After watching last night’s debate I have a sinking feeling that we Republicans are going down in flames on November 4. I was hopeful, oh so hopeful, that a sustained barrage of attacks against Obama’s political philosophy—combined with a concerted effort to get a freakin’ message through to people—would stumble McCain through to the finish line. This roadmap was clearly predicted by Peter Wehner in McCain’s Three Act Play but faltered in Act Three. Andy McCarthy: Here’s what Obama needed to do tonight: Convince the country that he was an utterly safe, conventional, centrist politician who may have leftward leanings but will do the right thing when the crunch comes. (You guys are nuts. The Corner on NRO).

Yes, John McCain won the debate last night on points and policy. I watched most of it it on closed-caption at the gym* and was blessed enough to not have to endure BHO’s stumbles and mumbles and uhms and hmms. BHO is slipping in quietly, though, gamely deflecting reasonable attacks on his character and political origins by simply denying them battle. It reminds me of the first thing that crazy people say: “I am not crazy!” By not having to say “I am not a Radical Leftist,” and by being assisted by every pundit and their mother other than Fox News, he has determined the course of discussion on a national level. McCain even let him get away with peddling his message while barely calling him on it.

McCain was able to steal his message before and had him trapped in his OODA loop for the better part of three weeks. Then the financial “crisis” came, and poor John McCain couldn’t hold on to just a little bit of campaign discipline. “Country First.” Yes. Except every person in Congress knew what he was up to with that Country First message and were waiting for him, ready to turn his message around. The Despicable Senator Reid knew that allowing McCain to swoop in and get things done would have sunk Obama. They derided McCain as an unnecessary gadfly, someone who didn’t know his priorities.

I’ve always been a big believer in the general wisdom of the electorate. Today let me fall into the same trap that has caught so many liberals. Far too many people are mesmerized by Obama’s slick attempts at populism, socialism, and just plain ol’ no-more-Bush-ism. Too distracted by pundits on TV, too lazy to be bothered to look past the surface, too willfully ignorant to do some research from opposing viewpoints and sources of information, enough of these folks will vote for BHO for whatever reason they may have. BHO, with the backing of a friendly majority in Congress, might as well be King Obama. Yes, we’ve had King George for six years and Lame Duck George for two. I just hope that at the next opportunity, Republicans take enough seats in the House to turn it into a hostile Congress that would at least gridlock this government and allow the country to function normally.

And so this is perhaps my premature obituary for the McCain campaign. Unless something, and I mean SOMETHING comes up that totally turns people off from BHO, all McCain can do is keep swinging as he and the rest of us, go down in flames.

* — Fun footnote: I was watching the debate at the gym last night. I wasn’t listening through the FM transmitters, I was just reading captions. And then when McCain talked about buying up sour mortgages I yelped, “he wants to do WHAT?” Thankfully at that time, no one was within fifty feet of me. I still think someone heard me, though.

MAJOR P.S. –> UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES do I believe that it is time for me to shut up and just let BHO get a free pass to the presidency. I talk to everyone I know willing to listen and while MD will be blue this year, it’s nice to know that there are still people who vote Republican this year.