McCain the Economic Easter Bunny

The Nation: McCain clung to the fading vision of Reaganomics as seen through the lens of George Bush, defaulting again and again to a lexicon of tax cuts for the richest, empty promises of trickle-down prosperity, fantasies of spending freezes and the certainty of deeper deficits and greater dysfunction in a federal government.
For McCain, ultimately, it was all about those tax cuts -- for plumber Joe Wurzelbacher in Ohio who wants to start a small business and, though he did not mention it, for corporations that earn more in a quarter than the GDPs of more than a few sovereign nations.
"The whole premise behind Sen. Obama's plans are class warfare, let's spread the wealth around. I want small businesses -- and by the way, the small businesses that we're talking about would receive an increase in their taxes right now," growled McCain. "Who -- why would you want to increase anybody's taxes right now?"
Obama chose to respond as an adult. More. 

Meanwhile, Karl Rove finds his own data to conclude Obama hasn't closed the deal.

In the campaign's final two weeks, voters will take a last serious look at both presidential candidates. The outcome of the race isn't cast in stone yet.

Barack Obama holds a 7.3% lead in the Real Clear Politics average of all polls, but the latest Gallup tracking poll reveals that there are nearly twice as many undecided voters this year than there were in the last presidential election. The Investor's Business Daily/TIPP poll (which was closest to the mark in predicting the 2004 outcome -- 0.4% off the actual result) now says this is a three-point race.

This week also brought a reminder that Sen. Obama hasn't closed the sale. The Washington Post/ABC poll found 45% of voters still don't think he's qualified to be president, about the same number who doubted his qualifications in March. You can read more if you want. The rest says Obama is bad. McCain is good.

Here's the even more distorted take on the debate from right wing mag Town Hall. It seems this columnist saw a different debate.

Town Hall: McCain scored big with the Joe the plumber exchanges, and with the campaign tactics exchange. Obama looked angry and stumbled repeatedly as he tried to cope with what he really told Joe the plumber --guaranteeing the replay of the clip again and again and underscoring Senator Obama's flexibility when it comes to facts-- and with what John Lewis said. Obama's answer on ACORN was a jaw dropper and opens the door to the MSM, as does the Ayers exchange. McCain drove this home without going overboard. Repeatedly returning to Joe the Plumber was key for McCain, and by the last half hour Obama was petulantly telling Joe what the "right thing to do by his employees" was. John McCain then spoke directly to Joe and put a bright line around Obama's "spread the wealth" line, and the "fundamental difference" between the campaigns. When Senator McCain slipped and called Senator Obama "Senator Government," he scored when he didn't even intend to. That's the sort of thing that marks a great debate for McCain, when even his verbal flub advances the key message.
McCain accomplished more in just the first half of the debate than he did in the first two debates total, and the second half was just as good for him. "Spread the wealth" is now the Obama brand, and that can move the polls. So too can the drilling exchange ("I so admire Senator Obama's eloquence.") Senator McCain was animated and informed through-out, and Sebator Obama on the defensive on many occasions, including the "Born Alive Infant Protection Act." Catholic voters watching this exchange could not be comfortable with the Obama dodges. "Another example of the eloquence of Senator Obama," countered McCain. "That's the extreme pro-abortion position in America," McCain replied to Obama's winding explanation.

There are polls out that say no one really cares about Ayers. I think even fewer people know about Acorn. I can't even follow the wingnut line of logic on Acorn.
Salon:

John McCain promised to kick Barack Obama's "you know what" on Wednesday night. He hinted that he'd bring up former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers and worse. Instead McCain bludgeoned Obama with Joe the Plumber, and the effect was more farce than fierce.

McCain mentioned the now-famous plumber, Joe Wurzelbacher, an apparently wealthy Toledo businessman who complained he'd pay more taxes under Obama's plan, more than he talked about Sarah Palin or Osama bin Laden, by far. Midway through the 90-minute conversation, Obama was addressing Joe the Plumber, too. And it was clear by then that McCain had lost three straight debates.

Debate transcript
Debate fact check

Biden Won Independents

The most important vote of the night, the undecideds. Biden won.
A round up. CBS poll says Biden won independents.
It seems most saw through her Joe six pack routine.

Politico: Absent new polling, there is little reason to think she cleared that bar in St. Louis.

To the contrary, it is hard to count any objective measures by which Biden did not clearly win the encounter. She looked like she was trying to get people to take her seriously. He looked like he was running for vice president. His answers were more responsive to the questions, far more detailed and less rhetorical.

On at least 10 occasions, Palin gave answers that were nonspecific, completely generic, pivoted away from the question at hand, or simply ignored it: on global warming, an Iraq exit strategy, Iran and Pakistan, Iranian diplomacy, Israel-Palestine (and a follow-up), the nuclear trigger, interventionism, Cheney's vice presidency and her own greatest weakness.

Palin Makes a Great Public Affairs Rep

Palin was well rehearsed. She proved she can stuff a lot of facts in her head. She stayed on message (McCain's the great maverick) and is a terrific spinner, making her a perfect public affairs representative. Vice president? eh.

CNN: Only 26 percent of those surveyed said that Palin was more intelligent in the debate compared to the 57 percent who chose Biden, according to the poll of 611 adult Americans, who tuned in to watch it. The poll had a sampling error of 4 points.

Overall, 51 percent of the debate watchers said that Biden did the best job in the debate, while 36 percent gave the nod to Palin.

More fact checking. More lyin' from Palin and some things just wrong. McKiernan McClellan, whatever.

Palin Holds Her Own

Palin did well. Biden did well.
It was civil and Gwen Ifill was totally fair, even softball. There were no questions about dinosaurs and humans walking the Earth together, religion and government or seeing Russia.
I was hoping for some drama on Palin's end, but it didn't happen. She is a smart debater, but lacks substance. She successfully avoided questions she didn't want to answer. As a watcher, it was easy to lose track of the question. I'm sure she connected with people who enjoy that cutesy talk. I don't know why. That talk does nothing for me. It's all performance.
Her pat answers to everything: lower taxes and drill, drill, drill, or rather "drill baby drill" and the surge worked.
She was wrong on Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai has criticized the U.S. for killing too many civilians and has made a special request to be more targeted and thoughtful. 
Biden held back big time. Good move, no harm. He also was to the point. Thanks Joe. But truthfully, I didn't pay as much attention to Joe. He didn't need to sell me. I think Joe's great.
Palin came out looking better because we thought she'd fall flat. Guess Obama's advisers were right.
I doubt Palin moved any independents, only rallied her base. Republicans have died and gone to heaven. 

I'd say she lost any undecided voters on the Mavericky One's position on the Iraq war. I think most of us, except for diehard war fans, want to move past the war in Iraq. She made it clear that McCain wasn't done -- he wasn't going to wave the white flag of surrender. 

I also think undecided voters will be able to see through the maverick charade. It's stale.
It will be interesting to see the polls tomorrow. I'm betting no change or an uptick for Obama.

Transcript
Link to debate polls. Cast your vote.
Fact check on Palin's claim that Obama voted to raise taxes 94 times.
More fact checking
Some analysis:
CNN
NYT
WaPo