The Elements of Style is a masterpiece on the art of writing well, and it's a surprisingly quick read. Seriously, this rhetoric rulebook is so slim, it'll fit in the pocket of your hoodie.

For us, and for everyone, it all comes down to tonight. We know you have many options for your election-night media consumption, and we thank you for any time you might spend here with us, on this Night of Nights. Our liveblog is below. It's been our pleasure to share this incredible campaign with you.

Will McCain lose his temper? Will "That One" speak professorially? (Drink every time someone on cable says that!) What will the squiggly lines of CNN have to say about it? Tune in, all, because our liveblog is live!

Debate! Liveblog! Video! When you put those three things together, you get a truly magical moment in punditry. That happened last night in a downtown ...

Our takeaway: Obama's still cool, McCain's still cranky, and Brokaw needs his teleprompter. Also, apparently McCain's known how to get Osama bin Laden this whole time. Aw jeez, NOW he tells us!

The Veep debate has come and gone. Biden was strong and hit the right emotional notes; Ifill wasn't in the tank; and Palin held her own, even if she didn't always quite make sense.

Welcome to Iowa, and the last Dem debate before the Iowa caucus. Today: Hillary's Last Stand. Can she recover from the Obama onslaught? Can she recover from Bill on the campaign trail? CAN SHE RECOVER FROM OPRAH?

Tim Russert seems apoplectic with joy that this will be going on 'til June. Wow. This campaign is never-ending.

Who remembers about a week ago when Tim Russert sat up there on Nightly News and said it was a two-person race? As if Chuck Norris would let THAT happen.

On the whole, the visual of tonight was the most striking thing about it. Personal feelings aside they really are a dream team.

Welcome to South Carolina, where all the candidates have their best game faces on. It must be the fact that they had a day to get some sleep — they are all better, sharper, and more relaxed than they have seemed in, well, days. In campaign time, that's like a week in Cabo.

Welcome to New Hampshire and the historic back-to-back GOP/Dem debate, smack dab between the Iowa and New Hampshire votes! All your favorites are here, unless your favorites are Mike Gravel, Duncan Hunter, and Dennis Kucinich. The process of elimination has begun, people, and tonight is for taking it that much further...all the way to November 2008.

Vegas baby — woooo! The elbows come out, the claws are bared, and turns out nobody really knows about that driver's license thing. Plus, Edwards? Maybe not the most cuddly running mate for Hillary.

Welcome to our debate liveblog! We're figuring out how this Liveblogging software works. Please don't judge us just yet. Update: Okay! We've figured...

ETP liveblogged the debate tonight with Glynnis MacNicol and John Carney. You can find all the good stuff through the link (we blogged it using the n...

Lone Star State? Not after tonight's CNN debate in Austin, which ended politely in a draw — with almost two weeks to go. That's two weeks of Obama's momentum to take hold, and that's a problem for Hillary Clinton.

Who let the dogs out? Well, if they're the dogs of having the best performance in a GOP debate, it turns out that it was...Mitt Romney. Still, he's still got a fight on his hand with McCain...and as for Giuliani? Crash and burn. John McCain's Fredo kiss proves it.

Mike Huckabee with the line of the night: "Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office." Put that on a bumper sticker!

No glove, no love in Philly: Obama and Edwards pile on Hillary, and Dodd and Richardson get in on the action. Elbows are out, gloves are off — and UFOs are real!

The upshot is, liveblogging is an easy, no-brainer way to get a jump on the conversation and become an early participant.