Watching Senators Obama and McCain face off at a table last night, it was helpful to look at their facial expressions.

McCain had a bug-eyed, about-to-burst look. He smiled uneasily. His face was full of tension, and he seemed to be holding the lid on his boiling pot of temper.

Obama , when smiling, seemed genuinely amused and relaxed. When McCain brought up the 1960’s “terrorist” William Ayers and the so-called voter fraud perpetuated by ACORN, Obama offered a logical and reasonable rebuttal to why these two issues are not at all important.

McCain has always talked about standing up to the powers, being a maverick (ad nauseum) and fighting against wasteful spending, but he has been the biggest cheerleader for the most massive waste of money in American history: the war in Iraq. He has talked about holding down the Federal Budget, but his target will never be the weapons makers, the war pushers, or those profiteers who look for conflict around the world as a way to line their pockets. America is demonstrably poorer, in every measure of well-being, than it was eight years ago. And McCain and his party, along with their philosophy of neglectful governance, has brought us to this shameful precipice.

The people who put “Country First” truly want to help America find a way to pay for universal health insurance, make education affordable and high quality, and finally get us out of our dependence on foreign oil. The “Pro-Life” party which rolls out an irrational banner of anti-abortion and militarism and gun fanaticism has failed the American nation miserably.

No matter how tough McCain was last night, the G.O.P. party is over.