I think this was McCain's strongest performance of the three, by far. I thought he lost the first two, but I think he won this one.

Obama hasn't really impressed me in any of them. He has given basically the same performance each time: flat, vague, and based on talking points that most people, liberal or conservative, would have trouble disagreeing with. (Who really disagrees with getting rid of government programs that don't work and shoring up those that do? McCain would agree to that, but they have different definitions of what "working" programs look like. Obama hasn't gotten specific on many of these proposals.)

But Obama's performances in the last two were good enough, and that was all he needed because McCain was almost incoherent much of the time.

Tonight Obama stuck to the same talking points, but McCain was better prepared with sharper arguments. I score tonight as a victory for McCain, and I bet the race tightens further by next Monday.

Josh