Can We Just Shoot Ourselves Now?

With Barack Obama finally breaking 50 percent in national public-opinion polls and John McCain sinking like a stone, the town hall face-off in Nashville last night was the Democrat's to lose, but the feeling persisted throughout the 90 minutes (which felt more like 900) that both men understand that fixing what ails the economy is bigger than either of them.

With financial markets having a nervous breakdown, the Crew Without a Clue madly rearranging deck checks in Washington and a largely untested upstart (rudely referred to as "That One" by McCain) likely to be the next occupant of the Oval Office, we have entered seriously frightening territory.

Anyhow, Obama gets points for channeling taxpayer outrage. McCain gets points for floating a new/old plan to buy up and renegotiate mortgages, but that doesn't jive with his recommendation that there be a spending freeze to stabilize the economy. Classic McCain: Having diametrically opposite views on the same thing.

Overall, the night has to be considered advantage Obama, but not the Obama blowout that the insta-polls indicated because unlike McCain, Obama understands the roots of the financial crisis even if he's pretty much clueless about how to deal with it.

Oh, and the debate format sucked, although it did effectively prevent McCain from "taking the gloves off," as had been promised, while moderator Tom Brokaw made Gwen Ifill look brilliant.

Other reax:

Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish:

"This was, I think, a mauling: a devastating and possibly electorally fatal debate for McCain. Even on Russia, he sounded a little out of it. I've watched a lot of debates and participated in many. I love debate and was trained as a boy in the British system to be a debater. I debated dozens of times at Oxofrd. All I can say is that, simply on terms of substance, clarity, empathy, style and authority, this has not just been an Obama victory. It has been a wipe-out. It has been about as big a wipe-out as I can remember in a presidential debate. It reminds me of the 1992 Clinton-Perot-Bush debate. I don't really see how the McCain campaign survives this."

Stephen Green at Pajamas Media:

"Instant analysis? McCain won, but not by nearly enough to matter. He was up against a punk kid, and barely came away on points. Barely."

James Fallows at The Atlantic:

"From a horse-race perspective, John McCain came in behind and losing ground, in the middle of a financial/economic panic that works against him, and therefore needing a big win. This meant either damaging and flummoxing Obama, or so outshining him in audience rapport, mastery of policy, and empathetic connection through the camera, that the debate could be presented as a turning point. None of that happened. (McCain's best performance was at the end, rejecting a 'Yes/No' question on whether Russia is an 'evil empire.') At this stage in the race, a tie goes to the leader, and this was not even a tie."

Will Wilkinson at the Cato Institute:

"Gut read. Obama owned it. This election’s over unless he murders and eats the flesh of a child on live television."

John Hinderacker at Powerline:

"What's the bottom line? McCain performed well, I think, subject to some concern that he may have come across as pretty old. Obama showed, in the first debate and again tonight, that he too can come across well under pressure. He's no longer stammering and indecisive as he once was on the stump. On the whole, he's a plausible rogue and I suspect that he passed muster with most people who aren't knowledgeable about the issues. McCain did fine, but I don't think anything happened that will significantly affect the momentum of the campaign."

Justin Gardner at Donklepant:

"When historians look back on this election, I actually think that this debate will prove to be an important opportunity missed by McCain. Tonight he had to 'take the gloves off' and he didn’t even come close.

" . . . So from here on in it’s relatively smooth sailing for Obama. Sure, there’s another debate to go, but the Ayers story will die because McCain provided no oxygen tonight, and that’s all the Arizona Senator had left.

"It’s over folks."

John Cole at Balloon Juice:

"I guess when it boils down to is that, McCain, for all his tough guy talk, is just a tired old wimp. Given 90 minutes to go after Obama like he and his partner and his surrogates have the past few days, and he said nothing. Given all that time to question Obama’s patriotism, to question his background, to suggest he does not support the troops, and McCain refused to do it. Why didn’t he look him in the eyes and call him Sen. Hussein like his surrogates are doing? Or is that just supposed to be in the background, to make Obama look suspect, to accuse him of being in league with terrorists- but like every punk and every bully he can’t own up to it himself.

"On the other hand, Obama, every time he landed a punch, it was something he has done above board, in public. There is no scummy underbelly launching into questions of character -- all his punches were fair, legitimate, and issue based. All his punches were on things he had mentioned before, publicly, things he is man enough to put in his commercials and repeat right in John McCain’s face."

Mark Hemingway at The Corner:

"Bill Kristol points out that the reason you have a town hall debate is to introduce an element of unconventionality and shake things up. Nearly every question Brokaw selected was political Secconal. He's right. Fred Barnes is in agreement and notes that so far the questions asked at a church by Rick Warren were more illuminating than any of the journalist moderated debates since then."

Finally, Ron Dreher at Crunchy Con:

"Nothing McCain did tonight changed a thing. He's done. This race is now the 2008 version of Clinton vs. Dole. And you know how well that turned out for the Republicans.

"The silver lining: Obama and the Democrats are going to own this godawful mess. And the conservative movement can clear the deadwood out of the way, and start to rebuild itself into a credible force."