BOTH candidates get a C. Why?

 

In a nutshell, I think Ayers was the one issue where McCain could both throw red meat to the base AND appeal to independents. Not the Ayers of the past, but the Ayers of today.

 

A laundry list of all the Annenberg Challenge grants the Woods Foundation approved would probably have turned up something that many centrists might have wondered about. It might just have been the names of a few educational programs, nothing more. Or, there might have been something more.

Obama? Especially having the second closing, he had a chance to make the sale -- really make it. And he didn't While he wasn't Mike Dukakis, he was at best up to Gore 2000 or Kerry 2004 passion/rhetoric level and far short of Bill Clinton. The kitchen sink will come back out from the McCain campaign, and Obama could have done more to widen the gap.