I think McCain won. He cornered Obama on several issues, such as taxes, voting records on abortion, unkept campaign promises, etc. Obama either had no good answer or lied in response to those. Here’s why this is good for McCain: he doesn’t have the gobs of money to saturate the air waves with those messages. Obama has money bleeding out his rear-end and didn’t have to attack McCain in the debate because he has a near-infinite supply of money to saturate the air waves with attack ads. This debate was McCain’s best and probably only chance to bring Obama’s record and broken promises to the forefront and he did just that.

On demeanor, body language, and eloquence, Obama definitely performed better. Obama’s good at lying, twisting, and smooth-talking. He also pointed that out a couple times. McCain was clearly frustrated by that, as are many Republicans.

I’ll agree with everyone that the Ayers connection isn’t solid enough to warrant the kind of attention McCain’s campaign has given it.

Obama did act sort of calm, except when he kept interrupting Senator McCain and trying to talk over him. He’s a lawyer, he knows how to talk to the talk. People say he talked more
Presidential– well what is that?

The question is — can he walk the walk?

THe answer is — we don’t know. Obama has no solid record of doing anything he says he’s going to do.

McCain is solid. He does what he says and he says what he does.

I have no doubt that both candidates love and honor the United States of AMerica but I’ve only heard the words from one of them: John McCain.

I could care less what any candidates Pastor has to say. I could care less what any candidates religion is.
I could care less what race any candidate is.
I could care less what a candidates middle name is.

I care that Palin comes off as an idiot.
I care that McCain comes off as angry and mean.
I care that McCain/Palin believe in overturning Roe vs. Wade.
I care that I see more War through McCain, and more lower/middle class help with Obama.
I care that if McCain dies at the helm, we get stuck with the Pageant Winner.
I care that if Obama gets whacked, at least we have a level headed Biden to step in.

The first 20 comments or so appear to have been written by the same person(s). Makes me wonder if Obama contines to use ACORN tactics.

Dana

I maybe wrong, but I think the pundits, the editorial writers, and the media in general– no matter which side of the political spectrum they come from– fail to understand how unsettling and frightening this economic crisis is for many Americans.

Thus, the GOP magic words of “big government”, “lower taxes”, “tax and spend liberal”, “fiscal responsibility” and so on no longer resonate with many voters. Clearly, these words still have impact on the Republican base, but they have become fighting words for Democrats and seem to be becoming “used cars” for independents.

It was either amusing or sad last night to listen to the GOP activists (Bill Bennett et all) on CNN trumpet a McCain victory and they cited as the reasons many of the afore mentioned words– in other words McCain had gotten Obama and made his points. When the polls came out in the other direction they were at a loss to explain except to say the polls were wrong. In my view, these words do not work now and in fact represent (perhaps unfairly) the words of what “got us here”.

Until such time, McCain and his party can come to grips with this– Obama’s march to a landslide is unstoppable.

Obama. The decision is clear. Oh and how many plumbers make $250k in Ohio per year? Should be enough for the fishing boat, gun and a house too. Joe? Get a financial planner.