Save for his concession speech 19 days from now, the third and final presidential debate was probably the last time a goodly number of voters could see John McCain in action. It was a splendid opportunity for him to go out with a bang and to make the argument that he would make a better president during a depression, which is certainly where the U.S. seems to be headed.
While McCain did score some belated points on the economy and occasionally had Barack Obama on the defensive, he failed miserably where it matter most and least: He succumbed to the taunts of running mate Sarah Palin and his red-meat supporters in slamming Obama for his long-ago association with Bill Ayers and other phony character issues that he had been chastised for avoiding in previous face-to-face encounters.
And so the ever impetuous McCain ignored the tsunami of polls showing that the biggest reason that he is trailing Obama so badly is that the negative campaigning of he and Palin have blown up in their faces. This, of course, is because voters are deeply worried about their own well being and don’t give a hoot about whether Obama knew a one-time radical 10 years ago or supported a controversial community organizing group that McCain himself has embraced.
The split-screen shots of the two candidates were devastating: McCain grimacing and agitated and Obama at his usual smiling ease. And while the ability to debate effectively does not translate into being an effective president, there were several occasions last night when one could sense that Obama knew that McCain was about to fall into a trap — his boner on late-term abortions chief among them — and Obama could leap on him.
And leap he did.