You can't be serious, Shapiro...you CAN'T be...is the punditry that out of touch with the rest of the country?

Visibly shaking at one point with anger, smirking at Senator Obama and raising his eyebrows like a schoolgirl rolls her eyes, responding to him with snide tones--this man does not have the temperament to be president, not even close.

McCain looked like the Sad Old Boxer in the final debate, Angry because his days are over, looking and sounding Punch Drunk after three fights he will come to see he should never have thought. If John wanted to be president then it should have been against Clinton in the first term that was his time, now he is fixated in The Past! - Barack Obama is fresh, will bring the Change we need, we many not all agree with his policies, but he is the only real candidate and No One ever mention Joe The Plumber again, yes a one liner but not as used by McCain!

But he came across like

Mac

The butter knife...

McCain did not say "maverick" once during today's debate. This may be the first time in the last six months that McCain has gone ninety minutes without saying this magical, talismanic word (and yes I am including sleeping time and afternoon nap time).

Perhaps in future this word will be restricted solely to cowboys discussing rogue cattle. It would be so nice to see this word disappear into the lonesome prairie.

John McCain promised to throw the kitchen sink at Barack Obama, and instead threw Joe the plumber.

As the stock market went down the drain another 700 points (one for every billion dollars of the bailout plan), Senator McCain splashed around in Bill Ayer muck, realized it was sticking to his shoes, and finally called on a professional to unclog his stopped up campaign pipes.

Joe the plumber to the rescue!

Hey, Joe, my husband and I just lost most of our meager retirement savings. You got a Republican rotor rooter that will work on that?

Hey, Joe, a bunch of your neighbors just lost their jobs and will probably lose their homes next. Do you recommend a "trickle down" toilet for the homeless shelter, or do we just stick with the full flush Bush approach?

Hey, Joe, we've been wading in b.s. for eight years. If McCain-Palin win on November 4, you got an extra pair of hip boots I can borrow?

Was my first response to the mention of Joe Wurzelbacher. It was busy at work today and I didn't stop get to stop work until about 7:30 so I didn't get to see the news about this mini-debate in the rope-line. Then with McCain bringing him into almost every response he made tonight in the debate - it just became kind of weird.

Hey, I don't begrudge Joe his opinion. That's what it's all about, right? I wish Joe had been a little more honest with Obama in his questions. Turns out Joe doesn't make $250K a year so, indeed, under Obama's tax plan, Joe would either get a tax break or his taxes would stay the same.

But Joe doesn't believe this because he's afraid that Obama will lower that $250K threshold. Joe doesn't have any evidence that this would happen. Certainly nothing Obama has said indicates that is what he would do. But Joe just doesn't trust Obama. This tells me that it didn't matter what Obama answered. Joe already knew what he thought and nothing Obama said was going to change that. Maybe Joe can read Obama's mind. Maybe Joe has just been voting against his own best interests for so long that it has just become habit.

Was Joe a repub plant? I don't know and I don't think it really matters. Joe asked Obama a question and Obama answered truthfully, comprehensively, and forthrightly. If Joe doesn't want to believe that answer, well, that is his right.

Maybe if he's lucky enough to get to see Obama's plan in place - He'll change his mind.

Joe the Plumber my ass-crack. He's a republican plant who was always going to vote McCain. He's a PLANT.

Watch the video of him talking to Obama.

The hate on his face is clear. He's definitely a republican plant. How convenient that his business he supposedly wants to buy makes or is worth 250,000 - EXACTLY Obama's tax delineation.

Below found on dailykos:

"Joe the Plumber, the star of tonight's debate, may have a very interesting connection to John McCain. In fact, Joe the Plumber (Joe Wurzelbacher) of Cincinnati, Ohio may be related to one Robert Wurzelbacher of Cincinnati, Ohio, who happens to be Charles Keating's son-in-law.

Robert Wurzelbacher was implicated in the Keating 5 scandal, and sentenced to 40 months in prison in 1993.

Wurzelbacher is also a huge Republican donor."

Once again, McCain, who said "Joe plumber" about 20 times will be found out to be a ridiculous douchbag for setting up this "random" incident.

But that's what I expect of republicans - they lie, steal and will stoop to anything.

I hope the commentariat does not turn Obama's repeated bemused smiles at McCain howlers into the 2008 version of Al Gore's (supposed) debate sighs.

what a dud. author is correct that there was a time-warpish feel to this debate. i hope this is the last of these kinds of debates. we are not served by them. all three of them. the formats are stale and from a different era. did the mccain campaign insist the moderator be older than their candidate? this was an air sandwich. i am at a loss to understand how the republic is served by nights like this. obama wins by not winning. mccain wins by not winning. i'm lost.

but we are another day closer to nov. 4th. hopefully, that's enough. because i've had enough.

oh, did i mention that mccain is a douchebag? (air quote "douchebag" for effect)

Well I said from the beginning I was going to wait for the debates to decide. My initial preferences (before any conventions) were Hillary, McCain, then Obama. Reason being that Obama rarely takes a stand and I didn't think he'd have sufficient political power to back the idealistic rhetoric. I thought Hillary would have had the best shot at fixing the health care mess.

But here we are after all is done. McCain sounded like a worn out record oblivious to the facts on the ground. It's almost like he's completely ignored reality and resorted to tired party rhetoric. Obama had much better command of the facts and better connected with the real world in which I live. McCain sounded and looked worn out. An ideological republican not even recognizing the largest nationalization of the world's financial system in recent history is going on during the libertarian's mantra of "free market good, government bad!"

This has become a no brainer for this independent. Obama clearly won. I hope he develops the political skill to accomplish 1/10th of the idealism he preaches. I'll take the idealist over the ideologue on this one.