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9:12  McCain is not my friend and needs to stop assuming that (suz)

9:12  And we have the first blame-the-crisis-on-Fannie-and-Freddie’s-risky-loans moment from McCain.  (Eli)

9:10 And we have the first "Senator McCain is right" from Obama. (Blue Texan)

9:09  Oh good, McCain will take care of greed, excess and cronyism.  I wonder which of his lobbyists he’ll put in charge of that.  (Eli)

9:08  But he’s talking about mortgage relief, going to the left of Obama, talking about stabilizing home values.  Nice move backing Paulson and gutting mortgage relief, Obama!  (Pach)

9:07  Angry McCain is here tonight.  Oh, joy!  (Pach)

9:06  McCain looks feeble, twitchy 10 trillion dollar debt–how much of that is from the war, John? (lalisa)

9:04  Obama talks about failed economic policies of last 8 years.  How about 30 years?  Howdy, Ronnie!  (Pach)

9:04  Obama pointing out that the financial crisis is the direct result of Republican (Bush and McCain) policies.  (Eli)

9:03  McCain’s body language looks really contorted and uncomfortable.  (Eli)

9:02  Oh good, Brokaw says he’s selected a list of excellent questions.  I was afraid that he might have picked a bunch of crap ones.  (Eli)

And we’re off!  This is the clown town hall format debate, which apparently means that there will be absolutely no follow-ups allowed, neither from audience members nor from NBC liaison to the McCain campaign moderator Tom Brokaw.  Awesome.

This is a must-win debate for McCain.  His poll numbers and electoral projections are in the toilet, and his campaign has devolved into stirring up the worst and hoping for the best.  He desperately needs a home run, and the town hall format gives him his best chance to hit one.  If he underperforms tonight, he’s doubly screwed because next week’s debate is on domestic issues, where he’ll be lucky just to scratch out a walk or an infield hit.

So what should we expect tonight?  In a word, Ugly:

"When are you going to take the gloves off?" a John McCain supporter wanted to know this afternoon.

"How about Tuesday night?" McCain replied….

Because the McCain campaign has just been too nice up until now.

[awesome graphic by resident genius twolf]