A friend tries to make the case:

Jonah:
For all the handwringing on the debate, a few points. McCain did fine, Barack did fine. The questions were terrible, or loaded (how do you win the health care right vs privilege question, and conservatives should give McCain credit for not taking the easy road there). McCain did land a number of successful punches, and Barack basically played defense or counterpunched OK. All that having been said, at what point would it jave been appropriate to bring in unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayres? Or Tony Rezko? It’s not like McCain declined to swing on a mentor or character fat pitch question. Had he raised it out of left field, the storyline today would be desparation, nastiness, etc.. And that’s not so good either. They’ve had Ayers all over the news because of Palin for the last few days showing you can hammer away even outside of a debate. Did I want more last night? Sure . But very very rarely are these things ever a “knockout” and the alternative strategy carries some risks as well.