I’ve always thought that Barack Obama really clinched the White House during the third presidential debate—you know, the one starring Obama, John McCain, and Joe the Plumber.
Obama impressed me during that debate for all the usual reasons: his well-thought and well-articulated policies, his clarity, his demeanor. But above all I was impressed with how he let McCain insert Joe the Plumber into the debate, and rolled with it. I’m sure that in some small part of the brain behind that constantly pleasant face, he was thinking: “Are we really going to talk about this plumber guy? Well, OK.”
