NASHVILLE – And that was supposed to be the platform where John McCain would shine the brightest?
For months, he begged Barack Obama to join him for weekly town-hall debates like the one here last night featuring the give-and-take between undecided voters and the candidates.
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Maybe that’s where McCain used up all his luck. Obama declined.
If last night was the arena of McCain’s choice, he’s in deep trouble these next 26 days.
Obama was loose, polished and seemed to enjoy the whole thing. Afterward, he stuck around for a long time, posing for pictures with throngs of people gathered on stage.
McCain was awkward and rambling and said some pretty strange things – like calling Obama “that one.” Several of his attempts at humor came off as brittle and harsh.
Obama was talking specifics about how he will rob the rich in these tough times to give to the poor, and McCain is talking about hair transplants and overhead projectors (an alleged pork-barrel item rigged up by Obama for his hometown).
Overhead projectors? Could McCain possibly be more outdated?
It was such a bloodbath that even before the debate was over, the Republican National Committee began talking down the face-off, pushing the notion that it wasn’t “really a town hall.”
One of McCain’s brightest moments came when he made the case for why the current housing crisis is far more the result of Democratic policies than Republican.
Wrongdoing at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were “the match that started this forest fire,” he said.
“There were some of us that stood up against it. There were others who took a hike.”
But Obama deftly dumped the whole thing right back in McCain’s lap by pointing out that McCain’s campaign manager worked as a lobbyist for Fannie Mae.
Much later, after the debate shifted from the pesky economy to foreign affairs, McCain fielded a question from a fellow Navy man about Israel.
McCain shook the man’s hand warmly and exchanged a little Navy talk.
All Obama could do was thank the man for his service.
It was the kind of moment McCain needed a thousand times last night.
It happened only once, and it came so late that most Americans had probably already fallen asleep.
churt@nypost.com