Debate Number 4 Reaction

First, will it do your blood pressure good to know that Obama was declared the winner by a mile of this last (THANK GOD) debate?

Instapolling:

• CBS: 53% said Obama won it, 22% thought McCain won it.
• CNN: 58% for Obama to McCain's 31%.
• Stan Greenberg with favorable and unfavorable numbers before and after the debate:
• McCain: 54 favorable / 34 unfavorable
• Obama: 42 favorable / 42 unfavorable
• After the debate:
  
• McCain: 50 favorable / 48 unfavorable
• Obama: 72 favorable / 22 unfavorable

NY Times Editorial: "But Mr. McCain stuck to his script, and the nasty tone of his campaign, including a rather bizarre claim that Barack Obama had told a plumber in Ohio that Mr. Obama wanted to take away his wealth...In the debate, Mr. McCain again raised Mr. Obama's old and meaningless association with William Ayers, a violent, 1960s radical who served with Mr. Obama on the board of a charitable foundation. The overall effect was to make Mr. McCain seem angry and desperate, which didn't surprise us much given how badly his campaign has been doing."

Politico: "Debates should not be confused with trips to Lourdes: Few miracles are dispensed. John McCain needed a miracle in his final debate with Barack Obama on Wednesday night, a miracle that would wipe away McCain's deficit in the polls and re-energize his flagging campaign. He did not get one. The clouds did not part. Heavenly choirs were not heard. Instead, the American public heard angry attacks from McCain. Sometimes McCain attacked directly, and sometimes he attacked sarcastically, but he never stopped attacking. And he never rattled Obama. Obama answered every attack and kept his cool. How cool? Obama was so cool that after 90 minutes under blazing TV lights, an ice cube wouldn't have melted on his forehead."

CNN: Gloria Berger predicts that McCain's grimaces would become an enduring media narrative. Already in progress, Gloria. The YouTube of him making faces has been viewed 46,829 times as of 11:45 pm PDT.

David Gergen (on CNN): McCain "looked angry. It was an exercise in anger management up there."

Bob Shrum: "McCain also sounded like an aggrieved coot who thinks this campaign is all about him...When it isn't sad, it's sinister. McCain isn't a candidate anymore, but a negative research dump-- a heedless purveyors of distortion and untruth, a man who started off running on his experience, but ends up now as a right-wing caricature stumbling toward defeat with dishonor."

Brian Beutler: "John McCain says Sarah Palin knows a lot about having children with autism. Presumably he thinks she knows more about this than anybody in the country. Presumably he also thinks autism is approximately equal to Down Syndrome."

A fabulous photo from Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty.

Nora Ephron: "As he smirked and blinked and raised his eyebrows, I couldn't help wondering what tonight's McCain seemed like to all those conservative pundits who'd been hoping a different McCain would show up. Is this what they meant? Is this the John McCain of Bill Kristol's dreams? Whichever McCain shows up, some things stay the same. He's a towel-snapper. He can't land a joke. He seems old. (As Martin Short said on Letterman just after the debate, "The only time he doesn't have to pee is when he's peeing.")

Arianna Huffington: "This debate wasn't decided on the arguments being made. It was won on the reaction shots. Every time Obama spoke, McCain grimaced, sneered, rapidly blinked, or rolled his eyes. 'He looked like Captain Ahab, again and again going after Moby Dick,' John Cusack told me. 'Or an animal caught in a bear trap. He even seemed pissed at Joe the Plumber.'..By contrast, every time McCain was on the attack, Obama was smiling. And the nastier McCain got, the brighter Obama's smile became. It was the non-verbal equivalent of Reagan's disarming "There you go again' -- and it served to underline McCain's need for anger management. The angrier McCain got, the more unruffled Obama appeared.'

Ari Melber: "The entire offensive was muddled, however, by McCain's umbrage. Asked about his running mate's false charge that Obama "palled around with terrorists,' McCain offered an indignant non-sequitur. He demanded that Obama condemn Rep. John Lewis's criticism of incendiary rhetoric at GOP rallies, which McCain said was unfair because it likened his campaign to America's segregation era. 'That, to me, was so hurtful,' he intoned. Yet within minutes, McCain busied himself with the guilt-by-association attacks."

Ron Dreher: "McCain came off as sour, agitated and petulant. Obama -- man, nothing rattles that guy. McCain was two tics away from a vein-popping "You can't handle the truth!" Jack Nicholson moment, I felt. At one point, I thought: Which one of these men would I want in the White House when the 3 a.m. phone call comes in?"

"Grimacing," "petulant," "desperate," "angry" versus "calm," "unruffled"... Amazing, isn't it, the national Gestalt moment we're sharing?