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Having Slept On It
Talking Points Memo — ... various opportunities to deliver a smackdown that McCain couldn't recover from. But having watched the guy for 18 months now, for better and worse, that's not who he is. What he did do though is stand on the stage with McCain for 90 minutes on what's supposed to be McCain's terrain. He had an easy command of the issues. And he didn't get rattled by any of McCain's attacks. For all those reasons, I think he had a much better night than McCain. (ed.note: For some very acute debate analysis from a very experienced hand, see this post from James ...

Very interesting debate analysis
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth — ... judge presidential candidates. It was okay for Obama to be wonky because voters want wonk after 8 years of dumb. When your life savings is on the line, when you're calling the bank to see if your money is insured just in case there's another Great Depression, you want the biggest geek you can find to take over the presidency. And while I wouldn't call Obama THAT, he's clearly far more intelligent - and reassuring - than some guy who looks a little too old and a lot too angry. More from Fallows: ...

Mike’s Blog Roundup
Crooks and Liars — James Fallows: On strategy and tactics Cutting Through The Crap: Calmness under fire, careful deliberation…since when? The Osterley Times: John McCain is campaigning on change whilst telling us that change is dangerous The Moderate Voice: The liberal Palin pity party, lies, and self esteem The Peking Duck: What could be more unnerving than having your largest creditor begin pondering your financial demise? It’s fiscal meltdown time at The Opinion Mill’s ...

Forests and Trees and Gimmicks
The Mahablog — ... If you listen carefully to what the two campaigns say about any issue, the same theme emerges. McCain sees trees, not forest. He latches onto gimmicky fixes, like firing the SEC chairman, or seems not to understand (or care) that congressional earmarks didn’t cause the Wall Street crisis. Tellingly, it’s McCain, not Obama, who mistakes a tactic for a strategy. ...

Strategy v. Tactics
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — Fallows: There has been no greater contrast between the Obama and McCain campaigns than the tactical-vs-strategic difference, with McCain demonstrating the primacy of short-term tactics and Obama sticking to a more coherent long-term strategy. And McCain's dismissive comment suggests that he still does not realize this. Hillary Clinton had the same problem. ...

McBush/McSame Bashing Special Edition (Palin-Biden Debate Edition)
Discourse.net — ... Frank Rich, NYT, Op-Ed Columnist: McCain’s Suspension Bridge to Nowhere Saturday --> Political Animal, Funding the troops Political Animal, Mr. Freeze Kagro X, Kos, Palin’s Morphing into Cheney Continues James Fallows, The Atlantic, On strategy and tactics Delong, Marc Ambinder Calls John McCain a Liar Fareed Zakaria, ...

The Next Nexter Right
Balloon Juice — ... But I am happy with the baby steps you are making. Considering in the general election, your candidate had no clue what the difference was between tactics and strategy as it applied to Iraq, this is real progress. Some day soon you all may actually have an idea that requires more than the room on a bumper sticker to describe in full. ...