Big Ears puts one over on Funny Face

He got off to a solid start nailing the Obama accusation that he is a political son of Bush. "I'm not President Bush: if you wanted to run against him you should have run four years ago."

But not being Mr Bush is not enough now. The Republican began with the disadvantage of a hamster-sized lump on one side of the mouth, muffling his speaking. Woe to the candidate in a US debate who encounters dental misfortune.

Mr Obama's hair has been shorn savagely neat, emphasising the largest ears in international politics. He affected polite interest in the anchorman, then stared down the barrel of a camera. His trademark combination of ease, steamrollering logic and a tinge of evasion was intact.

On power of argument, this was McCain's best performance yet. He was driven, focused and often harder-edged than his rival. He almost abandoned his nervous tick appeal to "my friends" (though couldn't resist one "my buddy").

We met Joe the Plumber, one of those ghostly members of the public who have the misfortune to meet a candidate one day, and turn into fodder for the campaign. A very long argument ensued about the impact of the respective health care plans on Joe and his employees.

Name-dropping is catching. By the end of it, Mr Obama was featuring him by name in the Democrat candidates answers too: "So here is what I am saying to you, Joe." Somewhere out there in a swing state is one bewildered plumber.

Neither candidate had a strong story to tell on the financial crisis: no stellar performance from Mr Obama here. But crucially, Mr McCain looked uncomfortable, testy and thin-skinned.

Debates are won and lost as much on the cutaway shots of the candidates reacting to one another as what they say and Mr McCain's gurning, teeth-clicking and, at one point, snorting will be used against him.

One underlying tension in this contest is ambivalence about Mr Obama's fluency. "I admire Senator Obama's eloquence," said Mr McCain through perma-white gritted teeth at one point, "but you gotta listen to words."

Eloquence and a distrust of fancy language is now an insult in the campaign, purveying distrust at Mr Obama's hyper-education and harking back to a mythological past of plain-speaking politicians.

Sometimes in the mellifluous flow of an Obama answer, the point does escape the listener. He has a lovely way of saying "maybe" the way parents do to children they do not intend to oblige, but are anxious not to have a row with. Hardball time. Would the candidates appoint a Supreme Court judge who did not agree with them on abortion? The short answer, given the salience of this issue in US elections, is of course they would not.

Mr Obama wriggled unhappily on the hook of an argument about partial birth abortion and a state test case and referred in one of his more memorable circumlocutions, to underage unprotected sex as "engaging in cavalier activity". "I am proudly pro-Life," said Mr McCain.

The final word was addressed, naturally, to Joe, the great vague American voter (Mr McCain does not do women, leaving them to the untender mercies of Sarah Palin.)

He would be "honoured and humbled" to be President. The at-bay look behind the eyes conveyed that he would also be downright amazed.

"Fundamental change, sacrifice, service and responsibility" concluded Mr Obama smoothly: the man with the White House now firmly within his grasp. It really is so, Joe.