Obama coolly won the third and final debate. The first third I thought McCain was a bit more energetic and had a slight edge, but during the remaining sixty minutes Obama closed him out. The split screens killed McCain. He was blinking rapidly and looked angry. FOX's Nina Easton once again calls it correctly:

Easton: It reminded me of a tennis match where John McCain was running all over the court and Barack Obama was lobbing them back smoothly and the perfect example of that was the William Ayers question which we all were waiting breathlessly for, he raised it and Obama said look iI served on a board with this guy, a reform board, he's an education professor and no I didn't start my campaign in his living room like you claimed and then it was left like that and it was almost a favor for Obama for McCain to have brought that up.

Hume: You mean, he could dispose of it.

Easton: He Just disposed of it and moved on...

It appeared like McCain didn't want anything to do with Ayers and it showed. Schieffer forced the candidates to face the negativity issue and when McCain begrudgingly brought up Ayers, Barack knocked it down with one hand tied behind his back. I do wish Obama would have attacked McCain's associations more at that point, including highlighting his ties to the Keating Five scandal since they actually produced a documentary about it. Obama was more concerned with playing it safe.

McCain was more interested in a sitcom coming soon to you. "Joe, the Plumber," who as we're finding out isn't even in the 250K bracket that he questioned Obama about. A CNN focus group didn't like the new series at all. More shall be revealed about "Joe."

NRO 

Don't See It   [Ramesh Ponnuru]
A couple folks here have been saying that McCain is doing better than in the previous two debates. I wish it were true, but I just don't see it. I think a few times McCain has come across as spluttering.

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When all else fails, Republicans and their wives turn into monsters.

John McCain and Sarah Palin were backstage, and Lehigh County GOP Chairman Bill Platt was warming up the crowd of 6,000 at a rally here for the Republican ticket.

"Think about how you'll feel on November 5 if you wake up in the morning and see the news, that Barack Obama -- that Barack Hussein Obama -- is the president-elect of the United States," Platt said. The audience at the Lehigh University arena booed at the thought of it.

"The number one most liberal senator in the United States of America was, you guessed it, the ambassador of change, Barack Hussein Obama," he added.

All journalists covering the McCain-Palin events should take out extra life insurance. Read Milbank's entire piece. He finishes it off with this..

Audience members participated in the Obama critique by shouting words such as "liar!" and "socialist!"
"Who is the real Senator Obama?" McCain asked.
Unclear.
But we do know his middle name is Hussein. 

As Sean Hannity, Rick Davis and John McCain step up their personal attacks on Barack Obama, a funny thing happened on the way to the smear fest. It seems John McCain has some prior associations he would rather not have revealed. I mean real ones. Check out this group.

GOP presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair.

The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. The group was dedicated to stamping out communism around the globe.

The council's founder, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, said McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as McCain was launching his political career in Arizona. Singlaub said McCain was a supporter but not an active member in the group.

Oh, my. Playing the Guilt by Association Game doesn't seem to be a good idea for McCain with friends like those.

Paul Begala tried to warn him on Meet the Press:

MR. BEGALA: Well, no. Obama was—he was asked about this in a debate in a primaries with Hillary Clinton sitting there; George Stephanopoulos of ABC asked him about it. He answered it. He pointed out that the despicable acts this guy committed were committed when, apparently, Barack Obama was eight years old. And, and I think Governor Palin here is making a strategic mistake. This guilt by association path is going to be trouble ultimately for the McCain campaign. You know, you can go back—I’ve written a book about McCain. I had a dozen researchers go through him. I didn’t even put this in the book. But John McCain sat on the board of a very right-wing organization. It was the U.S. Council for World Freedom. It was chaired by a guy named John Singlaub, who wound up involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. It was an ultraconservative right-wing group. The Anti-Defamation League, in 1981, when McCain was on the board, said this about this organization. It was affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League, the parent organization, which ADL said, “has increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and Anti-Semites.” Now, that’s not John McCain. I don’t think he is that. But, but, you know, the problem is that a lot of people know John McCain’s record better than Governor Palin, and he does not want to play guilt by association or this thing could blow up in his face.

This excuse doesn't seem to fly either.

The McCain campaign, in a statement to Politico, defended the efforts of the council. Brian Rogers, a spokesman, said that the Senator "disassociated himself" from the group "when questions were raised about its activities, but that in no way diminishes his leadership role in ensuring that the forces of democracy and freedom prevailed in Central America."

But Singlaub "does not recall any McCain resignation in 1984 or May 1986," the Associated Press reported early Tuesday, "nor does Joyce Downey, who oversaw the group's day-to-day activities."