The conventional wisdom from last night's debate formed rather quickly. Basically, John McCain didn't do what he had to do to change the trajectory of the race. Polls bear this out, giving the win to Obama. I think on the whole the CW in this case is correct.

But that doesn't mean we can't look at the contrary view. As Byron York reported yesterday on NRO, someone "close" to McCain said he went into the debate feeling like he didn't have to go hard and fast after Obama on issues like Bill Ayers.

The friend said: "He's got 28 days left. He needs a strong and steady performance. He needs to be very empathetic, as he has been in many, many town meetings, and he needs to use it as a way to pivot to issues that the voters most care about -- to run a negative campaign against Obama, but on those issues .... the Ayers thing, in this kind of election, seems old and irrelevant."

I think McCain was steady and empathetic. He talked better about the economy than he did in the first debate. Meanwhile, right before the debate, the market continued to decline. Point is, McCain figured he would hurt himself more by appearing to ignore the economy in favor of things like Ayers. That was a calculation, and one that might prove fatal in the end.

But sometimes those of us covering this campaign every hour of the day can lose perspective on what actual voters are thinking. The chatterers are talking to the chatterers, who are talking to other chatterers. And what they all decided was that McCain needed to do what they thought right. He didn't, ergo he lost.

Well, perhaps. But in the echo chamber that is the national media certain things are sometimes lost. For instance, the media has all but declared Sarah Palin a drag on the ticket, and yet she continues to draw huge crowds. Someone out there likes her.

When events don't go the way the chatterers want them to go (or think they should go) they call it a defeat, a missed opportunity, etc. But what they're really saying more often than not is that they want politicians to do what they think is right. McCain didn't last night. He and his campaign felt it was better to talk to the American people, not to the chatterers.

Again, I still believe McCain missed a very important opportunity. But then I read the economic headlines and I wonder what the effect would have been had McCain done what the chatterers -- including me -- thought he had to. There's a disconnect there. Say what you will about the way McCain has run his campaign, but last night he didn't go for the cheap shot and did talk about the issues.