Almanac: At the Capitol

Despite attacking Obama pretty aggressively, you could clearly hear McCain repeatedly say "good job, good job" to Obama immediately after the debate.  McCain tried to recapture some of his maverick magic, but Obama was unflappable.  McCain finally had a good line to rebut the Bush ties saying "I'm not President Bush, if you want to run against him you should have run 4 years ago."  It was an effective shot at Obama's shorter political career and I thought of the fact that years ago it was McCain who got attacked and torn apart by Bush.  Obama had a calm response that McCain has a record being a "vigorous supporter of President Bush."

Not only did McCain have some fight in him, but finally a moderator was a factor jumping in, trying to get answers and allowed the candidates to interact with each other.  The other stand out exchange for me was on the negative campaigning that Minnesota voters are feeling with a rough Senate and congressional race here.  McCain mentioned some of the "hurtful" comments, but Obama dismissed it quickly by saying Americans are "less interested in hurt feelings."  On policy, McCain tried to hit on the fact Obama would raise taxes on the rich, but Obama kept his focus on the economy which is the number one issue.