Recap of the Last Debate

We just finished up the last presidential debate, and right off the bat I will say that one of the real winners here was Bob Schieffer. As a moderator, he opened up the flood gates and gave both candidates the chance to get into some real back and forth. He also brought up some of the domestic issues which we have not seen in previous debates, including the abortion question. I wish he had also brought up Second Amendment questions, but I suppose there isn’t time for everything.

As to the candidates, this was McCain’s best performance of the three by a wide margin. Two of his biggest hitting points were saying that if Obama wanted to run against Bush he should have done so four years ago and the entire “Joe the Plumber line.” [EDIT: I originally wrote "Bob the Plumber" and was incorrect, as pointed out by a reader.] For the first, it seemed to defuse some of Obama’s trademark path of blaming the Bush tenure on the GOP and McCain by association and claims of a “second Bush term.” When McCain mentioned the Joe the Plumber line, I don’t know how many people aside from political addicts knew who he was talking about, but he got Obama into a corner and managed to make him speak to “Joe.” This worked to McCain’s advantage.

If McCain stumbled at all, it was when he seemed to feel that he had Obama on the ropes and kept on hitting him with a bit of a smirk on his face. He needed to take care not to look angry, and he treaded that thin line, but at the end I believe he managed it. McCain went on the attack without looking angry our out of control.

For his part, Obama seemed to be trying to coast on his polling lead and didn’t want to fight back. He was very much wonkish throughout, which may work with some voters, but tends to make eyes glaze over. He was strong on his policy points, but again, it got a bit tedious.

The two major stumbling points for McCain were when he brought up Bill Ayers and the Supreme Court nominations. The Ayers attack just seemed to ring hollow and Obama batted it away fairly easily. On the Supreme Court, McCain claimed to not want a “litmus test” but then turned around and said that anyone who supported Roe vs Wade would fail to reach the bar of competence. In other abortion matters, however, McCain had Obama on the ropes.

In the end? I give this one to McCain. He was aggressive, solid, competent and on his game. They both looked presidential, but McCain seemed able (for the first time) to play the part of the elder statesman schooling the new kid on the block. Was it enough to sway the minds of undecided or marginal voters? Time is short but we shall see. I do believe that McCain did everything he could possibly do to turn this thing around.