The Popular Vote: McCain's biggest election season letdown

The lights came on, the candidates stepped onto the stage, the questions were asked, the questions were answered, the candidates stepped off the stage, the lights went off and John McCain blew it.

John McCain had an opportunity in the last debate to show that, despite whatever he says, Barack Obama is going to raise your taxes with all of the new programs that he wants to put into place. McCain should have touched upon other recent Democrats like Clinton who, when campaigning, said that he would cut taxes but actually ended up raising them. McCain didn't do a good enough job of making Obama look like other liberals and less like this agent of "change" that he has painted himself as.

McCain should have painted Obama as the classic "tax and spend" liberal. McCain should have added up the costs of all the different programs Obama has proposed and shown the American people that, despite the tax cuts that they would get, they would have to shoulder the burden of the new programs.

McCain instead left the debate with the American people thinking that both of the candidates would lower their taxes if they were elected. Taxes are a debate Republicans should always win. McCain simply wasn't convincing enough, and he didn't stress his tax plan enough (probably something to do with Obama being able to rely on his 95-percent-of-America tax break number).

McCain would have fared better had he, as he should have, brought up the connections that Obama has with people like William Ayers. Instead of effectively bringing up the questionable connections Obama has with people such as Ayers and Wright, McCain sort of brought the subject up by not making any accusations and letting Obama talk his way out of the issue. McCain should have pressed much harder.These sorts of connections show a lack in judgment, something that McCain could have harped on for the rest of the debate, but he let go much too easily.

The inexperience argument has shown not to work (and with the selection of Palin as VP has all but disappeared), but the lack of judgment argument surely would have worked if McCain had properly brought it up and pressed the issue. Not to mention that if McCain had approached this issue correctly, he would have had his attack ad ammo for the rest of the election. Instead, now many say Obama has dealt with the Ayers and Wright issues.

Most importantly, McCain let me down when he didn't defend conservative principles with the fire that I know someone like Mitt Romney would have. McCain never seems like he is going to get riled up about any issue; instead, he's fine with staying cool. This is a good way of him curbing the temper that many say McCain has, but it's also a good way to make the American public think that you don't care about some issues, such as the economy.

When McCain talks about the economy, it really just seems like he doesn't care. I understand that he's said it's not his strong suit, but that doesn't mean that he can't get fired up about it. This should be especially true when the person sitting across from him is essentially preaching "spread the wealth" socialist policies. McCain tried to do this when there was the back and forth "Joe the Plumber" dialogue, but just like the rest of the debate, McCain fell short of doing what needed to be done in this debate: deliver the knockout.

It now shouldn't surprise anyone if this election isn't close whatsoever. Obama has more money to spend in the closing days until Election Day. Obama has the lead, so he just has to avoid missteps. And Obama doesn't have to deal with any real stinging comments from McCain in the debate because there just weren't any.

Barring any implosion by the Obama camp or any extremely brilliant tactics by the McCain camp in the closing days, it's looking more and more like Obama will be the next president of the United States. To some extent, because of the way McCain handled himself in the debates, you can't help but feel that the uniformed person is loving the idea of a tax-friendly democrat.