I don’t buy the idea that McCain had to do something phenomenal tonight to pull this race out. Debates, especially this cycle, aren’t made for game-changing, and his margin is small enough that slow and steady could conceivably pull him out. But a better performance than he gave tonight would have been extremely helpful. I thought McCain clearly won the first debate, both on performance and points. I thought McCain was righter than Obama in the second debate, but not as effective. Tonight, I thought he was about the same as the second debate, but higher stakes and more urgency made the performance more problematic. That’s not to say McCain wasn’t good. He was. He continues to carry the right message on taxes, on health care, on foreign policy, and economic growth. But did he carry it well enough? Joe the Plumber will certainly be a centerpiece of the cable network discussions this week, which means that particular YouTube will be played and played again, both on TV and by voters. This is an unquestionably good thing for McCain, as many Americans don’t much like the idea of “spreading the wealth around” after they’ve worked hard to earn it. McCain seemed almost to drop the ball by declining to mention “spreading the wealth” in his first go-round, but he came back around to it after Obama’s dishonest retort, which included an answer he never even came close to giving Joe: