are morons. Watching and reading most of their reactions, it is clear that:

- they don't know what it means to win a political debate
- they don't know how the average person scores a political debate
- they did not know what McCain and Obama, specifically, needed to do in this particular debate.

The post-debate chatter on CNN was surreal -- having just watched Michael Phelps set a world's record against a dogpaddler who had to be rescued by the lifeguards, they seemed genuinely conflicted over who to pin the medal on. Even the Democratic ones acted nervous and irresolute. "Well, yeah, I mean, he crossed the finish line first, but is that really what he needed to do?" Um, yes, Paul Begala, it was.

One factor is certainly the perennial underestimation of Barack Obama. The greatest natural politician since John Kennedy, at least, he never seems to receive credit for it. (Who needs credit when you have all the votes and all the cash?)

When I say Obama is terrifying, I mean it literally: this is a man who has the capacity to reshape the political landscape of America in ways I cannot foresee. What are his convictions? His principles? What has he fought and bled for? I don't know. I hope for the best but fear the worst.

This is no longer an interesting election, but it will be an interesting four years.

(derstandard.at) is using the following image on their online frontpage:

Nasty.

ain't registered to vote.

Now isn't that special!

JFTR -- Might not be fully confirmed yet.

It wasn't McC's only card, but Joe Plumber also didn't seem to work out.

By my read, the public is slow to change its conception of party identities. If an election is about foreign policy the Rs have an advantage; if it's about 'Joe Plumber' the Ds have an advantage.

McCain knew on some level he was saying goodbye b/c he hadn't changed the dynamic for the 10s of million of people who will never be an audience for him again. He wasn't entirely comfortable w. this and as a result stuttered, blinked + repeated the same memorized phrase 'stewards of your tax dollars'.

OTOH, Obama glowed, said hello to the audience, and made some appeals for goodwill as the next pres.

The snap polls are completely destroying the punditocracy's ability to lie convincingly about the debate.

before / after

Less favorable numbers up
Favorable numbers down

Obama?

Favorables up
Unfavorables down

For the first few rounds, he sure looked tough. Obama did a lot of dancing backward, but there was really no out-shouting McCain once he was in full throat.

Obama, true to form, let him get red in the face, let him drop his guard. McCain had expected Obama to try to win every round: this was not so. Obama waited for McCain to lunge then just about put his fist all the way through McCain's head with the Ayers comeback. It was a devious strategy, to play to McCain's evil temper. After Obama had goaded him into opening up and taking that haymaker, McCain looked like he'd swallowed a toad.

Thereafter, McCain just couldn't stay on his feet. The rest of the debate was a flurry of blows, but after the halfway point, Obama was clearly beating McCain like a bald-headed stepchild.

No knockout, no definitive win. McCain knew this was his last national forum and put in as good a performance as he could. When the bell rang, McCain was still standing, but it was as if we were looking at a seriously brain injured boxer, still on his feet but bleeding inside his skull.

McCain had to take this one, and needed a KO. He didn't even get a TKO. This was McCain's strongest performance, but it was the burst strength of adrenaline, not the long-distance aerobic strength required to get the KO he needed. It was at best a draw, at worst his Waterloo. As Napoleon won the day against Wellington, but was unprepared for a fresh assault from Blucher, McCain just couldn't pull it out in the last few rounds.

CBS. Obama 53 to 22.

CNN. Obama 58 to 31.

This amazes me. I thought it was much closer. This proves, I think, that folks have pretty much made up their minds.

McCain is done.

Shorter 3rd debate: a tie. IOW, a win for Obama. Agree with my fellow Forvmites who think McCain needed to really slam Obama and make a big splash to get back in the game. And he didn't, IMO. Ergo, back to Square One.

Next stage, I think: mudslinging a go-go in a desperate attempt to make up the polling gap.

Best guess: won't work. But WILL leave a big pool of political "toxic waste" for the next Administration to deal with.

how many times Hillary said "President Obama" in that little interview?

Went for Obama. Much to Brit Hume's disappointment.

McCain got off the line of the debate, re Obama running against Bush. But he also offered the only clip that will end up in campaign attack ads -- the absolutely beneath stupid scorn about the health of women when it comes to abortion. Consigning that to the realm of dishonest tactic may appease the Wingtards in the party, but it's straight up death with independent women voters.

This may sink him.

Hun?!? Obama is the ONLY smart person on that stage...McCain looks like he's half dead.

Why would you vote against the smart guy?

Isn't smart good?

All you people here are worrying me.

Look to the better angels of your nature, do what you know is right, Vote for Obama.

Seriously!

Trust me on this...

******

Might as well post it here too.

But my real work is with the younger idiots...lol

Traveller

More say Obama won . . .

Exactly right, IMHO.

I thought McCain came off like a rambling crackpot, with a few good moments and a lot of tired tax cut catechism.

Obama won hands down, IMO. But I was wrong in the first two debates.

he did better in closing, but still lost on points and style and didn't do anything to change the overall dynamic. Obama made several overtures to Republicans as well as Independents, McCain was still working to lock down his base. I just don't see McCain recovering, let alone gaining after this debate.

McCain scorns the notion that women's health should be part of the abortion debate. Wow. Good move.

...in the 30 minutes I saw. If he was like that in the first hour then things aren't going to change much.

Intrade contract on Obama has been going up throughout the entire debate and is now at an all time high. No surprise that McCain is now at an all time low.

Did McCain say that Sarah Palin knew a lot about autism? I thought her son had Down Syndrome.

Did John McCain say military veterans should be allowed to teach school without teacher training or teaching certificates?

More substantive and more actual debate back and forth than any of the previous elongated press releases.

McCain should probably have trimmed down on the eye-rolling -- though perhaps only CNN did the split screen show both of them much of the time thing.

And who's the moron who told the Senator from Arizona that mentioning him in every other sentence?

Hook 'em up to a generator . . .

Obama discusses the issues, McCain keeps attacking. I think I know how this one is going to play out.

This is one of the most brutal political beatings I've ever seen.

If McCain makes it out of there under his own power, I would give him tremendous credit. This is a TKO waiting to happen.

I wouldn't have had to smear him for the past several months."

Now he's playing the victim. Did I see a tear?

Complaining about campaign spending? Hmmm.

Joe the Plumber again!

"I'm proud of the people who come to my rallies"

McCain appears to be losing it. Watch that temper.

Obama keeps coming back to the economy an domestic issues. McCain is off topic.

"I don't care about Ayers". Then why do you keep bringing him up.

Obama is smacking McCain down hard on Ayers. And again about ACORN.

My wife just said "McCain looks like he's gonna blow".

McCain is losing it. Wandering off on tangents. If he doesn't control himself, he's lost this debate.

I can hear the screams from the Club for Growth as we speak.

Instead of taking a shot, I's takin a sip.

http://www.debatedrink.com/images/FinalDebate.pdf

Ahh, what could possibly happen that would truly be interesting? I doubt McCain will come up with anything newsworthy, like a single-term pledge. I'm certain he'll honor his fake manhood by getting Bill Ayers into the conversation, but quite possibly after the moderator gets there first. McCain will try to fit the latter into a larger argument about Obama's judgment. Obama will suggest there are more important things to talk about than Bill Ayers. McCain will probably, because he's about to be the sorest loser in the history of presidential elections, opine that thanks to ACORN the election results may be tainted, if not stolen. Because the ACORN story doesn't lend itself to sound bites, other than the dishonest attack itself, this will be a slight advantage for McCain. But again, Obama will suggest there are more important things...

McCain's much vaunted Attack Night will probably lose a lotta steam due to the proximity of the candidates -- they'll be sitting together at a table. If he DOES force an aggressive attack game into this context? He'll lose the debate by an even greater margin than usual.

Obama will win all the post debate snap polls. Probably by the same margin as before.

While at the gym this am I suffered through about 5 minutes of teeth nashing and listened to part Palin's nails-on-a-chalkboard speech in New Hampshire. Putting aside Palin's geographical challenges [remember she can see Russia from her home state], even when reading from a teleprompter the woman is a mindless disaster. Within a span of less than 2 minutes she claimed that McCain would

-cut taxes
-freeze spending
-increase regulation on the financial and banking industries
-sitmulate the economy to improve job prospects
-balance the budget
-reduce the $10T deficit

Wow, who knew that McCain had magical powers??

Palin is a blithering idiot, she needs to go back to Juneau on November 5th, climb into her tanning bed and stay out the lower 48 for good.

Oops, that's a whole nuther debate. Promoted to front page.