Did the debate save McCain?

last updated 8 January 2015

Joe “the plumber” Wurzelbacher “achieved sudden national fame in the final presidential debate,” said Vaughn Ververs in CBS News online, “but it was John McCain who needed the headlines.” McCain had a good night, effectively using Joe, an actual plumber from Ohio, to hammer Barack Obama as “a tax-and-spend class warrior.” He also landed some base-pleasing blows against an “almost too cool” Obama on William Ayers and ACORN. Was it enough?

“McCain’s less-bad debate performance won’t change the downward arc of his campaign,” said Joan Walsh in Salon. Bludgeoning Obama with Joe the Plumber was “more farce than fierce,” and some of his angry attacks—like on the mother’s health exception for late-term abortions—backfired. “McCain needed a big win.” Snap polls showed he lost.