It should be the word of the day. Here’s the New York Times on capitulation in the financial context, a “term of art to describe what happens when even the bullish holdouts, the unflagging optimists, throw up their hands and join the stampede out of the market.” A lot of conservatives are throwing up theirs hands today, driven into depression by last night’s debate. But let’s keep our wits about us, as Mark Steyn recommends. One more thought on Ayers. It’s an entirely legitimate issue, but not a magic bullet. McCain could have brought Ayers up last night, but Obama would have given his stock reply and it wouldn’t have been the “game-changer” everyone’s looking for. And if McCain had repeatedly returned to Ayers, it would have seemed weird and off-key. I think McCain made a pretty good substantive case against Obama, and he lived to fight another day. Palin will presumably continue to make the hot-button case against Obama (and it will get attention because the media’s so obsessed with her), while McCain hits Obama on the issues and experience. Absent some major outside event or a big Obama mistake, they’re going to have to try to grind down his lead in the next couple of weeks. I tend to believe that voters are going to take a serious second look at Obama sometime between now and election day and grapple with whether they’re really comfortable making him president. So this thing’s not over. Are the odds long? Sure, but they always were.