Round One: No Knockouts

The presidential contenders both did fine at their first debate. They each had their emotional moments, like their bracelets from military moms in swing states. They each had their moments of good humor; McCain's joke about not hearing Obama, Obama's joke about McCain's bomb-bomb-bomb-Iran temperament. Both though seemed sober and thoughtful. No one had a brain-freeze moment like Sarah Palin's disastrous interview with Katie Couric. McCain didn't look too old and Obama didn't look too inexperienced. Neither killed on the financial crisis. Neither was able to blame the current mess on the other one and McCain seemed less absurd than he has over the past week.

If that was a victory for McCain, it was a small one. Tonight was supposed to be McCain's night, a night where he could seem like an experienced foreign policy hand. He tried to assume that role by again resorting to the trope of saying that Obama "didn't understand" the world as it was. But Obama never seemed naive or absurd.

Obama's attempts to look tough fell a little short. His line about "killing" Bin Laden didn't make him look tough. On the larger issue of Iraq, Obama did a fine job of making it clear that he'd been right about the war from the beginning while McCain took credit for the reduced violence in the wake of the surge.

The weird thing is that I still don't know where McCain is on the bailout. Is he with the House G.O.P. on insisting on a fundamental change in the Paulson plan, or will he go along with any final package. I just don't know. As for Obama, he seems ready to do the responsible thing and vote for some kind of final package. In the end, McCain who has seemed adolescent and impetuous for the last week seemed steadier, while Obama continued to look very much like a president.

Matt Cooper

• Capital Index
• What Is the Palin Economy?
• The McCain Meltdown
• Bush Sees the Dark Days
• Obama Gets Lift From Bad Times