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Here is where I will be live blogging tonight's showdown between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The last couple of debates have had no ground rules. But I hope Tim Russert has the good sense to warn the candidates against eye-gouges, biting, or kicking below the belt.

7:38 p.m. PST: The next time we see Hillary Clinton, she'll be delivering withdrawal speech. Get ready for McCain versus Obama.

Well, my fellow Americans...whaddya think?

7:34 p.m. PST: Prove your worth! Prove it! I'm not going to vote for either of these people. And the question is silly. Obama, who is well coached, turned the qualification to discuss himself. Naturally. Nobody is going to miss the chance to tout his virtues.

Even Hillary Clinton cannot throw away the opportunity. "Who can actually change the country?" The truth is, any president will change the country. John McCain, if he's elected, will change the country in some way. The president can change the country in good ways and bad. Most do.

"We do need a fighter back in the White House...." We surely do.

7:28 p.m. PST: Hillary is making her last-gasp pitch. "We don't have much time to make up for our lost ground." She's talking about U.S. foreign policy, but she could be talking about her campaign.

Obama thinks he made a mistake not trying to derail the Senate debate on Teri Schiavo. Maybe. But it's interesting that's the example he picked.

7:17 p.m. PST: I don't think Obama can be anymore clear about his disdain for Louis Farrakhan. Disdaining his own pastor, however, is another matter. But more important, however, is his answer about the relationship between blacks and Jews. "That relationship has frayed over a whole host of issues." Indeed. It's a tricky dance Obama is doing here. But he's doing it well.

Hillary, again, is on defense. She's been on defense the entire evening. Either she's been on the spot answering questions first, or she's giving "Me, too" answers as she did just now on Israel.

"There's a difference between denouncing and rejecting." Huh? Not really... But Obama took full advantage, didn't he? She's crashing and burning in slow motion before our eyes.

7:06 p.m. PST: Weasel time. Sounds like Obama is going to opt out of public financing, unless he can cut a deal with McCain. That's what he's saying, in a nutshell.

Clinton is weaseling out of releasing her tax returns and the White House scheduling records. It probably won't matter in 10 days.

7:04 p.m. PST: "ExxonMobil made $11 billion last quarter. They are not going to give up those profits easily," Obama says. So we will have to expropriate those profits, I suppose?

7:02 p.m. PST: You can't take credit for all the good things that happened during the Clinton era while evading the bad... like NAFTA? All the same, Obama is clearly in command tonight, aided and abetted by Russert and Williams. I don't know whether it's intentional or not. I have no idea. But she's had the hard questions. He... hasn't.

6:56 p.m. PST: I'm still refilling my drink. No, just kidding.

Obama is trying to make the case that he is running on more than just beautiful rhetoric. He's right. But his agenda would be disastrous! So would hers!

6:48 p.m. PST: Time to refill your drinks, everybody!

6:47 p.m. PST: Tim Russert, a moment ago, said, "This is reality." Well, no, it isn't (as Hillary replied), but it's a nice exercise. And Russert is asking some tough questions. Too bad he's not asking them of the actual frontrunner.

6:41 p.m. PST: Do Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton believe the United States is capable of fighting a multi-front war? Do they think different theaters of war demand different tactics? Different strategies?

6:37 p.m. PST: A postscript on NAFTA... The Democrats' lurch toward protectionism ignores the tangible benefits of the agreement. Reneging on NAFTA would be sheer folly.

6:35 p.m. PST: "Senator Clinton equates experience with longevity in Washington. I don't think the American people do." Zing. Oh, and it has the benefit of being true.

6:33 p.m. PST: I do think Russert is being tougher on Hillary Clinton than Barack Obama. But it might be the case that Clinton has more of a record to be tougher on. However, answers like, "I was counting on Al Gore to be president" are really, really lame.

6:29 p.m. PST: As far as taking a trade "time-out," goes, Steven Spruiell makes a great point: "We're already in a trade time-out. We have been ever since Congress allowed President Bush's fast-track trade-negotiating authority to expire last June. Without that authority, which allows the president to submit trade agreements to Congress for an up-or-down vote, Congress can tamper with trade agreements by amending them. The prospect of congressional meddling removes all certainty from the administration's negotiating process. No country will negotiate free-trade agreements with the U.S. without that certainty."

6:26 p.m. PST: So, just to be clear, Hillary Clinton is saying that the best way to improve NAFTA -- the North America Free Trade Agreement -- is to make it more protectionist. We live in interesting times.

6:24 p.m. PST: On NAFTA, they're both wrong. But Russert is asking a great, great question: Will you withdraw from the treaty? Clinton weasels out. "We'll withdraw unless we negotiate." That's a multi-year proposition, by the way. As president, she could get the U.S. out of NAFTA in six months.

6:20 p.m. PST: Our friend Jill Miller Zimon is in the debate audience. And she's got video!

6:16 p.m. PST: A mandate is a mandate is a mandate. Either way, the taxpayers lose.

6:13 p.m. PST: "This is too important..." "There's no difference here..." So why is this discussion going on 10 minutes? They're disputing a sliver.

6:11 p.m. PST: Obama takes the higher ground on negative campaigning. "We haven't whined about it, because I understand that's the nature of these campaigns," Obama says. Hillary, meantime, wants to harp on health care mandates. Maybe I'm mistaken, but she's been on defense from the very beginning. How is Clinton going to distinguish herself in this debate tonight? Eleven minutes in, and she's rehearsing the same lines she delivered in Austin last week.

They both stand for universal health care. The real question, it seems to me, is who is the bigger statist?

6:06 p.m. PST: Obama wants to focus on the issue of health care. Oh, Lord, it's gonna be a long night.

6:03 p.m. PST: It begins. Thank God for the age of easy video, contrasting Hillary on stage and Hillary at her campaign rally a few days ago. "We have differences...," Clinton says. She's disturbed.

I'm disturbed that we've started the debate, and we're already into the health care debate. Hillary segues into the talking points. We had this discussion last time about who's plan covers whom, and who gets left out. Last time and the time before that and the time before that. Haven't they settled this yet?

6:01 p.m. PST: Truth is, I'm worried that this debate will be too cordial, too dull. I think Obama has no reason to get into the muck with Hillary Clinton. He's the frontrunner, after all. If the election were held today, Obama would beat John McCain. Why get his knuckles bloody?

But if he is the presumptive frontrunner, he needs to answer some questions. Will Tim Russert and Brian Williams ask them?