This is as bad as Hillary being unable to choose between the Cubs and the Yankees…

How desperate for votes is he that he has pander so blatantly?

I will be upgrading our blogging software tonight. I don’t anticipate any problems but things may be a bit flukey as the upgrade is going on.

UPDATE, 8:11 PM EDT: Upgrade complete…

The media is making a big deal about Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama… but I wasn’t surprised… not one bit. I am sure this is something Obama was saving for the best possible moment, and with polls tightening Barack saw that the time was right to roll this out.

But will it matter? I say no. Powell is no Republican, he was never on board with Iraq. Powell “says” the endorsement is not about race… but I don’t believe it. Rush says it all here:

So I fire up the Drudge page, and I see Colin Powell has endorsed the Most Merciful Barack Obama. And then I see some of the things that Powell said. He said it wasn’t about race, and he said he would have difficulty with any more Republican Supreme Court appointments. So I’m making notes of this and out of the blue comes an e-mail from Jonathan Martin at The Politico. “Hey, Rush, you got anything to say about this?” I wrote him and said, “Jonathan, look, I’m here in Green Bay with the Colts and the Packers, I don’t have a lot of time.” I just fired off a couple little thoughts, couple little paragraphs.

I said, “Secretary Powell says this endorsement’s not about race. Okay, fine. What I’m doing now Jonathan is researching Powell’s past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal white candidates that he has endorsed. I’ll let you know what I come up with.” Then the next paragraph I sent to Jonathan Martin of the Politico said, “As for Powell’s statement of concern that he would have difficulty with two more Republican Supreme Court nominees, I was unaware that he had dislike for John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, and Antonin Scalia. I guess he also regrets Ronald Reagan making him a four-star general. I guess he also regrets George Bush making him secretary of state. I guess he also regrets George H. W. Bush naming him chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I guess he’s also upset that a Republican appointed his son to head the FCC. Yeah, let’s hear it for transformational figures,” because Powell had said Obama’s a transformational figure, and yet Colin Powell is who he is and is a household name because of Republicans.

This endorsement says more about Powell than it does about Obama… and what it says about Powell is not good.

From Rob over at Say Anything:

Back when Obama was just a primary candidate he was asked about William Ayers during a debate with Hillary Clinton. At the time Obama said that Ayers was just “a guy in my neighborhood.” Implying that his only association with Ayers was geographical.

But it’s since come to light that Obama worked as Chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge that William Ayers founded. That Obama launched his political career from Ayers house. And, now, that Ayers and Obama shared an office for three years.

If Obama thinks his association with Bill Ayers isn’t a big deal because the past is the past, then one must ask why Obama keeps lying about it.

“All I have is words. In some ways words are always inadequate.” –Barack Obama

I’ll have more written reaction to the debate this evening but, you can listen the podcast of my BlogTalkRadio appearance last night for nearly 2 hours of post-debate commentary.

I thought in the meantime I’d post a few links.

McCain Puts Obama On The Defensive

This time, John McCain kept Barack Obama on the defensive.

The feisty Republican tried hard to find a lifeline Wednesday night, challenging his Democratic rival at every turn over his truthfulness, associations and record.

By that measure, McCain won the last debate of the 2008 campaign.

McCain-Palin 2008 Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker issued the following statement on last night’s Presidential Debate:

“John McCain won tonight’s debate with strong, clear straight talk about setting a new direction for our country and fighting for working families. He outlined a specific, bold plan for creating jobs, helping those near retirement, keeping people in their homes, curbing spending, lowering health care costs and achieving energy independence. He vowed to fight for ‘Joe the Plumber’ every day he is President and he affirmed his belief that we shouldn’t raise taxes just to ‘spread the wealth.’ While Barack Obama is measuring the drapes and campaigning against a man not even on the ballot, John McCain demonstrated that he has the experience, judgment, independence and courage to fight for every American.”

Joe The Plumber: Obama’s tax plan infuriates me.

Karl Rove says Obama “hasn’t closed the sale.” I agree.

The Secret Service says the allegation that someone yelled “kill him” in reference to Obama at a McCain-Palin rally is unfounded.

WSJ: ‘Senator Government’

Ayers Is No Education ‘Reformer’

Tonight, I’ll be live-blogging the Final Presidential Debate over at VoteBitter.com.

VoteBitter.com has a nifty shirt for sale from their website:

Click here to get your shirt!

Click here to check out the liveblogging of the presidential debate at 9 PM Eastern.

After the debate, I will joining Ali Akbar of VoteBitter and the Editor of Blogs4McCain.com for some post-debate analysis on BlogTalkRadio. Click here to listen in after the debate and for call in instructions.

Also, check out NeverFindOut.org…

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: McCain was at his best tonight while Obama hemmed and hawed and generally stuck to talking points, though Obama did let McCain rattle him a few times. Obama was clearly playing “prevent defense” – figuring he’s ahead in the polls and all he has to do is not blow it for the next 20 days. I’m not so sure about that. McCain, on the other hand, had to put Obama on the defensive, and he did so – more importantly, however, McCain had to lay out both his concern for Joe Average and his concrete plans for making life better, and he did that very well (we’ll have to send a six pack to “Joe the plumber” when McCain wins this election…never has a Joe Average, I think, ever become so important to an election narrative).

UPDATE, again, by Mark Noonan: Almost forgot to mention – McCain on Obama’s endless Bush mentions (“you should have run 4 years ago), on Obama’s atrocious stance on the Columbia free trade agreement, on accidentally (?) calling Obama “Senator Government” and on Obama’s fumbling around on the abortion issue; perfect stuff. Had Obama for lunch. How will it play out? Beats all heck out of me.

Last night I gave some commentary to a local talk radio station in Buffalo, NY regarding the debate tonight between Senator John McCain, and former community organizer Barack Obama. There are certainly a lot questions I’d like to see asked of Barack Obama, but the one I gave on the air is posted here.

In anticipation of the final debate, I’d like to pose question for everyone to answer, “What would you ask Barack Obama at the debate tonight?”