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A lot of low spirits out there in conservative circles about John McCain’s debate performance last night. While McCain didn’t really stumble, he just didn’t do what he needed to do: forcefully and clearly attack Obama on a number of vulnerable points, raising the issues that will define the narrative of this final month.

With the exception of McCain’s opening volley on Obama’s ties to Fannie/Freddie, he was fairly impotent, offering nothing but the same policy discussions we’ve heard many times before. As Andy McCarthy said on NRO today, “McCain’s only shot is/was to show that Obama cannot be trusted with the presidency.  If Obama is plausible, McCain loses.  And McCain, unfailingly, treats Obama as if he is totally plausible.”

For conservatives who had to be dragged into reluctantly supporting McCain, his campaign over the last few weeks has been, to be charitable, dispiriting.

It is likely that unless McCain somehow conjures up a shockingly effective economic message in the next week, he is toast. But, despite many complaints to the contrary, he has yet to really go negative on Obama, and that appears to be starting this week.

• Palin has already been calling attention to Obama’s relationship with former terrorist William Ayers, resulting in a CNN piece that largely supports the claim that Obama is not being honest about the extent of their ties.
• This follows a clear pattern of dodgy Chicago friends of Obama, including Tony Rezko (who is under considerable pressure to squeal on his political friends this month) and Jeremiah Wright. None of these associations help Obama, and if it begins to appear that he’s been lying about them, or covering up aspects of his past (like Obama’s newly discovered participation with the openly socialist New Party), he should begin to appear less the reforming moderate than he claims to be, alienating independents.
• One of the community activism organizations that Obama has been affiliated with, ACORN (which has also been a source of controversy in this credit mess), is being investigated for massive vote fraud.
• Still, the most damning of all Obama’s relationships should be Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who are spearheading the most unpopular Congress in history, and if the case can be made that a Democrat in the White House will result in a rubber stamp for their initiatives, there’s no reason why McCain shouldn’t be emphatically making that point daily.

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