McCain was strong in the debate tonight

I thought he did very well. A running commentary by Michelle Malkin gives the highlights, and embedded links explaining Obama's mistakes/lies/distortions:

Liveblogging the last presidential debate of 2008

Tammy Bruce also has some good photos and commentary:

Final Debate Live Chat/Open Thread

[...] My assessment? McCain's performance immediately quashes the fears of some that McCain didn't have the fire-in-the-belly. A lot of people had begun to by the MSM spin that McCain was done. It's clear now he is not. With that myth finished, the next 18 days have never been more important. The ACORN election fraud scandal will get bigger, McCain will continue to hit Ayers, and needs an ad on Joe the Plumber, while repeatedly reminding people about the Pelosi/Reid/Obama machine and their responsibility for promoting and protecting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

I will remind you again of Giuliani's admonition that Republicans don't win polls, they win elections. This is far, far, from over and Senator Government knows it. Why do you think he's spending $3 million for his primetime television a few days before the election? He still thinks you'll vote for a celebrity with an infomercial. He'll find out on November you're bitter and clingy enough to say "no sale." [...]

Amen to that! Be sure and check out Pat's post also:

And the winner of the debate was Joe Wurzelbacher...

[...] The loser of the evening was obviously Backtrack Obama - not only because he sounded like Polly the Parrot mouthing carefully rehearsed talking points but simply for using the phrase "the worse financial crisis since the Great Depression" five times. Of course, hardly anybody alive knows what the Great Depression was so Obama can lie through his teeth.

(The truth is that our financial crisis is not even as bad as the one caused by Carter 30 years ago. There are no gas lines let alone soup lines. But I'll save my thoughts about the Democrats' lies for a real rant.) [...]

Yes, Obama relied too heavily on talking points and distortions. Heavy rehearsing can only get you so far, you have to think on your feet too. I'm sure it won't matter one bit to the Obama worshipers, but we'll see what independent and swing voters think.