A Leaky Argument

"Obama was much, much more coherent than McCain, who stopped and started and bobbed and weaved so jarringly he looked like a running back evading a swarming defense (often unsuccessfully) . . .

"Beyond garden-variety incoherence, McCain had three problems I could detect. First, he had a way of turning talking points into complete non sequiturs by slapping them on the end of unrelated answers. My favorite came at the end of his second pass at Ayers and ACORN, when he added, hopefully: '[M]y campaign is about getting this economy back on track, about creating jobs, about a brighter future for America.' Riiiight . . .

"As in previous debates, McCain's most glaring defect was his persistent sneering and dismissiveness. Here's McCain on the Colombia trade deal: 'Free trade with Colombia is something that's a no-brainer. But maybe you ought to travel down there and visit them and maybe you could understand it a lot better.' "

And did I mention I've been to Waziristan?

Tucker Carlson is dispirited:

"Time and again, McCain seemed close to completing an actual argument against Obama, only to pull back at the last moment and meander off onto another point. It was weird -- almost as weird as the creepy smile Obama maintained as McCain attacked him."

And Mac was fighting on the wrong battlefront, says Betsy's Page:

"It's pretty bad when the thing that gets McCain the most passionate is a low attack on his own honor. When the market has gone down over 700 points, the Asian markets are tanking as the debate goes on, and people are worried about their personal finances, no one really cares all that much about what John Lewis said about McCain. It would be different if Obama had said it. But to come back again and again begging for an apology was just lame and off the target of what anyone else cares about when they tune in to watch the debate."

At Right Wing Nuthouse, Rick Moran says McCain sealed his doom:

"Frankly, McCain never came close. He made a couple of good points about education, scored best with his pointed questions (that Obama never answered) about Ayers and ACORN, and had a couple of other nice moments. (I am not sure that McCain gained any support with his eye rolling, sneering, head shaking, and unmanly giggles. Those things matter to many people and I believe we might see over the next 24 hours that voters were turned off by his reactions.)

"But it was hopeless from the start for McCain. This race is pretty much on cruise control now with Obama comfortably (not decisively) ahead. As long as Obama didn't show up drunk, he accomplished what he had to accomplish at the debate.

"McCain needed Obama to show up drunk. He didn't . . .