GAME (ALMOST) OVER: CANTANKEROUS MCCAIN BOMBS IN SECOND DEBATE WITH 'THAT ONE'

EDITORIAL

Three things became readily apparent in last night's presidential debate in Nashville, TN and the polls which followed it:
1. Someone -- perhaps one of his campaign aides -- needs to enlighten John McCain about the identity of his rival for the presidency. It is Barack Obama, not "That One." Another appropriate way of adresing him would be: "My colleague in the United States Senate" or "My opponent."
2. McCain should immediately begin preparing for something he'll likely find distatsteful and after another surly outing, something we all should wonder if he'll actually be able to bring himself to do: drafting the concession speech he'll need to make on election night to congratulate (however insincerely) Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama.
3. Obama better get used to people around him addressing him as "Mr. President-Elect" and eventually "Mr. President," because that's going to become his necessary honorific beginning the morning of Wed. Nov. 5.
Obama blew McCain away on the economy after McCain apparently launched an impromptu and costly mortgage bailout plan which had to make every dyed in the wool fiscal conservative run to the nearest toilet to vomit. Obama more than held his own again on foreign policy and launched an equally eloquent and blistering indictment of McCain's judgment on the Iraq War and Afghanistan. And, as just about every poll shows, Obama appeared more knowledgeable, more in touch with everyday people, more likable and most importantly, more presidential.
In the CNN studios, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos gave Obama the highest marks of anyone else on the panel and even his GOP colleague Leslie Sanchez said McCain's chances of wining the election are now slim.
Or, to put it as CNN commentator, John King said, responding to data showing that independent voters thought Obama won the debate by a nealy 2-to-1 margin, "if those numbers continue to hold, game over."
But Obama showed he's not content to rest on his laurels. For at least an hour after the debate, he and Michelle, his wife, continued to work the room, chatting up the audience on issues, shaking hands and posing for photographs. McCain left the building, presumably to retire for the evening. Today, Obama heads for Indianapolis to make a strong play for a key battleground state.
McCain? Maybe he ought to take a day to reflect on his failed attempts at standup comedy. What was that "Not you, Tom" comment about, when he awkwardly told debate moderator Tom Brokaw that he wouldn't be his choice as the new treasury secretary? And with all due respect to seniors -- and especially septugenarians -- why would McCain, whose creaky physicality was more exposed in the town hall format which was supposed to favor him, joke about his need to get a hair transplant? Maybe he should've followed those remaks with the old standard line, "thanks, I'll be here all week." McCain already failed in explaining that "Bomb Iran," his cover of the Beach Boys' classic, "Barbara Ann," was a joke. But McCain indeed satisfied his burning desire to bomb, by doing that on stage.
And while McCain couldn't get out of his own way with those missteps and his futile attacks on Obama's character and misstatements on his record -- which tracking data showed most people didn't care about -- Obama played it the way he always has: cool, dignified and most importantly, presidential.
In attcaking Obama, McCain has often remarked that the presidency is not appropriate for on-the-job training. He is exactly right. And it's McCain who needs the training. He may have logged nearly 30 years in the Senate, but McCain, with his constant cantankerous ways, lack of economic vision, bad judgment on Iraq and Afghanistan, is clearly the candidate not ready to be president.