Debate night live!

UPDATE 10:45 p.m. -- I don't think there's anybody out there who saw this as such a hands-down win for Maverick as to put Obama on the defensive. The MSM are putting their final touches on the "triumph of Hope" ledes they've been working on since February. The features department at the Washington Post probably just green-lighted the special 16-page "Obama's journey" section they'll publish Nov. 5. For the first time in eight years, Democrats won't be biting their nails and sweating exit-poll results on Election Day.

UPDATE 10:33 p.m. -- Maverick's wrapping it up. "I've spent my whole life serving this country." Trying to win on biography.

UPDATE 10:31 p.m. -- "The last 8 years," again!

UPDATE 10:23 p.m. -- Obama again references "the last 8 years." Cheers!

UPDATE 10:22 p.m. -- Russia. Zzzzz.

UPDATE 10:20 p.m. -- My American Spectator colleagues are live blogging and not impressed with Maverick's performance. John Tabin: "Obama gives the wrong answer to the question, McCain gives an answer to the wrong question. We are so screwed."

UPDATE 10:16 p.m. -- Maverick: "I'll get bin Ladin. I know how to get him." Hey, John, how about you go ahead and share that with the Pentagon now?

UPDATE 10:14 p.m. -- Obama's making a big thing of saying, "Pockystahn" instead of Pakistan.

UPDATE 10:04 p.m. -- Obama has avoided saying "Senator McCain is right" over and over, as he did in the first debate.

UPDATE 9:59 p.m. -- Obama really has that Clintonian touch. He lies boldly, confidently, emphatically. He promises you the sun, the moon and the stars, and then insinuates that Republicans, in proposing to trim out a constellation or two, are cheating you out of what is rightly yours, and will leave you destitute and helpless.

UPDATE 9:54 p.m. -- Maverick's in the tall grass again. Details, details, details. Damn it, just call Obama a Marxist and be done with it!

UPDATE 9:51 p.m. -- Question from an "undecided" voter for socialized medicine. Plant! Plant!

UPDATE 9:46 p.m.: Maverick's going for the Al Gore global-warming vote. Jules Crittenden is liveblogging without apparent aid of alcohol. Obama's making ample use of the patented Clinton "investment" as a euphemism for "spend taxpayer money."

UPDATE 9:38 p.m.: In responding to Brokaw's "America got drunk" question, Obama wants to go into a class-warfare spiel, talking about tax cuts for Fortune 500 CEOs, but has to choose his words very carefully

UPDATE: Obama says deregulation caused the crisis. Sebastian Mallaby, Washington Post says:

The claim that the financial crisis reflects Bush-McCain deregulation is not only nonsense. It is the sort of nonsense that could matter.

But John McCain's idea that the federal government's going to buy up all the bad mortgages in America is a non-starter. Better idea: Buy up all the good mortgages. (A better idea, but still a very bad idea.)

PREVIOUSLY: Even though I've already called the election, tonight John McCain and Barack Obama have a chance to make a liar out of me. The town-hall debate at Belmont University in Nashville affords Obama a chance to blunder away a sure thing. Maybe Maverick will actually be awake for the start of this debate, as opposed to Sept. 26, where he sleep-walked through the first 45 minutes, then woke up all grumpy.

Jimmie at Sundries Shack will liveblog it, as will Ace, Michelle Malkin and the Hot Air gang. (Michelle predicts lots of insipid questions. Ace expects liberal house plants.) Cassy Fiano also has a liveblog.

Of course, VodkaPundit has already knocked down three martinis as a warm-up for drunkblogging the debate. Having watched Stephen Green during the drunkblogging experience for the Democratic convention, I can testify that he's not exaggerating about his martini intake. He handles his liquor very well. Constant practice is the secret, he says.

I'll be back with periodic updates.