A CNN poll indicated that 57 percent of undecided voters thought Obama won the debate, as opposed to 31 percent for McCain. John King busted out the electoral map post-debate, indicating that even if McCain wins the six or so toss up states, Obama still pulls away with the electoral college majority. With fewer than 20 days left in the election, it’s clear that four more years of Republican policies are not going to resonate with voters. 

The previous two debates were a toss up. Tonight, although I thought McCain had an ‘American President’ moment with his ‘I am not George Bush’ proclamation, it was Obama who delivered the consistent, thoughtful responses. He clarified his affiliations with Ayers and Acorn, he discussed (again! blah) his health care policies, dismantled the ‘trickle down’ Republican economic philosophy, and reminded us why (when we’ll finally have budget to allocate to domestic issues after we terminate the Bush Doctrine) it is our inherent responsibility as a country to fight for the rights of our underprivileged brethren.

We all agreed on tonight’s Wilshire & Washington that both candidates stepped up with the passion and clarity we were looking for. After three taxing rounds of debates, it is now a matter of ideology: Americans must ask themselves if the ‘Trickle Down’ philosophies of deregulation, so-called “personal responsibility,” pre-emption, and the influence of the evangelical right are the core positions we want to espouse to the rest of the world. It’s still unclear to me who these undecided voters marking the little line graphs on CNN are, but it’s not ambiguous at all what needs to happen in three weeks. Barack Obama is the candidate that offers fresh ideas, thoughtful discourse, diplomacy, equality and a little bit of HOPE in trying times.

Listen to it here, and check out Lizzy’s blog here.

“… many pundits threw out the window what they, and others, had said beforehand, about Obama needing to appear presidential and seem expert on international matters. When he did just that in the debate, they suddenly forgot the importance they had placed on it beforehand.

But here’s the key to the viewer/pundit disparity. It took awhile for McCain to build up to it, but then he hammered it home near the end: Obama, he charged, lacked the ‘knowledge and experience’ to be president.

Pundits highlighted that and said it was the key to McCain gaining at least a tie. But I didn’t hear a single person on TV point out: McCain just picked Palin for vice president! How, then, could he make such a charge against Obama?

My feeling is that the Couric interview might have done for McCain what the first Nixon-Kennedy debate did for Nixon in 1960 — a true watershed moment. The American voters finally ‘got it’ about Palin and so McCain’s ‘best moment’ against Obama either fell flat with many of them, or proved laughable. This was made all the more stark with Palin AWOL during the post-debate analysis — and Joe Biden all over the place.”

It’s a strong point, but if you measure the candidates’ performances based on their individual ability level and expectations, I still believe John McCain was on his A game and Obama brought a B-. It’s not enough that BO got a small bump in the polls with undecided voters (and I don’t pay much heed to polling data anyway). It’s that he could have clobbered McCain decisively and sparked a major momentum shift in the election. It’s still way too close for comfort, and that’s not a victory in my book.

Unfortunately, Obama crashed in the middle of a stellar performance, essentially yielding a tie. He was clear and effective communicating about the inequitable burden the bailout plan would place on most regular Americans, but when the conversation turned to foreign policy he was not aggressive enough in refuting McCain’s hawkish, neoconservative ideas. He also failed to link the billions of dollars being wasted on the war back to the present financial crisis, which could have brought the momentum back in his favor. 

I recently noted on HuffPost that Obama has an Al Gore problem. He is a professor and intellectual who needs to resonate with undecided voters using simple concepts on a visceral level. He also needs to find a way to weave policy specifics through the pedagogy of HOPE, so that long-time supporters and critics can be satiated with the substance of his offerings while new voters can still be inspired. 

Now that the Palin circus will resume its touring schedule this next week in anticipation of Thursday’s veep debate (after conveniently hiding out during tonight’s post-game interviews), the baton will fall to Biden to reenergize the Democratic ticket. 

The thing Obama and Democrats have going for us is the last eight years. McCain may have shown up ready to play tonight, but the fact remains that America has been governed under Republican principles for almost a decade, and they’ve tanked the nation. Under their watch, we have been attacked. Our military strength has been overextended and undermined to the point where a neutralized foe like Russia can invade a sovereign nation while we do nothing. Our economy has collapsed. We’ve alienated our allies around the world. All of which combined has sabotaged our vision for domestic progress and stifled the American dream.

Voters will not forget this on Nov. 4, and Barack Obama remains the only real change agent on the ballot.

Whatever the reason for his bizarre vacillation, I’m glad that McCain got with the program and decided to show up and explain himself to the American people tonight. From his camp (per Talking Points Memo):

Senator McCain has spent the morning talking to members of the Administration, members of the Senate, and members of the House. He is optimistic that there has been significant progress toward a bipartisan agreement now that there is a framework for all parties to be represented in negotiations, including Representative Blunt as a designated negotiator for House Republicans. The McCain campaign is resuming all activities and the Senator will travel to the debate this afternoon. Following the debate, he will return to Washington to ensure that all voices and interests are represented in the final agreement, especially those of taxpayers and homeowners.

Remember that MediaLizzy and I will be live twittering at CitizenSugar tonight. Should be a highly entertaining clash of opinions! And, of course, thoughtful discourse. 

To continue the horrible football analogies, I leave you with Slate’s prediction of McCain’s Top 10 future Hail Marys: 

1. Returns to Vietnam and jails himself.
2. Offers the post of “vice vice president” to Warren Buffett.
3. Challenges Obama to suspend campaign so they both can go and personally drill for oil offshore.
4. Learns to use computer.
5. Does bombing run over Taliban-controlled tribal areas of Pakistan.
6. Offers to forgo salary, sell one house.
7. Sex-change operation.
8. Suspends campaign until Nov. 4, offers to start being president right now.
9. Sells Alaska to Russia for $700 billion.
10. Pledges to serve only one term. OK, half a term.

Conservative pundit “Media Lizzy” Hackney and I will be providing live debate night Twitter coverage [UPDATE: in the event that it happens!] on the site, and we’ll also be responding to reader questions and observations on Heading Right Radio and Wilshire & Washington. Leave your questions here.

UPDATE: And by “Hackney,” I mean “Blackney.” Sorry, Lizzy! And thanks to the irate commenter who pointed out my error. Whoops! Better stop drinking on weekdays.

Since I didn’t watch it live, but read about it first and watched the rest online, I agreed with James Poniewozik’s observation on Time.com:

“The one thing that strikes me is that the interview comes off much different if you read the transcript than if you watch the video. On the page, it’s pretty unremarkable, even the quotes that are being picked up on the political blogs. … On the screen, it was much different; the real information, it seemed, was in the tone and manner of the exchange.”

Right down to the Courtyard Marriott-style meeting room and those uncomfortable looking chairs, the whole thing just felt awkward. And as journalists, if we’re trying to avoid distracting talk about sexism, it’s best to not set up that screen shot with a big imposing man towering like Professor Snape over the female Republican Vice Presidential candidate. 

The substance of the interview focused primarily on her experience (or lackthereof), and she cleverly leveraged an Obama argument (also from Time’s coverage):

“Asked if she’d ever met a head of state, she raised her unshaken hand like a badge of honor: ‘We’ve got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time,’ she said. ‘It is for no more politics as usual and somebody’s big fat résumé maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment where, yeah, they’ve had opportunity to meet heads of state.’”

This leads me to suspect that in debate season, the Republican reply to criticism of BO’s experience will be, “Yeah, well, at least she’s running for Vice President.” (Dems will have to try hard not to abuse John McCain’s impending death as an easy counterpoint …) 

For those who are wondering how she’ll match up against Biden, I think we have our first look at an answer. Much like in her basketball days, she’ll play scrappy, but it will be tough to take down a seasoned veteran. Biden will have to focus heavily on how she reinforces John McCain’s policies and takes them to a new extreme, which should be easy for him to do with his long resume, freeing up Obama to reclaim the change-agent title he created long before anyone else tried it on for size.