McCain's task was to make people realize that it would be crazy and dangerous to put Obama into the White House, even if that took some fear-mongering.
He failed. He utterly let Obama off the hook, even let Obama co-opt some of his best issues, gave Obama a chance to be JFK-like.
I think debates are won or lost early on, and early on McCain seemed unfocused and, yes, sorry, old, whereas Obama seemed focused--and full of ****.
Too bad **** sells, but it does, especially to the unsophisticated and uncurious America we have bred over time.
I'm still voting for McCain, because I don't want a Supreme Court that guts the Bill of Rights, but it will take a thunderclap to win this one for McCain. We thought McCain was an old warrior, and we got the first part right.