Johnny and Barry: A tale of two three-piece suits. (Photo by Charles Dharapak/AP)

John McCain brought the heat — but Mr. Freeze wouldn’t melt.

Certainly the most interesting of the three debates, this one made me laugh. (For more laughter, I point you to this hilarious retelling by third-party conservative Daniel Larison.) For one thing, the split screen on MSNBC would’ve been great even with the sound off: Obama with his toothy smile every time McCain urged him to “repudiate” this or “explain” that, McCain with his bizarre facial expressions. As an actual guide to voting, however, it (like the others) left something to be desired.

It wasn’t Schieffer’s fault: He gave the candidates plenty of time to explain and re-explain various points, and asked some great questions (“Why would your vice president make the best president if he/she had to take over?”). But both elephant and donkey preferred to bicker — often, admittedly, at McCain’s continually-interrupting behest — and spent way too much time pandering to Joe the Plumber (more on this sudden political phenom here).

High points: McCain’s quick rebuke to Obama, “If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should’ve run four years ago”; Obama’s snappy retort, “If I get you two confused, it’s because…”; Obama’s observation that McCain’s suggested “spending freeze” would necessarily negate a lot of the other things he talks about doing; McCain’s pointing to his own participation in the “Gangof 14″ to confirm SCOTUS justices and Obama’s refusal to join said group; Obama’s pointing out that McCain’s campaign is almost singularly focused on terrorist-educator-neighbor Bill Ayers.

Low points: McCain’s saying that Obama “voted against Justice Breyer” (who was appointed in 1994!); Obama’s ducking most every McCain attack (he’s winning anyway, so why bother, that’s the rationale, I still don’t like it); McCain’s incessant whining about John Lewis and repeated urgings to Obama to “repudiate” the statement.

End result? McCain’s the longest shot in my lifetime, as evidenced by the latest Gallup tracking:

Tags: Barack Obama, Joe the Plumber, John McCain

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 5.06 pm and is filed under politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.