on defense and veterans affairs.

Obama says that cure is using a hatchet instead of a scalpel. We shouldn't freeze early childhood education when private health insurers are still getting $15 billion. We can also cut costs by not sending so much money and resources into Iraq when they have a $80 billion surplus.

McCain repeats the spending restraint message, saying that spending has increased wildly and frivolous spending has to be reined in, and pushes on Obama's $800 billion of new spending. (I guess he thinks a working health care plan is frivolous.)

Obama points out that it was McCain's president that he said he agreed with 90% of the time that brought about the rampant increase in spending that he's now saying he'll lead in changing.

McCain tries to pull the "maverick" card, saying that it's "widely known" that he's disagreed with the President on a number of things. Shame his record shows to the contrary.

8:40 Lehrer asks about the lessons of the war. McCain basically doesn't name any lessons learned, and instead defends the war, citing as he has for so long the "change in strategy" and "new general" and how we can't lose this war.

Obama notes that he opposed the war from the beginning, when it was politically risky. And now we're stuck in a war that's not ours, borrowing money to try to solve a failing economy, while Iraq has a $79 billion surplus. "We did not use our military wisely in Iraq."

McCain says the next president won't have to decide whether we were right into going into Iraq; he'll have to decide when we leave and how we leave. Brings up that Obama, as head of a subcommittee that oversees NATO in the area, had not visited Iraq.

Obama notes that measuring success by loss of lives doesn't actually get Iraq any closer to not needing us. And the fundamental issue, snipes aside, is the ability and judgment to lead on Iraq. And when Obama was opposing the war, McCain was saying that the war would be quick and easy — and was wrong; we'd be greeted as liberators — and was wrong; and that there was no history of violence between Sunni and Shi'a, and was wrong.

McCain accuses Obama of confusing a strategy and a tactic, and continues to crow about the successes of the surge and its necessity to make us secure. Obama notes that the true threat to America, al Quaeda, is in Afghanistan and yet we have four times as many troops in Iraq. So the appropriate *strategy* is to focus on Afghanistan.

Lehrer then moves on to Afghanistan. Obama gets a little policy-wonky on the poppy trade in Afghanistan and lays out a fairly thorough strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan. McCain says that for success in Afghanistan, we'd need to follow the same strategy that Obama disagrees with in Iraq, and accuses him of calling for strikes into Pakistan, saying that's irresponsible.

Obama notes that he actually said that if we had Osama bin Laden in our sights and Pakistan was unwilling or unable to assist, we'd take him out, and asks if McCain disagrees. He also notes that "irresponsibility" is a funny claim from a man that called for the extinction of North Korea and that made up songs about bombing Iraq. Touche!

McCain shares a story about a bracelet he received from the mother of a soldier who asked him to make sure that they weren't sacrificing in vain. Obama says he has a bracelet too — from a mother asking that he make sure that no other mother will go through what she's going through. It's not about bracelets; it's about good judgment and making good decisions.

McCain throws Obama's not visiting the area back out, saying that if he was so concerned about Afghanistan he'd have gone there, and that McCain's gone and seen it. (I was nearly yelling at the screen, hoping that someone would say "yeah, you went — and you still didn't send troops! How'd that work out?")

9:04 Jim Lehrer asks about Iran. McCain wants a "League of Democracies" of countries with shared interests to put pressure on countries like Iran, which have a "lousy government, so their economy is lousy even though they have lots of oil resources." Says Iran is still sending IED's and terror resources into Iraq. But he says Obama thinks that saying so is too inflammatory.

Obama answers that he did agree, and vote, that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is a terrorist group. He notes that what McCain was talking about was the bill in the Senate allowing us to enter Iran. The thing that has strengthened Iran the most is our involvement in Iraq. Iraq was Iran's sworn enemy, and we destabilized it.

McCain brings — it seems out of left field — Obama's statement that he'd meet with Ahmedinejad and Castro without preconditions. Says we legitimize those countries when we agree to that, and notes Reagan as an example.

Obama says that as President of the United States, he would reserve the right to meet with anyone under any conditions if he believes it will keep America safe — but in the case of Iran, he notes that numerous past secretaries of state including Kissinger, one of McCain's current advisors, have said that we should be meeting with Iran right now — guess what? — without preconditions. Notes that McCain wouldn't even meet with Spain because he wasn't sure they were an ally. If we can't even talk with our friends, who do we talk to?

McCain tries to parse words on what Kissinger said, saying he was talking about low-level meetings. Throws in the nasty stuff about what Ahmedinejad has said about wiping out the Israeli state. Obama says that we should be there to answer them when they say things like that, and that we can't do that by avoiding talking with them and reiterates that McCain's basically going against what even his advisor thinks is right. McCain accuses Obama of "parsing words." Huh? Obama answers that he's using the same word his advisor used for it. (No kidding — McCain just spent a good 2, 3 minutes doing the parsing.)

9:17 Russia is the next question. Obama talks about how both countries need to show restraint at this point, and how Russia can't "be a 21st century democracy and act like a 20th century dictatorship." McCain starts with the snarky "I don't think Obama understands..." line that he's been using the entire evening to imply that Obama didn't note that Russia was being an aggressor — which of course, Obama had just finished saying. Goes on to mention the importance of Crimea, the Ukraine, and the base in Sevastopol. Man, I don't think I've heard about Sevastopol since the Cold War. Obama calls McCain notes that he called what Russia did illegal, and called for cessation of violence. He mentions that another key consideration is our dependence on foreign fuel, which McCain had mentioned, and how McCain had voted 23 times in his 26 years in the Senate against alternative energy.

9:26 What are the chances of another attack like 9/11? Did he really ask that? McCain says it's less than before; they've established 9/11 commission recommendations and such. Obama notes that some work has been done, but we need to do more. To deal with new kinds of threats, we also need to work on nuclear nonproliferation and on our international reputation in America.

McCain says again that Obama "doesn't get it" with regards to the necessity of staying in Iraq. Obama acknowledges that the past 8 years, the current administration and Republicans have focused on Iraq. In the meanwhile, bin Laden goes uncaptured. We are borrowing billions of dollars from countries like China, to whom our debt is now $1 trillion, and meanwhile China has presences in places like Latin America, where the overtness of their presence is only matched by our absence. Veterans have been struggling for resources, and the country is in economic turmoil.

In closing, McCain goes on the offensive, saying he doesn't believe Obama has the judgment or experience to run the country. Obama notes that the idea of America used to inspire people around the world, and it no longer does, and that we need to regain that status, and that that's part of the good judgment that the next president needs to exhibit. McCain gets another blurb — I'm not exactly sure why — and brings up his time in prison. No surprise, I suppose. And we're done!