Something not quite right metaphorically in that headline, but I’m too tired to figure it out.

To win, Obama needed to refrain from burning an American flag onstage, and he more than met that challenge. He looked more Presidential than McCain. I’m trying as hard as I can to find reasons to stay on the McCain bandwagon, but when he gave that sarcastic “I got it” smirk at the end of the discussion on vouchers, I wanted to slap him. He also didn’t help himself by mocking Obama’s eloquence — even though he was making the valid point that Obama’s willingness to “look at” offshore drilling was a form of weasel-wording.

I was astonished that neither candidate directly addressed the Palin issue in response to Bob Schieffer’s question about whether the respective VP candidates are ready to serve as President — and Schieffer didn’t follow up. McCain convinced me that he’s proud of Palin, but didn’t claim she is ready to serve. Obama could have gallantly confined himself to saying he thinks Biden is more qualified, but he didn’t even do that — he spun off on a tangent about funding for autism.

I didn’t see the point of McCain coming back to bang on Congressman Lewis again after already making his point once. McCain has a legitimate grievance about Lewis’s remarks, but it’s hard to see how that helps him. And Ayers still is not a five-run homer.

I liked McCain’s jibe near the beginning that if Obama wanted to run against George Bush, he should have run four years ago. But it was all downhill from there.