OK, I guess McCain won last night. How could he not against that facile empty fraud who was posing across the stage from him? But for me it was a very unsatisfying performance; one that reminded me of everything I disliked about McCain in the first place. Rush Limbaugh warned of this but in my eagerness to see a real scrap I allowed myself to get overly enthusiastic.

The debate reminded me of a salient fact; McCain is NOT a Conservative. Period. He still has a fond spot in his heart for Democrats and doesn't want all-out war. How else do you explain him not bringing up the Democratic Party's intimate involvement in the current mortgage crisis? While Obama was blaming this mess on Bush policies why didn't McCain mention that Obama was the second highest recipient of fan-Fred campaign contributions and that two crooks who stole $100 million dollars were Obama 'economic advisers'? Is he willing to take the blame while Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, the two most culpable players in this entire business, walk away scott-free? Apparently so.

The debate was hosted by long-in-the-tooth Jim Lehrer, who brought all the magic and charisma that makes his nightly news show so phenomenally boring. I guess that was a plus for McCain because in comparison to Lehrer's stringy neck wattles, buggy eyes and palsied tremors Mccain looked hale and healthy. Maybe, in one of these 'debates', they could actually have a conservative host for once, instead of these dessicated, predictable mainstream media liberals.

The format was better than most because it allowed them to really respond to each other; an opportunity that they failed to avail themselves of very often. There were no spirited clashes or witty repartee. They hardly talked to each other directly at all. This was the clash of the briefing books. A bloodless round of recitals of what their advisers figured people wanted to hear. But they were both wrong. People wanted to hear a song about how everything was going to be all right in these increasingly frightening times and they never got to that tune at all.

But McCain won anyway, in spite of all this. Obama CANT say what he actually stands for; dismantling the military, raising taxes and cutting loose huge chunks of government cash to his crooked cronies and fellow 'community organizers'. It doesn't matter, we all know that's what he'll do. His slimy evasions and twists of the truth about his advocacy of defeat in Iraq fooled no one. His complete lack of any ideas about how to deal with Iran or Russia was obvious.

Where McCain DID score big was on energy and its relationship to our national strength in the world. Drill for oil, build nuke power plants; a simple idea that everyone can understand. And guess who it turns out was for these things all along, Barry and the Democrats! If you believe that you should have your driver's license taken away because you're too mentally incompetent to be trusted behind the wheel. That flagrant lie will not hold water. Neither will Obama's promise to not raise taxes. At one point he exclaimed that McCain's proposed tax cuts left out 100 million people. When Democrats talk about a tax cut for the poor, who pay no income taxes under the present system, they mean an increase in the payout from the Earned Income Tax Credit. To them a tax cut is giving a large refund check to people who don't pay taxes. To them an 'investment' is wasteful government spending. After all, the money that they throw in the trash can goes back into the economy when the recipients spend it. They don't have a clue as to how wealth is created and the destructive effect that giving away money has on everyone who gets it.

So McCain won on points. He didn't land any telling blows but if we wanted that we would have nominated Mark Levin instead of this lukewarm centrist. However, winning on points is still a win and all McCain needs to win the election this is to convince the voters that he's not too old to be president. He outdid Obama enough times to show that his age wasn't a factor. He kept Obama constantly off balance and forced him to agree that McCain was right several times. Obama has a tougher task. He has to give people a convincing reason to overlook the ugly associations in his still-vague past and put forward a credible plan of action. He never does. He criticizes Bush and McCain and says how bad things are but he never says anything specific about what he intends to do. He just stood there bobbing and weaving like the slimy left-wing con-artist that he is spouting the usual guff that anyone who has followed this business has become more than accustomed to. It adds up to a great big NOTHING! He is a pathetically inadequate candidate.

Those looking for a knockout blow, or even a good punch-up came away disappointed but I'm of good cheer. The Dems are not having a good time this election cycle. The romp that they expected to vast majorities in both houses and an ineffectual dope of their own party sitting in the Oval Office ready to rubber-stamp whatever congress decides to flop onto his desk is coming unglued. All their compassion twaddle appears to be backfiring as people look at the monstrous government screw-up of the mortgage industry and start having second thoughts about making the same people who caused it more powerful.