Denver Presidential Debate 2012 – Live Blog [UPDATED]

[9:33]

I am now taking your calls at 770-5790 or 1-800-687-0790 until 10 o'clock tonight

[9:28]

The debate is almost over and Obama doesn't look like he prepared for the debate or prepared for Romney coming after him on his policies.

[9:20]

If Obama mentions Lincoln again he will say this, " If you're a racist, I will attack you with the North."

If this were a high school football game we would have had a running clock after halftime so this beatdown would end. Romney is in control.

[9:13]

Mitt hits Obama on States rights. Also, two minutes turns into five for both candidates.

[9:08]

Universal Healthcare never received this much debate in congress when they passed the bill without reading the damn thing.

More from twitter:

darren rovellVerified ‏@darrenrovell

Do they build the actual debate sets so generic to make it easy for SNL to replicate?

23 minutes to go. At this point Romney can probably get a Jimmy John's, and feed it to Ann's dressage horse while kicking a dog.

[9:00]

Romney keeps on the offensive and dropping the small business card over and over again. Obama trying to get ahead of the salvos fired by Romney. Social Security discussion would go down as tie.

Mitt keeps offering more specifics than the President. The talk of repeal of ObamaCare is not going Barack's way.

NON-DEBATE ITEM: The Rangers host Baltimore for the Wild Card play-in game on Friday night. Let's hope they win.

[8:50]

The weakest part of the Romney campaign is RomneyCare is Massachusetts and Mitt just killed any chance of a substantive response saying, "I don't want the government telling me what to do with my health care."

[8:47]

Don't recognize this debate format without all the screaming and yelling and Tebow. #ESPN #EmbraceDebate

[8:40]

Obama looks painfully unprepared for this debate. I haven't seen a President off track so much and search for words so much. I don't think he expected Romney to come out swinging from the beginning.

Romney keeps landing punch after punch. Lehrer looks like Judge Mills Lane during the Holyfield/Tyson fight. You might remember it.

[8:33]

Romney hits again saying debt is a moral issue and  Obama talks about the deficit he inherited from Bush 43.

Twitter reaction to the debate:

Obama blames Bush and praises what Clinton did. Why? Because he's got nothing to run on. #debate

Mitt has been saving that "big bird" zing the entire campaign.

FACT: President Obama signed 18 tax cuts for small businesses, making investment and growth more affordable.

Romney deploys the "You've been President four years line," and incredibly, the President appears surprised by it.

[8:25]

Obama keeps hitting Romney on a $5 Trillion tax cut and Romney keeps saying no. This is what AA must be like.

[8:22]

Jim Lehrer warms my heart and reminds the candidates they are 15 minutes over.

[8:21]

Mitt continues to be on the offensive tonight, even when defending his tax cut plan that he states "won't add to the deficit." Romney with another great line towards Obama saying, "I've got 5 boys. I'm used to people saying the same thing over and over again hoping it becomes true."

Obama looks rattled and the Trump small business joke falls flat.

[8:12]

Romney mentions the rising costs on the middle class under the Obama Administration on everything from gasoline to groceries. Romney also brings up that oil and natural gas increased the past three year, but not from Obama's policies. It was on private land. Solid start for Mitt.

[8:05]

Obama starts off with his gushing for Michelle, as he should do, on their 20th anniversary. Also the fine folks at YouTube are streaming the debate from ABC News. Another reason why I love this online service.

[8:01]

And our coverage of the debate begins. Leave us your feedback on our Facebook page and on twitter @KFYO

[7:45PM]

We are 15 minutes away from the debate. A few quick things about tonight's first debate:

- The arena where the debate is being held tonight is a hockey arena and was converted tonight to hold about 1600 attendees. ABC's Jake Tapper tweeted earlier tonight,

[7:00PM]

The debate tonight will be covering domestic and economic issues as agreed to by both campaigns. We'll get the Lubbock reaction to the debate from Republican County Chairman Carl Tepper and hopefully from Democratic County Chairman Kenny Ketner after the debate during KFYO's election coverage. You can listen online to the debate coverage here.

[6:30PM]

This is pretty sweet. President Obama and wife Michelle are celebrating their 20th Wedding Anniversary tonight after the debate. CNN brought the story out a little while ago and the First Lady said,

"I told Barack, 'This, you know, attending a presidential debate on my 20th anniversary is probably the worst way for me to spend (it)."

 [6:00PM CST]

The first Presidential Debate between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will begin at 8:00pm from the University of Denver.

This is the first of three debates between the two men before the November 6^th General Election. PBS commentator Jim Lehrer will be the moderator of the debate.

There will be one Vice Presidential debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

Debate Schedule

October 11^th: Vice Presidential Debate – Centre College in Danville, Kentucky

October 16^th: Presidential Debate – Hofstra University in Hemsptead, New York

October 22^nd: Presidential Debate – Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida