Kerry wasn’t a mile ahead in the polls.
Obama is in “Dead girl, live boy” territory, or close to it; he needs to keep playing safe hands and just not blow it. I expected a prevent defense and that’s precisely what he was doing.
Hey, I’ll be totally happy to be wrong.
-Joe
I quite agree. McCain didn’t have any new substance behind the attacks. Obama was wise to move on to stuff people are actually concerned with.
But what does that have to do with Sarah Palin’s expertise on autism?
the cnn panel agreed that mccain was strong in the first 30 minutes, then slid down, and obama was strong on the rest.
i can see where mccain will be saying, “i told you i’d fight 'em, heh! heh!” " i took it to 'em! heh! heh!"
hey! olbermann just gave mccain props on his bush quip! did a cold wind gust knock some fires out in a really hot place?
According to MSNBC, FOX won’t release numbers but they are saying they are showing a clear advantage to Obama. This is the station that had the last presidential debate going 86% to McCain.
Really. McCain was not that bad. Sure, I agree with Obama-- I’m a bleeding heart pinko commie. I cannot believe these prelim numbers.
Somebody ought to intercut that with scenes of the behavior John is so proud of.
Yeah, I heard that. I want a sound sample of it to use in my next opera. 
Pathetic, McCain! Honestly, I thought he’d be better than this.
Nothing at all. it was pandering and fear-mongering, typical tactic of the far right.
I do feel for McCain in one way. Barack Obama would be infuriating. People who stay cool no matter what make me want to strangle them. I know it’s petty, but he’d drive me mad.
It matches her “expertise” in all the other areas of public life. I guess that conservatives think that the love of a good, christian woman is enough for an entire country.
McCain did say he liked (or thought well of) Todd Palin–if I were Obama’s campaign, I’d run with that (they don’t have to, but I hate to see the hypocrisy allowed).
Another thing, I don’t think Palin really has any idea what taking care of a special needs child entails. Her son is still an infant. As the mother of a special needs child, infancy is not hard. It is not until they get older when you really feel the brunt of what it means to take care of a special need child.
I don’t know what to say about the numbers, but I really think McCain was indeed “that bad.”
He was awful. He needed something new to connect to voters, and some more substance to his attacks on Obama, if he wanted to take him down a notch. He had neither. He had attacks on the planetarium again instead.
Horrible.
yes, but personal life is a different thing all together. 
CNN Poll: In this debate, who was more likeable?
Obama: 70%
McCain: 22%
Obama needed to play this one to a draw. He failed to do that by kicking the shit out of McCain, helped out by McCain trotting out the old Grumpy McNasty bit. The only people who want to see that shit are the people who shout out “Kill him!” at political rallies.
Bingo.
Our standards for expertise aren’t quite that low, Senator!
No kidding, what kind of prick attacks a friggin’ planetarium? That’s a non-starter and a bad move…
My husband has some of that ability and GRRRR! 
Personally, I’d have said something about the American people making that judgment “…as they get to know her through the talk-show and press-conference circuit…” – avoiding any overt attack while subtly calling attention to her attempt to hide from public scrutiny. Missed opportunity, IMO.
MediaCurves poll has independents going for Obama 60-30.
So, I think we’re going to be looking at another sweep of the snap polls.