Yeah, yeah, Obama won the debate, no question about it.

What was McCain’s strategy? Go after the crotchety vote?

By contrast, Obama was calm and reassuring, and he was at his best when he called health care a “right,” with McCain offering no comfort by saying it was a “responsibility.”

But McCain’s housing proposal wasn’t a bad one. Let people stay in their homes and have the government buy the mortgages outright and renegotiate the price downward to make it more affordable.

McCain’s worst moment was when he called Obama “That One.”

Obama’s worst moment was when he accepted Brokaw’s outrageous premise that Social Security and Medicare will bankrupt us “maybe even more than the mortgage crisis.”

Rather than defend these programs, rather than point out, for instance, that Social Security is solvent for the next three decades and that, if we get our priorities straight, we can easily fund both of these crucial programs, Obama said, indefensibly for a Democrat, “We’re going to have to take on entitlements, and I think we can do it quickly.”

Yikes!

He also said, “I favor nuclear power.”

Embracing John McCain on these issues may be safe politically.

But that embrace may have killer consequences for all of us down the road.