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After the giggles, Campus Politico’s Ben Adler discusses what youth organizers are doing in the final days of the Obama and McCain campaigns. Ted also asks Teresa and I to weigh in on Barackstar’s 30-minute infomercial tonight (is it a risk that could backfire?), as well as Biden’s run-in with the Orlando, Fla., reporter who confronted him about Republican charges that an Obama administration would be a socialist regime.

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Maxie’s new song and video about McCain’s tactics in the final days of the election. Lyrics at HuffPost.

“‘The campaign as a whole bought completely into what the Washington media said — that she’s completely inexperienced,’ said a close Palin ally outside the campaign who speaks regularly to the candidate. ‘Her strategy was to be trustworthy and a team player during the convention and thereafter, but she felt completely mismanaged and mishandled and ill advised,’ the person said. ‘Recently, she’s gone from relying on McCain advisers who were assigned to her to relying on her own instincts.’”

I’m not sure that I’d like to see any of her policies furthered in America’s future, but I would like to see this woman vindicated for the completely condescending way John McCain has treated her in this campaign. Talk about reducing Joe the Plumber into a gimmicky disaster; Palin was his first victim.

Cable news was atwitter today with premature talk of finger pointing with respect to the so-called Republican implosion (I’ll believe it on Nov. 5), but I got a good chuckle out of this quote from Bush campaign alumna and Palin advisor Nicolle Wallace in the aforementioned Politico story, which appears to be relevant on many fronts.

“I am in awe of [Palin's] strength under constant fire by the media,” she said in an e-mail. “If someone wants to throw me under the bus, my personal belief is that the most graceful thing to do is to lie there.”

“Check out these great numbers buried in a new Suffolk University poll of Ohio and Missouri, which tests the impact of McCain’s frequent claim that Barack Obama wants to pick Joe the Plumber’s pocket in order to further his shadowy socialist and redistributionist agenda:

In Ohio, 68 percent of respondents said they recognized “Joe the Plumber,” but only 6 percent said that Joe’s story will make them more likely to vote McCain; 4 percent were more likely to vote for Obama; and 85 percent were not affected. A similar finding was recorded in Missouri, where 80 percent had heard of the presidential plumber; 8 percent were more likely to vote McCain; 3 percent more likely to vote Obama; and 86 percent not affected by his story.

That’s pretty consistent. In both states — both Bush states — all of one-tenth of the voters who know who Joe the Plumber is said it made them more likely to back McCain. And in both states, huge, huge majorities of around 85% say the Joe mentions make no difference.”

In the meantime, a shout out to my boy Baratunde Thurston, for his submission to McCain’s Joe the Plumber video contest: 

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.

This fired me up. To think of the great risk Obama takes every time he walks on a stage somewhere to speak, and that some Republicans (particularly the ones at the top of their ticket) are not outspoken against their lunatic supporters is absolutely horrifying.

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

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.