DEAD BLOGGING FROM MY EASY CHAIR

Made it home just in time to give you a fair and balanced, blow-by-blow account of tonight's Austin debate. Here goes.

6:50 -- Why is Lou Dobbs the top dawg for the intro program? Plus, turnout must be light. CNN's is using the rec on campus for its national E-Night coverage.

7: 00 --The polls have now closed.

7: 10 -- My bad. Turns out this is NOT election night.

7:14 -- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton sure does lie a lot in her opening statement. I counted at least six factual errors in her opening remarks.

7: 19 -- Senator Barack Obama: No lies in his opening statement.

7: 22 -- If that's Campbell Brown, she's lost weight since she hung out in Austin during the 2000 recount.

7: 25 -- Clinton just admitted she's a pro-Cuban Communist.

7: 27 -- On the other hand, Obama wants free speech and a free press in Cuba. Will meet with them if the are our friends. Hell, EVERYBODY is Obama's friend!

7: 29 -- What a me-too bitch! Also pro-Iranian and anti-Governor Bush.

7: 31 -- Obama wants to be more pro-active than we were 20 or 30 years ago (subliminal generation comparison).

7: 32 -- Yep, that is Campbell Brown. Wonder if she's gonna hit Liberty Lunch tonight and relive the old days.

7: 34: -- On the economy, he wants Americans to make more money. And he's opposed to letting the Chinese poison American babies. He want us to all come together and kick the living shit out of special interests.

7: 36 -- Clinton says Me too me too me too. She met a hair dresser? WTF!

7:38 -- Barack has good manners. He told her to "go ahead" when she flagrantly violated the time-limit rules. If Obama tried to cheat, she'd throw a lamp at him.

7: 39 -- She wants to force undocumented workers "out of the shade" in Laredo, one of the hottest cities in America. That's just cruel.

7: 33 -- Obama wants to be humane. And he likes Mexicans. Bet they like him back, too.

7: 39 -- Clinton: "me too." Admits she's a giant-assed flip-flopper. Admits she votes on bills she doesn't understand and tries to blame it on Bush.

7:43 -- Gentleman Obama let's her break the rules yet again. Good move. Give her ALL the rope she wants.

7: 46: -- Obama finally gets to talk. He speaks clearly and not in all that inside-the Beltway gobbledygook. He has a dream for our children.

7: 50 -- The moderators are keeping their questions pretty short and concise. Chris Matthews must be pulling his hair out.

7:53 -- Clinton says she can't speak Spanish.

7:56 -- Barack wants kids to learn languages, so they don't grow up to be like Hillary.

7: 57 -- BRB. Gotta pee.

7: 59 -- Timed that perfectly. They went to break. Playing a Mindy Montford ad. Go Mindy!

8:00 -- John King just called Hillary Clinton a liar.

8:01 -- Hillary concedes she's a huge fan of negative campaigning. What the hell is that sticking out of her dress? Is she wearing a neck brace? That's strange.

8:03 -- Obama: pro-ethics and pro-helping wounded soldiers; anti-wasteful spending and anti-earmarks and anti- gridlock. Points out that people in Texas like him. Hillary? Not to much.

8: 05 -- Barack says there's nothing wrong with giving brilliant speeches (subliminal jab at Clinton). University crowd goes crazy when he says he wants to cut tuition.

8:07 -- Hillary says she wants to give her 1993 health care plan a second chance. Wants all or nothing. Yeah, that worked so well the first time. Why would you bring that up? What's next? Cattle futures and your brother selling pardons out of the White House?

8: 09 -- Barack says that when it comes to health care, he's not living in a dream world. Would rather kick an easy field goal than fumble in his own backfield. (editors note: Hillary snubbed Coach Brown and Colt McCoy today. Dumb dumb dumb.)

8:11 -- Clinton breaks rules again.

8: 14 -- Barack tries to give a brief rebuttal after Clinton violates the format guidelines once more and she tries to physically strike him.

8: 15 -- She did it again. If she were a child, she'd be grounded and sent to her room without any supper.

8: 16 -- Crowd breaks out in laughter at Clinton's big ol' stack of speeding tickets. Hillary, they're laughing AT you, not WITH you.

8: 19 -- On to foreign affairs. For the life of me, someone please explain why she keeps acting likes she's some John Foster Dulles.

8: 21 -- Barack makes really good sense on national security. Very thoughtful and mainstream. Hillary interrupts, attempts to break the rules AGAIN, and the moderators just throw up their hands in disbelief.

8: 23 -- Am I spelling Barack Obama correctly?

8: 26 -- Did Clinton just say she wants to bring a Brownsville wife's soldier husband home and give him some sweet Hillary love?

8: 29 -- The man knows his audience. Points out that he is anti-war. That sells well in Austin. Adds that sufficient equipment and support for America's fighting men and women makes more sense, from a strategic military angle, than hooking them up with blindly ambitious thick-legged 62 year old women.

8: 30 -- Another break. More teevee ads. But no Mindy.

8: 33 -- Barack passed a bill called Google For Government. Sounds good. I hear Google is really catching on. Also, he doesn't want to flush your tax dollars down the toilet.

8: 37 -- Clinton says wasteful spending can be sustained by raising taxes. Get the sense she doesn't have her finger on the nation's pulse.

8: 40 -- Obama respects regular voters more than political insiders. Very much pro-democracy.

8: 42 -- Barack answers final question with his powerful life story mini-speech. Man, I hope they play Signed Sealed Delivered pretty soon.

8: 45 -- Hillary gives some outrageously disjointed answer about facing great adversity in life (what?) while also living a life that was blessed. Make.Up.Your.Mind.

THE END