The pundits--even on MSNBC were giving this debate to McCain tonight.  I agree with them.

Now most liberals/Democrats, etc... will scoff and say that Obama clearly bested McCain up and down the line throughout the debate.  All well and good I suppose.  But over and above the intellectual, highly interested, highly motivated Democrats, what types of voters would share that assessment?  Methinks very few indeed.

This is always the problem for the Democratic Presidential nominee.  For some reason the air of Washington seems to inoculate Democrats from common sense and the need to understand the concept of "winning" in a debate as we had tonight or as in an election as we will have in November.  Winning is not about impressing your partisan supporters which is merely singing to the choir.  Winning is about winning in the eyes of those who will actually decide the election.  That would be voters who are persuadable and there are many millions of them this year as there are every year.

This year, the dynamics are highly favorable to Democrats generally and thus for the highest office in the land the dynamics are favorable to Obama.  He has continued to fail to capitalize on these favorable dynamics.  Some of these reasons he can influence from one degree to another and others are beyond his control.  One set of tactics that Obama continues to fail to employ that would be highly beneficial to him are partisanship and agressive attacks on John McCain and his record of flip flops, lies, and toadying for the rich and powerful.  Obama not only continues to fail to deploy this set of weapons, he personally opposes their use.  This is a gigantic error.  And, as the economic situation worsens dramatically, Obama's failure to use partisanship to his advantage and to attack McCain grows in significance.

It is doubtful that we will ever see the Republican Party as unpopular as it is at this moment and I distinctly remember how unpopular they were in the wake of Watergate and in comparison, the level of disgust and mistrust for the Republicans and their policies now is off the chain in comparison to that time.  Thus, strategically, it only makes sense to tie McCain as closely to his party and to Bush as possible.  Obama has in his own tepid fashion been trying to make the point that we don't need more of the same, but the direct, clear connection between McCain, his party, his President and their collosal failures is missing.  That's why Obama never clearly breaks away from McCain in the polls.

Rarely int eh debate did you hear either the word Democrat or the word Republican coming from Obama.  Never did you hear him use a phrase even similar to "the failed Republican policies of George Bush and John McCain."  You never heard Obama say "John, you're lying about this just like you have been lying in your commercials..."   You didn't hear McCain identifying himself with Bush or the Republican Party either.  So Obama's hands off policy toward his most powerful weapons is, actually, helpful to McCain's campaign.  Did McCain associate himself with even one Republican tonight?  I don't think so, but he sure did try to connect himself both to Teddy Kennedy and to Hillary Clinton.  That speaks volumes about how incredibly unpopular the Republicans are right now and it is precisely why Obama should be beating that drum daily and in as loud a fashion as he can.

If Obama would just come to terms with the reality that his starry eyed fantasy about "bipartisanship" coupled with his refusal to get down and dirty and fight to win the Presidency is depressing his level of support, then he could quickly begin to roll out some devastating blows on the aire and rhetorically on the stump.  Why Obama, who I think is fairly smart guy, doesn't get this basic political calculus is a mystery to me.  But whatever the reasons for Obama's ongoing foolish choice, he better get a clue and fast or he'll end up just like the war hero we nominated four years ago.