.....and the winner is.....

.....not McCain, that's for damn sure.

While it must be acknowledged to have been his best showing thus far in the debate series, tonight's third and final presidential debate was just not enough for McCain to prove he could handle and address the issues.

I was reluctantly impressed with how McCain started out. But overall I felt he spent over 90 minutes talking a lot without saying much of anything. His "Joe the Plumber" references were clearly staged to appeal to the average individual, perhaps the "Joe Six-Pack" of his and Palin's rallys? All well and good - and interesting to note that "Joe the Plumber" is an actual person - but simply not enough. McCain's rhetoric was largely unchanged from the previous debates and his delivery was far too unprofessional and overly aggressive. With everything going on in this country and the world as a whole, no one needs or wants to see a reactionary president. I will take Harvard-educated, calm, cool, and collected over that every time. McCain's generally rude and dismissive nature, even while espouncing obvious lies, was, well, for lack of a better term, disgusting. He proved to all that he is quite incapable of diplomacy on any level. And his domestic policy - such as it is - was far too vague and reminded me of the same type of lame ideas put forth over the past eight years.....

Change, indeed.....

I have never ceased to be amused by hard-line GOP supporters who always claim victory afterward and ignore each and every poll in the following days and weeks, even going so far as to claim the polls are flawed. Typical. I was commenting to Amy today that McCain's campaign tactic is similar to a trial lawyer who knows he is losing, so decides to instigate inflammatory remarks in court, in front of the judge and jury, knowing they will be stricken from the record, but getting them out there anyway. Once said, it sticks, or at least he hopes it will. But too many years of the worst administration in history, a recession, credit failure, and questionable bailout, two failed wars, the largest deficit in American history, etc., has made the angry mob that is the American populace, well, angry. They see through the bullshit, or at least most of us do. It's time to start fresh and rebuild.

Amy and I are casting our absentee ballots this week. Can you guess whom we are voting for?

It's almost over.....

As something of a heads-up, early poll, from editorandpublisher.com:

"The instant polls from CNN and CBS, as they did in all three previous debates, found voters who watched giving the win to Obama, easily -- by a whopping 53% to 22% among undecided voters in the CBS sample. Once again, most pundits called it about even and "the people" gave it to the Democrat in a landslide."

Watch for more throughout the week as more polls log-in.