Pre-Debate Thoughts

One hour to this debate, and the press is filing in. They've blocked off a few streets on Hollywood Boulevard, as they do for the Oscars. Here's what I'm seeing:

• The visibility outside is TREMENDOUS. There's going to be a big-screen TV outside the Kodak Theater, and both camps invited their supporters. There are duelling chants going on outside.

• Inside the theater, which seats 2,500, I expect the crowd to be pretty raucous. I think you'll see a good deal of energy that could bring something different out of the candidates.

• It's a sit-down format. In addition to Wolf Blitzer, the LA Times' Doyle McManus and Jeanne Cummings of The Politico will be moderators.

• We'll see if the twin attacks on Hillary Clinton in the press today, ABC's report about her silence to anti-union activity on the board of Wal-Mart, and what is being called Borat-gate, Bill Clinton's support for a donor to his Clinton Global Initiative to get a mining deal in Kazakhstan, will be brought up tonight. It's CNN, so I expect them to wade into the mud at least a little bit. If Jake Tapper's lunatic moment comes up, where he claimed Bill Clinton said the opposite of what he actually said, I think I'll break through the velvet ropes and jump onto the stage myself.