So...here comes the next four page topic...

McCain performed far better than I thought he would...that being said, his points about Ayers are ridiculous, and while they pander to the base, they don't do anything at all for the middle, and those are the folks who have already thrown their tentative lot in with Obama, and those are the ones he needs to persuade. Points scored with his supporters, no points scored with those who he needs to win the debate.

His line that he's not Bush, and that if Obama wanted to run against Bush, he should have done so four years ago was pretty good...but he didn't do anything to distance himself from Bush except for saying we need change, and that he's not Bush. His policies, especially the economic ones, are the same ol', same ol'...

He made a massive mistake on the conversation regarding Roe v. Wade...again, his comments made the base ecstatic, but they aren't the ones he's speaking to right now, not unless he wants to win. It might have been the last nail in his coffin regarding stealing Hillary supporters...they won't like what he had to say.

He made good points about himself not being a racist, not being a member of the KKK, and his personal pain at being portrayed that way...especially since it was Palin's rally where that crap really came up, and she's the one who didn't stop it from happening.

At that moment, had Obama looked McCain in the eye, said "John, I respect you very much, and I do not think that the views represented by those fringe lunatics in any way, shape, or form represent your feelings..." and then stood up, and offered to shake his hand...had he done that, then the election would be over right now, two weeks before the voting even takes place.

A fantastically missed opportunity by Obama.

Obama's even keeled responses, though somewhat vanilla, are exactly what caused polls about the last two debates to show he was the clear winner...sticking with that attitude won him the first two, and will likely win him this one, too.

Obama did a great job of pointing at the allegations from McCain and showing that they were false...and McCain blundered by bringing some of them up, since they've been very publicly debunked over the past couple of weeks.

Overall, I think this was McCain's best debate of the three...but he failed to move the middle anywhere near him, and may have in fact further pushed himself away from the undecided and independent voters.

Based on that, I give it to Obama, though not by a large margin.

It's mostly academic, on that point, since McCain really needed to knock it way out of the park to gain anything at all, and at best he energized his stalwart supporters only, and at worst, may have further alienated the very middle and independent voters he absolutely must sway to win this election...time is running out, and he's never going to make it now.

Fish on...

Todd