DEBATE BLOG: Showdown in N.Y.

Read below for a play-by-play of insight and commentary of the final presidential debate by Washington Times’ chief White House Correspondent, Joseph Curl.

10:27:

Final statements; McCain goes first. Obama looking directly at McCain. “America needs a new direction. We cannot be satisfied with what we’ve been doing the last eight years.”

“I’ve spent my entire life” in service of this country. “I hope you’ll give me an opportunity to serve again”

Obama: “I think we all know we’re going through a tough time. … The biggest risk we could take right now is to adopt the same old policies.”

“Our brighter days are still ahead.” … Sacrifice, service, responsibility. “I will work tirelessly.”

Bob: “Go vote now, it will make you feel big and strong.”

Mcain and Obama shake hands: “Good job, good job, uh, good job, thanks,” McCain says to Obama, who smiles and nods. The wives join the nominees on stage, kiss their husbands, shakes hands with each other, and their men.

Gotta go write a story about Joe the Plumber. If you know him, have him call me — before deadline.

— Joseph Curl, senior White House correspondent, The Washington Times

10:16:

Last question. We trail other industrialized nations in education. Why?

“There’s been a debate between more money and reform. I think we need both,” Obama says. America needs “an army of new teachers” with higher pay. “Turn of the TV set.”

“It’s the civil rights issue of the 21st century,” McCain says, sounding like Bush. He supports charter schools.

“Throwing money at the problem is not the answer,” the Republican says. “We must improve education in this country.”

Should the federal government play a larger role? Yes, says Obama, the government should “step up” and play a larger role. “Senator McCain and I actually agree on two things” — charter schools and getting rid of bad teachers. “We’re going to have prioritize,” Obama says.

McCain cites the DC school system — 1,000 vouchers, 9,000 seeking them. “They want to have the same choice we have,” referring to the McCains and the Obamas. He calls No Child Left Behind a good start. “Spending more money is not always the answer.”

McCain brings up Palin and autism (Palin’s baby has Down Syndrome).

“Senator McCain’s absolutely right, the DC school system is in terrible shape.” At least they agree on that!

10:06:

On Roe v. Wade:

“I thought it was a bad decision,” McCain says, but vows no litmus test. McCain cites the Gang 14, points out that Obama refused to join, fearing conservative judges. Obama “thinks it’s true we should not apply a strict litmus test.” “I am somebody that believes that Roe versus Wade was rightly decided.” Obama says the Constitution is not subject to state referendum,” meaning states cannot decide for themselves whether abortion should be legal.

McCain pointing out Obama as Illinois senator “not that long ago” voted against law that required children who survive abortion be given medical care. Obama responds: “It’s not true.” McCain scowls. Obama says the law would have undermined Roe v. Wade. Says he supports ban on partial-birth abortion — with exception for the health of the mother.

“This divides us … but there surely is some common ground,” Obama says, saying “sexuality is sacred” and opposing “cavalier behavior.”

Now, 33 messages from the McCain campaign.

Last question, education.

10:03:

“Joe, you’re rich!” McCain says. He says Obama thinks Joe is rich and wants to mandate health care. “That’s big government at its best.”

“This gets down to the fundamental difference” between the two plans.

“Senator Government — I mean, Senator Obama,” McCain says. Sudden laugh in the audience.

9:57:

Remember when health care was the biggest issue of this campaign? Why does that seem so long ago?

Obama is NOT adhering to Schieffer’s desire for something we haven’t heard before. McCain starts off with his talking points from the campaign trail, too.

Joe the Plumber mentioned again. “My old buddy, Joe … If you’re out there, my friend ….” Drinking-game people: ’My Friend’!

“I’m happy to talk to you, Joe, if you’re out there,” Obama says. Someone should be watching this debate with Joe. The New York Post? Something like 1,200 reporters are going to be looking for Joe tomorrow morning.

All three networks have split-screens (the only way to go). And yes, we were looking for the baseball game.

9:46:

Bob changes the topic to “climate control.” McCain corrects him to “climate change.” How to reduce dependence on oil? McCain pushes nuclear power plants, citing safety of nuclear Naval vessels.

Obama says in his 10 years, we can reduce dependence on oil from the Middle East and Venezuela (two places that don’t much like America). Obama looking right into the camera during this answer; McCain, hands clasped on table, smiling. Obama defends his belief in free trade, but criticizes NAFTA.

“I admire so much Senator Obama’s eloquence,” McCain says sarcastically (just after he winked to someone somewhere). Columbia! Obama scribbling. “Senator Obama, who has never traveled south of our border….” Zing! Obama smiles. “Free trade is something that’s a no-brainer. Maybe you oughta travel down there and then you’d understand.”

“I understand it pretty well,” Obama shoots back, adding that presidents have to “stand up to other countries.”

Ugh, wind turbines and solar panels. Next question.

Wait, no pre-conditions with … Hugo Chavez? Obama smiling. “Senator Obama wants to restrict trade and raise taxes.” Herbert Hoover!

Uh oh, health care.

9:40:

Bob wants to know who they’ll bring in to the government. “Why will the country be better off if your running mate became president, and not his running mate?”

Obama ticks off Sen. Joe Biden’s foreign policy resume, his Scranton upbringing, fighting for “the little guy.” McCain is blinking a lot, getting ready to defend his running mate. He’s making more notes with his Sharpie. (Did you know both nominees are left-handed?)

“Americans have gotten to know Sarah Palin,” McCain says. “She’s a reformer.” Obama writing now. “It’s time we had that bresh of freath air — breath of fresh air,” McCain says. “I’m proud of her.”

Is she qualified? “That’s up to the American people,” Obama says, saying “I agree with that, John,” that she has excited the Republican Party.

Is he qualified?

“He’s been wrong on many foreign policy and national security issues. … He had this cockamamie idea of dividing Iraq into three countries. … He’s been wrong more on a number of issues.”

9:25:

Uh oh — topic is the tone of the campaign. “Are you willing to say to the face” of each other and say the same things?

McCain brings up the 10 town-hall challenge. “I think the tone of this campaign could have been very different. … It has taken many turns,” McCain said, adding that doing the town halls would have changed that. McCain brings up John Lewis, who compared McCain to George Wallace. “Senator Obama, you didn’t repudiate those remarks.” Obama oddly smiling.

“We expect presidential elections to be tough,” Obama said. “The American people are less interested in our hurt feelings” and want to talk issues. Obama accuses 527s. “I don’t mind being attacked over the next three weeks, but Americans can’t” go through another four years like the last four.

McCain’s turn: “I watched the Arizona Cardinals defeat the Dallas Cowboys last week —”

Obama: “Congratulations.”

McCain: “And every other ad was a negative attack by you.”

“If we want to talk about Congressman Lewis,” Obama says. He says people were shouting “kill him” at Palin rallies.

“I do think he inappropriately drew a comparison,” Obama says as McCain interrupts, “You gotta read what he said!”

McCain says “you’re going to have some strange people” come to huge rallies. “I’m not going to stand for somebody saying because somebody yelled something at a rally — there’s a lot of things yelled at your rallies ….” he says, referencing some T-shirts for sale (anyone reading this, $5 if you send in some T-shirt slogans).

“I don’t care about an old washed-up terrorist,” McCain says, going back to Ayers and brings up ACORN.

“Mr. Ayers has become the centerpiece of his campaign,” Obama says, saying again that he was 8 when Ayers committed his crimes.

McCain not smiling now, but writing. “Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign,” Obama says. He distances himself from the fraudulent voter registrations now underway by ACORN. McCain smiling now as Obama lists who he DOES associate with.

McCain says Obama launched his political career in Ayers’ living room. “That’s absolutely not true,” Obama says.

9:19:

McCain brings up the planetarium projector again. “Earmarks account for one half of one percent,” Obama notes as McCain writes and smiles.

“Of course we can take a hatchet and a scalpel to this budget,” McCain says. “It’s completely out of control.” McCain repeats his opening statement: people are angry, want a new direction. Obama smiling, pleading look to Bob as McCain runs over time.

“I’ve had a history of reaching across the aisle,” Obama says as McCain jots and smiles. Obama says, “You’ve been a vigorous supporter of President Bush.”

“It’s very clear I’ve disagreed with the Bush administration … I’ve got the scars to prove it,” McCain says, cutting off Bob. “I have a long record of reform.”

9:13:

Already, four messages from the McCain camp disputing Obama claims.

Next question: the deficit. Bob says both nominee’s plans will add $200 billion to the deficit. What to cut?

Obama says the $700 billion rescue plan will pay for itself; the money will be returned. McCain looking off, smiling. “We need to eliminate a whole host of programs,” Obama says, taking a page from McCain’s playbook. He talks energy policy, cutting off tax breaks for insurance companies.

McCain returns to homeownership (this makes three debates in which the nominees have dodged this question). “If we can start increasing home values …” Bob breaks in, but McCain forges on. Obama smiling and writing now. McCain says he’d take a “hatchet” to the budget by freezing spending, “and then I’d take out a scalpel.”

9:07:

Bob asks McCain if he’d like to ask Obama a question: “Uh, no.” But McCain is looking directly at Obama as he tells a story about a man, Joe the Plumber, who told Obama he worried about the Democrat’s tax plan (he was the one Obama told he wants to redistribute the wealth).

“He’s been watching some ads of Senator McCain’s,” Obama says to a mild laugh from the crowd. “That’s not what I want.” McCain smiling, writing notes.

Obama explains his answer to Joe the Plumber; McCain scribbles furiously.

“We need to spread the wealth around. In other words, we’re going to take Joe’s money, give it to Senator Obama, who’s going to spread it around,” McCain says.

As Obama interrupts and talks tax cuts, McCain says, “We’re talking about Joe the Plumber.”

9:03

First question on the two competing economic plans: “I’ll ask both of you — why is your plan better than his?”

“People are angry … and they have every reason to be angry. They want this country to go in a different direction,” says McCain. Both nominees in dark suits; Obama with a red tie, McCain, blue. (Shouldn’t they be switched?) Flag pin on Obama; none on McCain.

McCain blames Fannie and Freddie. “We oughta put the homeowner first.”

Obama says again, the worst crisis since the Great Depression. He talks up his plans, all from his campaign stump speech. “I agree with your idea,” he tells McCain, “but I disagree on how to do it. … We don’t want to waste taxpayer money.”

9 p.m.

You have to wonder, does someone like Schieffer still get nervous at these things? He just coughed, drank water, coughed again.

“Good evening and welcome to the third and last debate,” he says. Nine-minute segments, two-minute responses, and he pledges to ask followups.

Obama goes to Scheiffer first, leaving McCain waiting. “Let’s try to tell the people some things they’ve never heard.”

We’re underway.

8:57:

Bob Schieffer comes out. “What an honor it is to be here. … The one thing I regret is that my friend Tim Russert is not here.” Applause.

“I’m going to turn my back on you and the next time you hear me, we’re going to be on TV!” he tells the crowd.

Even more quiet now. Two minutes.

8:55:

The sound now cut off in the auditorium, note the shot shows Hillary Clinton, in a brown pantsuit, talking to a neighbor in the front rows. The set is always blue, with a bright red carpet (which could mask any signs of a bloodbath). Eight minutes to go, and actually, the mic is open - an occasional cough is heard from someone in the audience, which is remarkably quiet.

Having covered two previous debates this campaign, the press room is also quieting down; reporters settling in to watch with one eye, listen with one ear and type with both hands. The talking heads, however, would be busy filling up the last few minutes of open air before they get a 90-minute breather.

Five minutes to go (plus 90 seconds).

8:52 p.m.:

Someone giving mouth-to-mouth on an NBC drama; a pizza commercial on ABC; a sitcom on CBS. Back to C-SPAN.

8:50 p.m.:

CNN has that long table with, like, 12 people all sitting in front of laptops. Everyone wants to talk, right away. Anderson Cooper is just looking left, then right, as people jump in. Bill Bennett talking Bill Ayers. Donna Brazile says two-thirds of Americans have heard of Ayers and don’t care. Bennett says he just “wants to make sure he’s not the next Secretary of Education.” Groans from all around. Paul Begala insists McCain should use “the ’s’ word: Sacrifice,” calling Americans to a cause greater than themselves. Over to the networks.

8:45 p.m.:

Frank Fahrenhopf of the Commission on Presidential Debates, a 22-year-old organization, is telling the audience that the debate does not start at 9 p.m., but rather 9:01:30. He said the network talking heads in the back of the auditorium will first blab for 90 seconds, setting up the debate and, as President Bush calls it, peacocking for the people. So try to flip through all five network and cable news channels to catch them all — you’ll have 90 seconds.

In the audience already visible, former GOP candidate Mitt Romney, who will spin afterward as he has the last two debates, along with former Clinton spokesman Mike McCurry and Caroline Kennedy, who helped Obama select a vice president. Sen. Hillary Clinton is to be in attendance, but is not visible and may be coming in soon, along with a host of late-arriving VIPs.

Dennis Miller riffing on Fox News with Bill O’Reilly. Asked if he has anything critical to say about McCain, he says, “No.”

“If I were John McCain, I’d come out and say, ’I’m going to cut pork and I’m going to kill terrorists. Everything after that is just icing.”

Miller uses a Navy term for what McCain, a former fighter pilot, needs to do: “He’s gotta stick it on the deck.”

8:35 p.m. EST:

Preparing for the live debate blog! Popcorn popped! Six cans of Diet Jolt stacked! Let the games begin!

First, a warning to those playing drinking games: Do NOT drink when Sen. John McCain says, “My friends.” He said that 22 times last debate, which would injure even a keg-savvy college student. And definitely do NOT drink when Sen. Barack Obama says, “Look ….” He starts nearly every answer with “Look,” so there’s no way to keep up with him there.

For tonight’s final debate at Hofstra University on Long Island, the nominees will be seated in low-slung swivel chairs, arranged around a horseshoe-shaped wooden table. The faceoff is being moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS News (no, he is not writing a book about McCain or Obama).

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod noted that his candidate practiced pacing around before the last debate, which was town-hall style, but this time simply sitting. “Its less about preparing for the substance, he said. The candidates are sitting at a table tonight, sitting in close proximity. It sounds silly, but those are the things youve got to consider as you prepare.

— Joseph Curl

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Turn here for constant updates and political insight from The Washington Times’ chief White House correspondent, Joseph Curl, who will blog the final presidential debate. (View his blog here.)

With less than three weeks until the Nov. 4 election, the 90-minute debate focuses on the economic crisis and is a final chance for the Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, to win crucial swing voters. Polls show his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, with a clear lead nationally and in several key battleground states.