Last night was the second of three presidential debates scheduled before the November 4th election.  If anyone were to ask me I would tell them to save the money and effort of holding the last one and just let this mule go to the barn on it's own. This election is over.

I sat along with oodles of millions of other Americans last night watching this contest of political weebles, not so much either waiting or hoping for the Ali / Frazier title fight, as much as hoping that there might be just one glimmer of that renowned temperament attributed to John McCain that we have all heard so much about. If there ever was a time for the flash of anger in the eyes and the move for the jugular? Last night was it IMO. And last night was for all intents and purposes, the last great opportunity for John McCain in this election to turn around an election that has slipped away from him faster than a ice cream cone melting on a hot day.

I believe that a lot of people including my own lowly self knew what John McCain had to accomplish last night. It wasn't so much a knockout blow as it was an reckoning of accountability for the present economic mess that we are all witnessing. Do that and you might get the knock out, don't do it and lose. But rather than go directly to those responsible for this economic fiasco, John McCain was content to stand there and allow Barack Obama to pin the tail on the donkey and assign blame to President Bush's supposed failed polices and then tie John McCain to those same represented failed polices.

To borrow a phrase? A blind man could have seen it.  And even the figurative blind to what has gone on in the economy now know, that it wasn't Bush's failed polices that have caused all this. It has been the democrats and their affirmative action approach to the national economy and home mortgages and speculative banking schemes. Or more specifically stated, the socialist agenda of wealth redistribution on the grandest of scales already implemented and presently failing right before our eyes compliments of the democrat party and two previous democrat presidents.

The democrats call these demonstrably failed programs of their own device affordable, the same way they would like Americans to believe that their health care proposals under a b\Barack Obama administrations are affordable. But these schemes aren't affordable when the working and middle classes of this nation have to carry on their backs, the lagging dregs of those who are simply waiting for the bus ride to the promised land compliments of their own elected robber barons the democrats.

John McCain should have gotten mad last night. He should have gotten at least as mad as a lot of people who were watching that prom dance they passed off as a presidential debate. But he didn't get mad and he certainly didn't go after Barack Obama on the important issues. Forget McCain's analogies of attempting to nail jello to a wall and get down to the business of shining a light into the darkness! Hold Barack Obama and his associates in congress and the senate up to scrutiny and the light of day! Make them own up to the responsibility that many people know to be the case, but do it so that these ill informed and easily distracted media driven independents can see it! Rub their noses in it John!  It's time for a bit of the naval principle of damn the torpedoes full speed ahead here sailor!

But alas, none of that was to be presented last night. All that was displayed was the second installment of the savvy young hustler and the older and failing warrior with a dog eared campaign play book that has never been mailable or reactionary to the demonstrations and feints of the enemy.

While watching the reviews this morning, I noted the observations of both Ann Coulter and Mike Huckabee when they were interviewed on the debate. Both interviews were telling insights into the republican faithful IMO and the reaction across the heartland in the party this morning. Ann Coulter was observably livid over what she had witnessed and what she hadn't witnessed during the debate last night. But the main theme that she felt was lacking during the debate on McCain's part, was the same as I and many millions of others had failed to observe in him while watching the debate. While John McCain was trying to tack jello to the wall on the lesser points of stump speech echos, he allowed Barack Obama to completely escape any responsibility for the present financial crisis. No blame, no culpability, no guilt by association....nothing. Ann pointed out that the democrats have used affirmative action to destroy the vitality of this country and it's competitive edge, it's schools and education, and even it's airport safety. and now they have been allowed to destroy the economy with the same tactics of racial guilt and affirmnative action socialism.

Mike Huckabee wasn't so dramatic but he was clearly voicing what many conservatives were thinking last night while watching the debate. No one really won and no one really lost in the big picture according to Mike. No knock out blows or examples of gotcha moments. And the Obama supporters obviously felt that their candidate had done well while the reverse was true of those who support McCain. But those 12-15 percent in the middle who will actually decide this election weren't swayed according to Mike.

Huckabee saw it and knew that what John McCain needed to do last night he failed to do. And to add insult to injury, John McCain threw a 300 billion dollar mortgage rescue bill on the table in the middle of the debate! Mike Hackabee looked like he had been shot when recalling that moment this morning. As did myself and many others who were equally stunned last night when we heard this scheme coming from the lips of McCain during the debate. I immediately sensed it as a weak minded ploy to pander to the segment of the Obama supporters, who had gotten us into this mess in the first place. And not the type of carrot and stick that would budge them away from supporting the messiah. But certainly something that made millions of conservatives cringe at the thought.

No, John McCain didn't openly lose the debate last night, he simply lost the election by letting his last best opportunity to turn this election around slip away. And by not demonstrating that elusive quality that Mike huckabee mentioned this morning and many of us have been longing for. Command presence and demonstrated leadership ability. John McCain was a trained naval officer and a veteran of six years as a prisoner of war. You would think that he has the quality. We have been told that he has the quality. He commanded one of the largest naval squadrons in the Navy when he returned home. Yet the qualities that carried him through the worst moments of his life, have nver materialized during this campaign IMO. When Americans needed decisive and demonstrated leadership in these two debates, John simply didn't deliver. And his failure to do so will cost him this election.