The Third Presidential Debate: Is it Over? Should We Go Home?

The candidates went out with grace in last night’s final presidential debate. McCain pulled himself together after his meandering, unsure performance last week and Obama kept his cool. Meanwhile, Joe the Plumber lost none of his usual candor and confidence in his first appearance in front of a national TV audience. There ya go, Joe, doggonit! I mean, wait. Who’s Joe?

By John

Joe the Plumber (possibly related to Joe Six-Pack) left the debate looking good – or at least looking important. Whoever this guy is, the candidates sure care a lot about him.

Joe began to take the stage when the debate turned to finicky economic issues – in other words, are these cranky, vote-grubbing politicians actually going to do anything for us, the average American citizen who plans on buying their own business?

Obama’s run-in with Joe bit him in the butt when McCain called him out on his tax proposals; previously, whenever McCain or Palin tried to bust the Democratic candidates on taxes, they had a strong parry: “95% of Americans won’t see a dollar of raised taxes.” Joe the Plumber gave McCain some ammo – here, some dude who just wants to pursue the American dream will, in fact, be affected by the Obama tax plan.

McCain insisted that Obama was planning to “redistribute the wealth” – a big no-no, apparently, and a phrase that McCain used about four million times in the next few minutes.

Of course, Obama didn’t take all this lying down – he fired back that he was giving Americans the tax breaks they really need, and always have needed. In other words, if Joe the Plumber’s clients had more tax breaks, they’d be doing better off and therefore so would Joe. Personally, I just want to know what Joe thinks.

Aside from Joe’s new celebrity status, the debate featured a lot more fire and brimstone from the Republican half of the table. McCain is trailing in the polls, and the results were clear: he was more interested in fighting than Obama, and took a host of shots at the Democratic candidate. He blasted Obama for being weak on confronting his own party, dogged him about his judgment regarding (who else) ACORN and Ayers, and at one point turned directly to Obama to insist “I am not George Bush.”

Strong as his attacks were, though, McCain didn’t manage to level an uphill playing field. Obama spent most of the night playing defense, but in his case, that’s fine – he’s got the breathing room, with an 8% lead in CNN’s Poll of Polls. He didn’t add much to the information we’ve already seen in the last two debates, but perhaps he doesn’t need to; as the election draws closer, post-debate polls are showing increasing numbers of voters enthusiastic about Obama’s ability to lead on both domestic and foreign issues.

Of course, there’s still time left; McCain needs to pound home every swing state in the country to secure the win, but it’s possible. Though Obama has the edge now, there’s no telling how election day will turn out, especially if Russians or alien centipedes invade. Barring either of those circumstances, you’ve got two duties ahead of you, readers: get informed, and vote.