49-44 today's Gallup. :)

John McCain is off the campaign trail today, instead going back to WAshington t participate in negotiations on the Wall St. bailout.

I wonder if he's actually planning on speaking in any of these meeting this time.

Thus, it appears that McCain's decision to go on the offensive in this debate only backfired.

It wasn't that McCain went on the offensive. It was his hectoring angry tone of voice that backfired.

The tactic of going on the offensive is just fine. The manner in which it was carried out was the problem for McCain.

That, and all that blinking. He was really uncomfortable at the beginning.

While Biden and Obama are together in NC and then Virginia, Hillary is in Michigan and Jill and Michelle are in Tallahassee - McCain is off the trail thinking he's going to get a huge boost when the economic deal is reached. He's probably hanging around to make sure to get into the big photo-op.

As Obama said in the debate last night, McCain voted against troop funding when it was tied to a time table withdrawal, his vote against troop funding was because it was tied to something he didn't like. It's not like there was a bill that simply said "More funding for troops - yea or nay?" and Obama voted the negative like McCain is implying here.

McCain's negativity goes directly against his bipartisan claims. I mean if all you do is trash the person chosen by the Democrats to be their candidate, how do you expect that will play should you get elected? How do you expect to lead the country when you keep insulting the candidate half the country is pulling for?

It's too bad the Obama Camp allowed the McCain Camp to game the VP debate rules - because if the format used last night was used in the VP debate it would have been a massacre. However the rules are 90 second answers meaning Palin can stay on concise talking points. Given the extremely lowered expectations for Palin and given the format, I don't think there is any way Palin will not be seen as the winner next Friday. She'll in the very least survive, and that will be enough for the pundits.

One other thing about the debate not enough discussed in the punditry:

McCain made it clear, like Dick Cheney, he doesn't care or atleast doesn't have the measure of public opinion.

No one really cares about the "surge," most people even Iraq as a mistake- may be for a different reason than in 06-07. Back then people resisted the war because of increasing death toll and violence and now they desist it because of the economic bankruptcy.

No one really cares what Henry Kissinger really believes, they really don't want another war with Iran and they would like the POTUS to avoid it any cost.

No one really cares about the Cold War era. Most people don't see Russia as a threat and don't want POTUS to intervene and escalate tensions with Russia.

The question now that McCain lost of his few good opportunities to alter the trend toward Obama, what will his next tactic be?

I'm thinking they're going to try to align McCain with the rebel House GOP against the Bush and the Dems who are trying to jam this bailout down the American's throats, and thereby having to raise everyone's taxes, etc.

I kept telling people last night. If you watched the CNN audience reaction meter, every single time that McCain attacked Obama, the independent voter positives plummeted. The harder McCain attacked Obama, the further they plummeted. The Republicans, of course, loved it. But was McCain trying to appeal to Republicans? I think if he was, it's a mistake. But I don't think he was, so he failed. Miserably.

McCain was arguing to losing positions last night - the Iraq War that the majority of Americans want over and earmarks, which the majority of Americans don't think are nearly as evil as McCain believes them to be. Most folks see earmark money helping out their communities in one way or another.

After reading through the many of the comments here and there, I think my 10 year old son said it best:

McCain just seemed like a rude, angry man and Obama was polite and answered the questions.

For the average voter, I think this is the impression that will stick.

About the bailout thing, I confess to not being well informed on wall street, bailouts, and the like so I guess you can call me a low-info voter on that. So take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt.

Americans hate the bailout right? Well I guess it depends on who you talk to. It seems to me that if you are one of the Americans whose retirment funds are intertwined with the markets, then if the market fails, then ur retirement is essentially wiped out right? So if that's the case, I would think that retirees would be the ones who really want the bailout, to "keep the markets going?"

On the other hand, if you are not of retirment age, and you are middle class or lower, then you would probably see the bailout as a copt-out to Washington fatcats, and people who "got themselves into this mess". So you would I guess oppose the bailout.

I honestly think that the average voter is more fickle than we think. Yes they may hate the thought of a bailout, but I would place a bet (based on purely antecdotal(?)evidence) that they would hate it more if nothing is done, and more banks like WaMu go under. Because while the FDIC(?) says that the personal funds of WaMu customers are insured, how much money could the FDIC really match if there are more banks/financial institutions go belly-up. How soon after that would people be running to withdraw their funds from the respective banks (BTW, I already know of a few friends of mind who are already comtemplating taking their money from WaMu)

Anyway, I'm probably wrong about this since like McCain, I don't really understand the economy, but this is how it seems to me anyway.

Barack Obama makes me so happy. I love this guy! What a great on point ad; dignity and intellect in our toughest hour.

I LOVE BARACK OBAMA!! :)

The above is the leas of McCains problems. Seems that Johnny Crash has been helping his gambling PALS.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/27/mccains-gambling-problem_n_129937.html

Sunday Morning at Meet the Press, Bill Clinton: "Most undecided independents like McCain-Palin."
Is he out of his mind?