Welcome to Wednesday! It snowed this morning at my house, so I am not in the greatest mood.

Here are some “Wednesday Quick Hits” about the Montana U.S. House debate, recent endorsements, the life of a tracker, the Daily Caller video, and a primer for the first Presidential debate! There’s a lot more so read on…

MT U.S. House Debate:

First of all, thanks to the folks who carried this debate on-line and on the radio so the rest of us could watch or listen to it. The Associated Press covered the debate HERE. Lee Newspapers covered the debate HERE.

During the first part of the debate between Democrat Kim Gillan and Republican Steve Daines I tweeted, “Maybe they should stop at two debates or people may not vote at all.”

Fortunately, the debate started taking a turn for the better as the hour rolled along. Toward the end I Tweeted, “I think Gillan was the aggressive one in this debate – seems to want it more.’ If I would have had more room on Twitter I would have said that Daines seems to come across to me as someone who thinks he is “entitled” to this seat. Gillan’s experience in politics showed through. If she gets to D.C., she won’t be lost like Daines would be.

An interesting part was that “Daines was asked if he would pledge, if he is elected, not to run for the U.S. Senate against Democratic Sen. Max Baucus in 2014.” He said, “I have not made any plans beyond Nov. 6” which was not a very good answer. Daines is well-known for changing plans as he first announced he was running for U.S. Senate against Jon Tester. I imagine the Rehberg cartel stepped in and told him to switch to the U.S. House race because Denny wants to be a U.S. Senator.

Daines should have said, “I will be running for re-election in the U.S. House in 2014.”

Jack’s advice to the candidates: Gillan needs to continue promoting her experience and being able to hit the ground running. Daines needs to try and convince voters that he is not the snobbish out-of-touch rich person he comes across as.

Endorsements:

I enjoy seeing which group endorses which candidate and then it’s fun watching the candidates tout these endorsements.

For example the “mother’s milk” of endorsements for Republicans in Montana is getting the National Rifle Association (NRA) endorsement. The NRA recently endorsed Republican Tim Fox for Montana Attorney General and Republican Steve Daines for U.S. House, although neither Fox nor Daines have apparently never voted on a gun issue.

It’s also amusing to see politicians wear an orange vest while carrying a gun and posing with a dead animal…

Republicans getting the NRA endorsement in Montana is about as common as the sun rising each day – just as it is for a Democrat getting the endorsement from the Montana Education Association-Montana Federation of Teachers (MEA-MFT).

What would be really big news is if they did not get these endorsements.

Life of a Tracker:

Some dude following Senator Jon Tester around with a camera claims he was “assaulted at Tester event” while filming. It wasn’t exactly a “Sonny Corleone” moment, but you can judge for yourself HERE.

I wonder if this is the same fellow who claims he was run over by Senator Tester back in May 2011?

I was just happy to see that Tester did not give the poor kid the middle finger…

The Daily Caller Video:

Tuesday afternoon the headline on the Drudge Report was “FOXNEWS TONIGHT: OBAMA’S OTHER RACE SPEECH” which came complete with a flashing Drudge siren. Many people thought this was the “October surprise” that so often happens in elections and Twitter was buzzing.

What was the big deal? It was a 2007 video of a speech obtained by The Daily Caller that shows then-presidential candidate Barack Obama speaking to an audience of black ministers. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright was also in the audience. Fox News’ Sean Hannity aired parts of the video and for the first time in about four years I watched part of the Hannity show (he’s looking old and tired).

The bottom line (to me) is the video was much ado about nothing – more like a false alarm – if you are interested, you can read about it and watch it HERE.

The righties must be really sad that it was not that big a deal. I tweeted during the Hannity show, “The #Hannity show tonight appears to be a #FoxNews “Hail Mary” to save #MittRomney.”

The “Hail Mary” pass hit the ground…

The First Presidential Debate:

The biggest thing to remember about the Obama/Romney debate in Denver tonight is that Romney really needs to win this by dominating the debate. He also needs to look Presidential and not come across as too aggressive. He must connect with people and that has been a big problem for him so far.

Romney should get a slight bounce from the debate because he is finally on even ground with the President for the first time. But, history shows that Presidential debates changes little in the voters’ mind.

Obama needs to reassure people that we are headed in the right direction and we can’t go back now. He needs to use the 47% remark made by Romney. A tie is a win for the President.

For great independent coverage of the debate, I suggest you watch it on C-SPAN.

Follow me on Twitter @TheWesternWord to see updates throughout the debate.