McCain has been talking way too much about himself and way too little about the big issues. I hoped we would see a re-focus when the debates began, but it was more of the same. McCain spent his time naming important people he has known for many years. In the meantime, he forgot to make the point that the Republicans are tough on national security and the Democrats are soft.

The first debate was about foreign policy, the area where McCain should have prevailed clearly. The Gallup polls show, however, that the public perceives that Obama debated better and that the debate significantly improved the public’s opinion about Obama.

If that’s the result of the debate about foreign policy, then the result of the debate about domestic policy probably will be even worse for McCain. He’ll waste his time talking about how he opposed various trivial earmarks and forget to mention that the Democrats eventually will bankrupt the entire economy.

For McCain, it’s all about McCain and his personal character, not about the government philosophy that the Republican Party has developed during the past half century.

Palin is just more personality politics. She gave McCain a boost because she attracted all the one-issue, fence-sitting independents — the abortion opponents, the gun-control opponents and the fervent Christians — back firmly into the Republican Party. She attracted such independents because of her personal lifestyle, not because she can advocate those policies in an intellectually convincing manner.

Bala Ambati’s excellent statement of his swing from McCain to Obama is an eloquent example of a larger tendency of many more voters.

I think it’s McCain’s own fault. I voted for Fred Thompson in the primaries (my fantasy ticket was Thompson and Gingrich), and my second choice was Mitt Romney, so don’t blame me.