Tonight’s debate was in a word, boooooooooooooooooooring!

Both men did much better than last time, but I was hoping against hope that McCain would come out and basically slice Obama’s balls off, cram them down his throat and then pull it out his ass.

Didn’t quite happen that way.  The biggest disappointment was McCain’s refusal to smack Obama around over his association with Bill Ayers, an unrepentant Marxist radical who had participated in several bombing acts during the 60s and 70s.  That very association alone should have disqualified Obama from even seeking political office, much less the Presidency.

Other than that though, McCain performed exceedingly well regarding questions about the economy and the financial crisis.  He got specific and outlined his policy in a very clear manner that definitively helped distinguish how his approach would differ from Obama’s were he elected.  Looking at this debate from an objective perspective, I can understand why McCain didn’t attack Obama with the Ayers connection, because ultimately it would have been a distraction for undecided voters, who likely would have seen this as an indication that McCain didn’t really have a plan and thus could only resort to attacking Obama personally (an argument the Obama camp has been using by the way to discredit McCain.)  But tonight McCain was able to dispel that notion quite effectively, and far from abandoning the Ayers issue, that task has instead been delegated to the Pitbull Wearing Lipstick.    In a way this could actually be a solid strategy, allowing McCain to present himself as a personable leader willing to be bipartisan for the good of the country, while at the same time ripping into Obama over his ties to 60s radicalism and Marxism.

Though I consider the debate to be a draw, there are two things that hurt Obama which may ultimately have a significant impact on the race.  As stated before, his campaign had been feeding the media circuits the notion that McCain’s platform had no substance and could only resort to attacking Obama on a personal level.  That lowered the bar for McCain and provided a much needed boon to help attract undecided voters that McCain was easily able to take advantage of.  The second thing was Obama’s attempt to circumvent the rules so he could respond to some of McCain’s arguments against him.  Tom Brokaw shut him down, but he proceeded to rebut McCain’s arguments anyway in a future question.  It made him look petty and arrogant, as if the rules didn’t apply to him, and it’s the very sort of thing that tends to stick in people’s minds.  People will largely forget this debate and what was said, but that confrontation between Brokaw and Obama will almost certainly be remembered, and in a way that will reflect badly on Obama.

So what’s the End Game Scenario?  The race will tighten up into a nail biting nightmare that will bring unwelcome memories of 2000, but… Obama will ultimately come out the victor by a razor thin margin.

Maybe.