The Fat Lady is Tuning Up

She won’t be singing until November 4th, but she is beginning to clear her throat. The first word that comes to mind tonight was not presidential with regard to John McCain. It was condescending. But I’m gonna back off and exhale. We’re closer than we’ve ever been and like Obama tonight, we all need to keep our cool and get our collective butts to the polls and cast our votes, to make this man president of the United States.

McCain threw the kitchen sink at him tonight. He brought up Bill Ayers, which was a tactical mistake if you know anything debates. He started talking about his plans and possible programs but then fell back to his old attack lines. Lines so familiar by now that I could’ve parried them without breaking a sweat.

Tonight, it wasn’t Joe Sixpack. It was Joe the Plumber. And here, McCain made another mistake. He screwed up the guy’s last name, not good on TV. That’s always an indication that you haven’t fact checked yourself.

McCain had more passion tonight. Several times it looked as if he was gonna cry, especially when he talked about Congressman John Lewis’ statements last week. Lewis, you will recall, took McCain/Palin to task for demagoguery, harking back to the days of George Wallace, the segregationist who ran for president. I guess he was angry, taking Lewis' comments personally, since he said previously, that Lewis was one of his heroes. McCain wrote in his memoirs that when he was a little kid, if he got mad he would throw himself down on the ground and hold his breath until he passed out. That's what it looked like tonight, many times, except he didn't push himself to pass out. It's tough when your hero takes you to the woodshed for stuff you said.

McCain was also given a chance to defend his vice presidential choice. He said she was a great politician, a great reformer, but I never heard him answer the question, which was....Is his VP ready to step in and lead the country. McCain kind of talked around that, never actually endorsing his VP.

Another thing....is one of Palin’s kids autistic? McCain mentioned that a couple of times. You would think that he would know that, given all the thought he put into selecting Palin.

I thought he also blew it with the base when he said he would not use the litmus test of abortion in making his judicial appointments. Obama danced around that one too. Not around a woman's right to choose, but whether or not he would use the litmus test to select judges.

John McCain needed a knockout tonight. I’m a boxer’s brat and one thing I know about fights is that you can’t decision a champ. McCain did not get his knockout. In the end he just kind of faded, tired and out of shape.

I would have like to hear more about the current financial mess, but I guess we will have to wait until after the election.

I think Obama won this one, too. And I guess many Ohioans agree with me, the Channel 12 phone poll had it 55% thought Obama won. Up until last week, this poll was overwhelmingly favoring McCain. I guess Ohio is painting itself Blue these days.

These next three weeks will be like waiting for Christmas..