Mean-ingless

Did anyone watch this final debate? I guess I'll find out when the ratings are released. I almost didn't and I have TiVo. I'm not getting the customary flurry of emails and voicemails tonight. Nobody cares like they did on the first three (including Joe Biden's trip to the Sarah Palin freakshow). But I've got it on now.

Why does McCain (like Palin) come in and write down a bunch of notes as soon as he arrives? Makes him seem disengaged when Bob welcomes them. Gotta hit this, gotta make sure to hit that. Real spontaneous.

What's the deal with McCain's eyebrows? They required more grooming. They are distracting me from what begins as his most sober opening so far. I take issue with his "our beloved Nancy Reagan" although I think it appropriate to note her accident and send best wishes, as an ex-First Lady. But he's looking strangely like an amped up version of Bob Novak, and when asked if he has a question for Sen. Obama after Barack's first answer, on the economy, he says, "Uh, no," and launches into something while Barack kinda laughs like, "That's John." Yet another one of his twists on "angry."

Is McCain on some kind of uppers? He whirlpools into "Joe the Plumber" and the CNN audience meter flatlines for a longer stretch than I remember even from the last debate. I swear, he's taking some sort of age or cancer or pain-related drug, or maybe something like the Dr. Feelgood shot Don Draper turned down on Mad Men this week. I mean, this is the clip of the debate, and he doesn't even say anything:



McCain saying "Okay? Okay?" like he's Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar. Here, too:



And even better:



Barring catastrophe, it's over. This debate can be studied as a McCain freakout under a microscope, and it's his best performance yet.

He just scares the shit out of everybody now. He didn't in the primaries, even with the revealing "Bomb-bomb-bomb Iran" type jokes, but when he picked Sarah Palin he revealed his true character, and it's one unsuited to the Office of U.S. President. McCain may have grown up thinking he was cool because he was a poor-little-rich-military kid rebel, but self-centered the same way that George W. Bush was and is, maybe not to the same degree.

The last undecideds who can be persuaded are overwhelmingly falling to Barack Obama. It's brutal:

CBS poll of undecided voters:

Who won the debate?

McCain (R) 22
Obama (D) 53

Shares your values

Obama, Before the debate: 54
Obama, After the debate: 63

McCain, Before the debate: 53
McCain, After the debate: 56

Update: CNN poll of voters who watched debate:

Who won the debate?

McCain (R) 31
Obama (D) 58

Favorable/Unfavorable

Obama, before debate: 63/35
Obama, after debate: 66/33

McCain, before debate: 51/45
McCain, after debate: 49/49

McCain is actually less popular now than he was at 9:00pm ET. His favorables have sunk to exact parity with his unfavorables. While Obama grew to am all-time high favorable score exactly double that of his unfavorable.

Is it possible that McCain only gets, like, @ 57 electoral votes (to an Obama 481), i.e. eleven states and not Texas?

Is it?