The Final Debate

They say the third time is the charm. But obviously “they” weren’t referring to presidential debates.

Last night’s debate was far from the big payback that John McCain promised his supporters. But from the opening round, McCain came out swinging. He kept Barack Obama on the defensive and got in a few good licks.

The Wall Street Journal editorialized:

[F]or our money, the best line of the night was Mr. McCain's Freudian slip of referring to Barack Obama as “Senator Government.” … [M]r. McCain would let Americans keep more of their own income to ride out the downturn, while Mr. Obama is revealing that his default agenda is to spend money and expand the government.

As telegraphed, McCain talked about Bill Ayers to Obama’s face. It is now up to the voters to determine whether Obama’s past associations call his judgment into question.

To his credit, Bob Schieffer tried to get Obama and McCain to make news:

By now we've heard all the talking points, so let's try to tell the people tonight some things that they haven't heard.

Good luck with that. With 20 days to go, Obama pretty much stuck to his talking points. And McCain got off one memorable line:

Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.

Did Obama or McCain change any minds? Who knows? If there are any persuadable minds out there, McCain’s strong performance may cause them to give him a second look.

Who won the debate? Who cares? As Jay Leno observed:

And tonight was the very last presidential debate. So you know what that means? Prayer does work.

It’s now up to the American people. I pray they will follow Schieffer’s mother’s advice, “Go vote now. It'll make you feel big and strong.”