**Debate Live-Blog** Watchdogging Tonight's Media Bias

Tonight, the city of Denver hosts the first presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. But as any of us who pay attention know, the debate itself won't matter anywhere near as much as what the corrupt media does afterward to ensure Obama is crowned the winner. 

The media's already lost round one -- the pre-debate expectations game. They overplayed the Romney-Can-Do-Nothing-Right narrative to a point where everyone expects him to get his clock cleaned tonight. This means that should Romney have a good showing, the media must find something to pick away at to declare him a walking catastrophe.
But that's what New Media is for, and that's what this live blog is for. Before, during, and after the debate, myself and other members of the Breitbart News staff will be keeping an eye on everything the corrupt media pulls and documenting it here.
If you see something and have a tip, please let us know at jnolte@breitbart.com or on Twitter @NolteNC.
Newest posts are at the top.
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Bill Maher Finally Figured Out Obama Needs a Teleprompter

@billmaher: i can't believe i'm saying this, but Obama looks like he DOES need a teleprompter

Welcome aboard The Emperor Has No CLothes Express!

Even David Gregory Can't Spin Obama's Debate Drubbing
Gregory's latest tweet.

One hour in Romney is far more energetic and aggressive than the President.

I've been arguing for days that the media will spin this as a win for Obama no matter what, but we're 25 minutes from the debate being over and he's not giving them anything to work with.
I'm waiting for David Axelrod to run into the ring, throw a towel, and demand the bloodbath be stopped.

Obama Media Fans Now Blaming Lehrer for Obama Debate Drubbing
CNN's Roland Smith:

I can already tell when this debate is over I'm going to go off on Jim Lehrer and these questions! #EssenceDebate

Bill Maher:

Hey Lehrer, you're the fucking ref, stop letting the Mittbot bully you - he can't fire YOU

If you need me, I'll be popping the popcorn.

Ben Smith Over-Compensates For Years of BenSmithing By Declaring Romney Debate Winner in First Five Minutes

BenSmither Ben Smith is the biggest joke in journalism.

Andrew Sullivan Declares Obama Debate Performance a 'Calamity'
Poor Sully, can't even spin this one:

This is a rolling calamity for Obama. He's boring, abstract, and less human-seeming than Romney!
I can't even follow him half the time. Either exhausted, over-briefed ... or just flailing. He's throwing debate away.

Finally, Sully and I agree.

Huffington Post Writer Already Making Excuses For Obama's Epic Debate Fail
Huffington Post scribe Joshua Hersh:

Syria did sort of start a war with Turkey today, so that might have pulled Obama away from debate prep a bit.

Romney is owning President FailureTeleprompter.

Jim Lehrer Throws Obama a Life Raft
"Mr President you are saying..."
Yep, time to yank the tax breaks.

ABC News Uses 'SNL' to Trash Repubs Before the Debate -- Ben Shapiro
ABC News led off their preview for tonight's debate just now with a four minute segment with Saturday Night Live bits on former politicians. Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Dana Carvey as George H.W. Bush featured prominently. Fred Armisen as Barack Obama showed up for approximately 0.2 seconds. ABC News is already setting up the narrative: Republicans are dopes who must be mocked with reckless abandon. Democrats? Not all that funny. Well, at least we know what SNL's going to do at the end of the week.

Howard Kurtz Needs To Compose Himself
Here's Howard's first tweet of the night:

Obama leads with 20th anniversary of marriage to his sweetie!

Think his leg tingled?

Minutes Before Debate NBC's David Gregory Tweets What Romney MUST DO
Here's David Gregory's tweet:

From a top Romney adviser: he must be acceptable; he must rebut Obama charges and he must EXPLAIN his policies

This is Gregory setting Romney up using an unnamed Republican source (pretty sure every unnamed Republican source is Joe Scarborough). Now that Gregory's set the bar he wants to set, he can immediately set a narrative that says Romney didn't meet the expectations of his own campaign staff.
The timing of that tweet wasn't accidental. David Gregory is nothing more than a left-wing hitman.

Drudge Takes the Air Out of 'Spontaneous' Obama Debate 'Moment'
If President Obama thought he was going to surprise everyone and score points with the ladies by trumping up a 'spontaneous" aww moment using his and the First Lady's 20th wedding anniversary, Matt Drudge just stepped all over that.
Leading the Drudge Report now is the announcement to expect that.
Matt Drudge is a god.

Same BuzzFeed Politics That Dismissed 2007 Obama Vid 'Old News' Posted All Kinds of 'Old News' Today
How weird. The same BenSmithers at BuzzFeed Politics who worked overtime to kill the Daily Caller's story last night as "old news" before anyone had even seen it, put up all kinds of "old news" today.
Old videos from previous debates. Old photos of Barack Obama. Old video of Barack Obama.
Why is this old stuff news but not what the Daily Caller released?
Oh, yeah, what the Daily Caller released is damaging to our race-baiting president with the phony southern accent who doesn't know the Lord's Prayer.

CNN Panel Goes Overboard On Mitt Romney's Daddy-Issues
In an interview with Gloria Borger, Ann Romney talked about how much Mitt Romney's father means to her husband. And with that, the CNN panel went off on a psycho-analysis bender about Mitt's daddy issues and how that might not be healthy.
Oddly enough, nothing was said about the failed president who had his domestic terrorist pal ghostwrite an auto-biography called "Dreams From My FATHER" for him.

MSNBC Debate Panel Made Up of Fever-Swamp Lefties and One Republican Backstabber
Rachel Maddow, Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz, Chris Hayes, and Steve Schmidt.
Unless something of note happens, we won't be monitoring MSNBC because they're open about their biases, but now you know what you're not missing.
Where's Joe Scarborough tonight? Like I care.

Not a Joke: Andrea Mitchell Is NBC's Fact-Checker Tonight -- Tony Lee
On the NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams announced that far-left liberal Andrea Mitchell will be the network's fact-checker tonight during the debate.

Hilarious.

Geez, this idea is as brilliant as getting a replacement referee to referee a game he has gambled on or a game in which some of the players on the field are on his own fantasy football team.

At Long Last NBC News' Chuck Todd Delivers a Rare Moment of Truth -- Tony Lee

Chuck Todd said on NBC Nightly News tonight that the Obama campaign does not want to make the mistake George W. Bush made against John Kerry in 2004 in their first debate. Kerry did well in that debate and got a 6-7-point bump after. Todd said that is why Obama has prepared considerably for this debate and is taking it seriously.

That is not what the mainstream media has been telling us this week, though. The mainstream media has been reporting that Obama could be too busy with national security issues to adequately prepare. These reports deliberately tried to lower expectations for him.

Now, it seems that Obama has been preparing more than his team or the mainstream media has been letting on.

Of course, this should not come as a surprise to anyone. Of course a president whose re-election chances hang in the balance will fully prepare for this debate.

So it leaves one to ask: Is the mainstream media stupid enough to fall for the Obama campaign's spin or simply dishonest and knowingly spinning facts they know are not true?

Probably both.

CBS Evening News Sets Romney Up For Failure -- Tony Lee

Right off the bat, CBS Evening News both sets high expectations for Romney and makes it seem like Romney is a candidate on the ropes, even though a recent National Journal Poll had Romney and Obama tied, and Romney has been gaining in swing states like Virginia and Florida, in addition to leading polls of swing states by respected polling organizations.

In the lead-in, CBS showed two clips.

The first is Obama saying that "Gov. Romney has shown himself to be a very good debater."

The next clip is Scott Pelley asking Romney, "Do you think the debates are make-or-break for you?"

CBS wants the viewer to think Romney is a good debater and that he's on the ropes. CBS is trying to give Romney less room for error in the mainstream media's "expectations game."

The Corrupt Media's Spin Will Begin Tonight On Twitter
Tonight will be the first ever presidential debate in the age of Twitter. This means the corrupt media will be using the social media device to signal and coordinate plans of attack Romney. Whatever narratives are set tonight will not be set on the stage or in the post-debate spin room. Tonight's narrative will be set by a member of the corrupt media tweeting something other members of the corrupt media feel they can latch on to in order to declare Obama a Sun God.
Our job in New Media is to be on Twitter fighting this, and doing what we can to get ahead of it.
#War