The pundits are responding to an America that existed four years ago. Two, three, four years ago, Americans said they hated attack ads but lapped up the blood happily. Today, all of a sudden, we're scared--terrified!!--and all of a sudden we start listening to the issues because we're actually afraid of losing not some intangible honor or ethic but our homes and jobs.

There's been this fight narrative building over the past few months. Voters say they want to hear about issues, and are paying attention in record numbers, but they truly did want to see how well Obama could deal with real nastiness. They didn't need to see him bloody McCain's nose. In fact, what they needed was to see him keep his balance and center and refuse to be pushed off message.

The worst thing for Obama would have been if McCain softballed him, smiled at him, did the soft-shoe he did the previous two debates. That would have left undecideds still unsure whether Obama had the stuff. Instead McCain gave Obama the chance not to knock him out but to quietly step away, leaving McCain looking more like the annoying great-uncle who tries to pick fights at family dinners.

I think the most amazing moment of the night was when it was Obama who repeated what the Palin rally-goers had said--it took all the zing out of the "terrorist" and "kill him" words and made them simply rhetoric. Jujitsu, indeed.