POLITICO: “John McCain was very lucky that he decided to show up for the first presidential debate in Oxford, Miss., Friday night. Because he gave one of his strongest debate performances ever. . . . Sure, McCain is a pretty old guy for a presidential candidate, but he showed the old guy did not mind mixing it up. He stood behind a lectern for 90 minutes without a break — you try that when you are 72 — and he not only gave as good as he got, he seemed to relish it more.” Note that this is the other Roger Simon writing. I don’t think McCain’s performance was his best (he was much better in the Rick Warren forum); I’d say he gave a B-level performance and Obama was a B-minus. Edge to McCain, but not by a lot, and neither candidate distinguished himself. Both, I suspect, were tired and distracted from the economic events.

Interestingly, McCain was up several on InTrade right after the debate, but now he’s dropped a bit. I presume that means that traders who watched the debate thought that he’d done better than the ensuing spin suggested.