Obama is in good shape!  In all three debates, he looked strong, but not cocky, confident and cool (but not too cool). Contrast that with McCain who seemed agitated and a bit upset that this 47-year-old upstart was besting him. More than anything, I actually think McCain's unease was an external reflection of the internal discomfort he felt with running the type of campaign he has long despised.  Being a Presidential candidate is hard. Running at a time when your party just spent 8+ years tearing things (including your party) apart is even harder. But at the point McCain decided that he needed to resort to character and attack-by-association, McCain must have realized that he crossed a line and he can never go back.

But most importantly, the debates brought to light what polls and anecdotal evidence seem to confirm- this election is about changing the way we deal with the economy. Even the lukewarm support of the bail-out, the mortgage buy-out proposal and McCain's tirade against the SEC, Wall street and all those individuals he thinks deserve the blame, the American public understands that McCain's policies are more of the same. Band-aid fixes won't disguise the McCain's ideological zeal for reckless tax cuts for rich individuals and corporations, deregulation and trickle-down economics that served as seeded and watered this current crisis.

American voters are not stupid and they are not monolithic. Swing voters come in all shapes, sizes and ideologies, and their voting calculations are complex and often times incomprehensible to the more partisan voter.  But everyone is experiencing this economic crisis and we all are looking for steady leadership to guide us through the short- and long-term effects of this downturn.  This is true of those coveted swing voters as well. Daily concerns about jobs, credit, healthcare and family budgets are a start reminder of the important role that government plays in all of our lives.

McCain's derision of Obama's "spread the wealth around" comment seemed shockingly out of touch. At when most people are just hoping to hang on to their job, healthcare and maybe a little retirement savings, I doubt that this will insight the anger and opposition that McCain seems to think it will. Right now 95% of the population could use a little of that concentrated wealth spread around.