Debate Response

It was close. McCain was supposed to win -- he is the foreign policy pro, after all. Obama missed chances to wallop McCain on his love of Bush, his support for the bastard policies of deregulation, his culpability for the economy.

But Obama did well on foreign policy and stressed McCain's false assertions to the point where they HAD to be fact-checked (and they have been).

Most importantly, McCain's points were all rooted in events and persons from 20 years ago or more. He simply cannot talk about the present day, because he doesn't know anything about it. Obama was in the here and now. And (take it from a native southern white guy) he introduced himself to white voters as the friendly, accessible, trustworthy black man we can all feel OK about voting for. Republicans are just looking for a reason to say they are "OK" with Obama. Trust me.