McCain blinks in first presidential debate

It was a very big win for dullness last night in the first presidential debate. It probably spells out as a win for Barack Obama, since John McCain's political forte is striking sparks, and lagging ominously in the ratings, he needed to ignite at least one or two firestorms Friday night. (Admittedly this is hard in any event compered by Jim Lehrer, a nonpareil snooze-inducer.) A couple of straw polls from CNN and CBS right after the debate called it for Obama.

The two candidates trudged through their dutiful exchanges with even more tedium than the chorus in a classical Greek tragedy hashing over the whims of fate. The post-match analysts said that McCain seemed asleep at the wheel during the initial exchanges on the economy and the $700bn bail-out proposed by the Fed and the Treasury, but got snappier when the topic

shifted to Iraq and Iran.

Actually, it was clear McCain had forfeited his best shot at turning the tables on Obama the moment he declared that he would vote for the bail-out package.

The financial rescue plan is hugely unpopular across the United States. In the past four days I've not been in a cash register line in any supermarket where vivid denunciations of Wall Street haven't mingled with sarcasms about the tycoons' hirelings in Congress now trying to commit taxpayers' money to bail out their losses.

Every politician in the House of Representatives has to face the voters on November 4, along with a third of the Senate. Their office staffs are telling them the phone calls are running 90 to 10 against the bail-out.

This is why the Republicans in Congress have found it easy to resist the frantic appeals of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, formerly of Goldman Sachs, and instead to say No, leaving the Democrats to whinge and trim, with half-hearted 'conditions' attached