A good night so far - three more outs, and it'll be a great one!

Johnny Mac was on his game tonight - a glint in his eye as Obama bloviated, and sharp comebacks at the ready. He hit hard on substantive matters. In sum, an excellent performance - with a few missed opportunities, to be sure, but many more hits than the previous two debates.

Winners: Johnny Mac, Bob Schieffer, Joe the Plumber
Losers: Fox News Panel, Barry O, Bill Ayers

I didn't live blog as I raced home from Father Ryan High School, where there was a rather dull election discussion. At dinner ahead of the formal program, Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville did a nice job setting the stage. Then came some local Nashville assembly member last name of West who was pretty much the definition of a glad-handing pol. He was nice enough to give the school an American flag that had flown over the state capital. We then moved from the cafeteria to the theater where three people made presentations. The first guy was a lefty, although he tried to hide it. First faux pas: Senator McCain is against reproductive rights. Second: Senator McCain "admits" that there is anthropogenic global warning. If I didn't have to be so civil in that setting, I would have taken him to task for those statements. Then there was a priest and a lady who is a lobbyist in Nashville, one of whose clients is the Catholic Church. I guess I should have realized that part of what I put in the collection plate goes to hiring a lobbyist! Anyway, it was dull, and the attempt to get students involved fell flat. They should have selected questions ahead of time from the students (Dom told me they collected such questions, but didn't use them; go figure).

Anyway, that ended around 7:30, so I raced home to make the debate by 8:00 (barely making it). No time to live blog, but I enjoyed this debate more than I did the ones I live blogged. Whether that was because of McCain's better performance or my more relaxed approach, I don't know.

I kept track of the Phils via the Internet as the debate was on. Now it's Phillies time, and we are in the bottom of the 9th. Three outs to the World Series!!!