A Leaky Argument

Maybe that explains the media obsession with whether McCain would utter the words "William Ayers" in debate.

A similar argument from the other Klein, American Prospect's Ezra Klein:

"Part of what's led McCain awry is that elites are, in certain crucial ways, behind the voters. I tend to watch these debates in a room filled with politically involved liberals, and most all of them anxiously cringe every time McCain goes on the attack. Liberals are scarred. They remember all too well the elections they've lost because they were attacked as untrustworthy on national security, profligate with federal dollars, punitive with taxes. So they hear McCain put his Greatest Hits collection on the phonograph and they recoil, sure that those golden oldies will work.

"But voters aren't tuning into the 1988 debate. They see Wall Street falling apart and bridges falling down and employer-based health care dissolving and can't figure out why McCain keeps talking about earmarks, or why they should care who will cut taxes a little bit more. Taxes aren't their biggest problem anymore. Reagan succeeded. Taxes aren't even in the Top 5. But health care is. Education is. And when the conversation turns to those subjects, McCain stumbles and tap dances."

Arianna is angry about McCain's anger:

"John McCain scored the zinger of the night with, 'I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.'

"But his performance in the third debate was, in fact, incredibly Bush-like, mirroring Bush's signature stubbornness -- especially on Iraq -- by doubling down on a failed strategy.

"McCain's reliance on angry, negative, personal attacks on Obama -- including the pathetic Ayers smear and ACORN 'destroying the fabric of democracy' -- has been an unequivocal failure, with the poll numbers to prove it. But instead of course-correcting, McCain doubled down tonight -- coming across as angrier and meaner than ever before.

"This debate wasn't decided on the arguments being made. It was won on the reaction shots. Every time Obama spoke, McCain grimaced, sneered, rapidly blinked, or rolled his eyes . . .

"McCain's contemptuous reactions were so intense and frequent, they've already been turned into a YouTube video."

For the New Republic's Noam Scheiber, McCain lacked a certain fluidity:

"Obama wasn't close to his best. He was much less crisp and coherent than last week, and generally looked a little fried . . .