Debate Reactions

Peter Suderman:

Neither McCain nor Obama are doing themselves any favors bickering back and
forth about who has the nastiest campaign, but McCain, after a strong initial
attack pushing Obama to repudiate some especially nasty attacks that didn’t come
from the Obama campaign, comes off looking petulant, rambling, and cranky – a
spoiled bully nagging the principal to punish another kid who once called him a
name.

Brian Beutler:
John McCain says Sarah Palin knows a lot about having children with autism. Presumably he thinks she knows more about this than anybody in the country. Presumably he also thinks autism is approximately equal to Down Syndrome.

James Joyner:
Overall, I don’t see how McCain helped himself tonight, much less hit the home run he needed to put himself back into this thing.

Dreher:
OK, that's over. And so is the McCain campaign. He was more aggressive than he's been so far, and he came close to landing some blows on Obama. But he never really connected, and for the most part this debate was as platitudinous as they all have been. McCain came off as sour, agitated and petulant. Obama -- man, nothing rattles that guy. McCain was two tics away from a vein-popping "You can't handle the truth!" Jack Nicholson moment, I felt. At one point, I thought: Which one of these men would I want in the White House when the 3 a.m. phone call comes in?