Pre-Debate Thread

There will be an Open Thread for the debate tonight, but in advance of tonight's HOT DEBATE ACTION, I want to share some resources and thoughts...

You will be able to access livestreaming debate coverage online at barackobama.com/debate. The debate will also air in the US and parts of Canada on C-SPAN and the major television networks.

As always, I'll be on Twitter, too: @shakestweetz.

Please feel welcome and encouraged to recommend your own or other Twitter feeds, and additional resources, that will be covering, discussing, or providing analysis of the debate.

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Tonight is the second of three debates, and it will be a town-hall style debate, the moderator of which was apparently hired to be a piece of furniture. In case you're not familiar with town-hall style debates, they're sort of like the regular debates, except even stupider.

Ostensibly, town-hall style debates are meant to allow "regular people" to ask questions of the candidates, but, despite the occasional absurd claim to the contrary, they are not spontaneous questions posed by average voters, but instead carefully orchestrated questions filtered through gatekeepers and asked by vetted queriers and/or via selected and edited pre-recorded video.

So, the illusion of democracy, controlled by two parties who are virtually indistinguishable on many major issues, including the issue of not wanting to be meaningfully accountable to voters or allow multiple-party access. In other words: A perfect metaphor for the entire election.

The AP has a great (ha ha) list of Five Things to Watch for in Tonight's Presidential Debate. When you're done reading that (ha ha), here are my Five Things to Watch for in Tonight's Presidential Debate:

1. Mitt Romney will tell some lies.

2. Mitt Romney will tell some more lies.

3. Mitt Romney will tell additional lies.

4. Mitt Romney will tell a few extra lies for good measure.

5. President Obama will either successfully or unsuccessfully refute those lies and/or make viewers reasonably aware that Mitt Romney is lying, or fail to do that.

If President Obama says during tonight's debate, "To quote my friend Joe Biden, this is just a bunch of malarkey," I will make a contribution to the Obama campaign just on principle.

I have some other ideas about some things President Obama could talk about tonight! I HOPE HE DOES! PLEASE, MR. PRESIDENT, I AM BEGGING YOU!

As always, I'll close this thread once the Open Thread is posted later tonight. In the meantime: Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.