Debate audience starts own debate
As the first question of the presidential debate is delivered, the Buffalo Grove home erupts into an argument that runs from Israeli policy, to race, to Bill Clinton's sexual dalliances to whether or not black people shot at rescue helicopters after Hurricane Katrina.
More than a few times a passionate debater belts out, "You don't know what you're talking about."
The neighbors in this middle class subdivision have already picked their sides. Their front yards boast Barack Obama and John McCain signs.
But for Friday's presidential debate, the neighbors decided to watch together.
The attendees at Shoshanah and Jeff Johnson's home ranged from the apathetic ("I vote however my husband tells me to. He reads the papers and all that.") to the most avid Fox News watchers who are certain Obama has Muslim roots.
Yet despite the verbose arguments - shouted over the real debaters and plates of barbecue chicken - the seven neighbors are all friends.
"Why can't we get along just because of politics?" asked Marc Erlichman rhetorically, who came with his wife who wore an "Imagine No Liberals" smiley face T-shirt.
The night did have a casualty - an Obama supporter who signed up at the candidate's Web site for a debate party. She left soon after the arguments started to tune in somewhere else.
"Why did she leave, that's what makes the party great?" said McCain-support Bud Alford, a three-year resident with two children.
Isn't all that great, though.
On his way out Alford said he couldn't wait for Election Day because, "I will be glad when it is over and we can talk about something else."