ProgressOhio

Round 3 of the Presidential campaign debate series played out like round 15 in a heavyweight prizefighter match, as Republican John McCain threw a last-minute flurry of jabs, a knockout punch being his only hope against Democrat Barack Obama who was winning on points.

Okay, the boxing analogy is a cliche. The Dispatch preview on Wednesday was headlined, "Last Round," featuring a graphic showing two robots in a ring. George Will, on ABC-TV last night following the "fight," concluded Obama won by letting his opponent punch himself into exhaustion, Mohammed Ali's old game. But cliche or not, the boxing analogy works.

Throughout the 90-minute Hofstra University debate, McCain was the puncher, landing a few good ones to be sure but never really denting Obama's calm composure, the thing about Obama that many voters find most attractive in these acidic and troubled times. As in the long primary campaign against Hillary Clinton, Obama has overcome the "fighter" by demonstrating confidence and maturity and intelligence, the traits of a real leader.

Bottom line: good fight, John, but it looks like Barack will wear the Belt.

(Before getting into the "blow by blow," let's not forget the warm-up act Wednesday afternoon featuring vice presidential nominee Joe Biden and Gov. Strickland at OSU-Newark's Adena Arena. For the record, several thousand partisans crammed into the "Home of the Titans" to hear the Delaware Democrat give his usual stump speech as part of a sweep across central and southern Ohio. If you thought you heard anything new being said, you haven't been listening.)

Obama's Best Moment: His dismissal of the McCain-Palin campaign attacks against him for "palling around" with 1960s radical William Ayers and Obama's so-called links to ACORN, the voter recruitment campaign under fire for falsified voter registrations. Obama explained calmly that he was 8-years-old when Ayers, now a university professor, was on his youthful rampage and that his only relation with ACORN was in the past, as an attorney for a client. "This says more about your campaign than it does about me," he told McCain.

McCain's Best Moment: Responding to the Obama campaigns repeated attempts to tie him hand-and-foot to the Bush administration, McCain said, "I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."

Obama's Worst Moment: Asked to cite specific spending cuts he would recommend as president, Obama came up only with one: a $15 billion saving by ending subsidies to insurance companies. McCain, by contrast, said he'd support an across-the-board spending freeze, cuts in defense budgets, elimination of pork-barrel earmark appropriations.

McCain's Worst Moment: His stumbling over the "woman" issue. First he praised running mate Sarah Palin as a "role model for women" despite growing evidence that the bloom is off that rose with most voters, including women. And then, after Obama said he voted as a state legislator against a bill outlawing partial-birth abortions because it didn't provide exceptions to protect the health of the mother, McCain said that whole "health of the mother" issue was overblown. "They've stretched the meaning of health-of-the-mother," said McCain. "That can mean anything."

Double Fudge: Both Obama and McCain said they'd choose future Supreme Court justices strictly on the basis of merit, without making abortion a litmus test. Then McCain added, "I don't believe anybody who supports Roe vs. Wade would have those qualifications." And Obama said he'd expect his choice to be a judge who not only understands the law but the real environment in which people live.

Pandering To The Base: McCain didn't bring up Ayres and ACORN, moderator Bob Schieffer did. But once these punching bags were in play, the Republican took full opportunity, while accusing Obama of running a dirty campaign. And Obama, during their discussion on energy, twice referred to the need to rebuilt the auto industry through loan guarantees and more fuel-efficient cars. Did you catch that, Ohio and Michigan?

Absentee Winner: Joe the Plumber, of course, the common man from Ohio extolled on numerous occasions by McCain throughout the debate. Even as I write this at minutes before Midnight, there are hundreds of reporters nationwide trying to track down this poor guy for an interview. Maybe McCain should have picked a plumber rather than a Palin as his running mate.