But Bob Schieffer of CBS News was the one asking questions, and he managed to get in a couple that amped the energy level over the first two snore sessions that passed for presidential debates.

After weeks of really negative campaigning and attack ads, Schieffer threw down and asked Barack Obama and John McCain to just turn and say it to each other's face.

It fit with the aggressive tone and impossible mission that McCain had coming into and during the debate. Trailing badly in every poll that matters, McCain needed to attack effectively while leading undecided voters down a logical path back to him. He did neither.

Calm and cool wins the race at this print and Obama defined it. Throughout the debate, McCain sat back, then forward, then back. He blinked a lot. He raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes. He sighed, stuttered and had fits of rueful laughter.

"Americans are angry," he said, over and over.

Obama just pursed his lips, shook his head, turned to the camera and addressed voters. McCain also spoke into the camera, but almost grudgingly, like how Dad looks at you when he's angry or frustrated.

Early on, it did appear that McCain might accomplish what he needed to. He looked his opponent in the eye. Obama started ducking questions about a supporter's linking of McCain to segregationist policies, and specifics on the budget he would inherit.

McCain challenged the Democrat's portrayal of him as another George W. Bush with a great line:

"I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago," he snapped.

But McCain's attacks veered into the politics that each had already spent 15 minutes debating. Namely, William Ayers and ACORN, two points his campaign has been drilling into the airwaves. Obama calmly explained his relationship to both.

The attack fizzled but McCain wouldn't drop it.

"Records are record," he insisted. "Details need to be known."

Seconds later, he veered back to the economy and how "that's really what this campaign is going to be about."

Something else came up that's been absent so far in these debates: abortion.

Social issues have taken a backseat during debates because the economic crisis, kinda, maybe, well . seems more important. But McCain has been trying to make this campaign about character, so he pressed Obama as an extremist, as "pro-abortion," not just pro-choice.

The abortion discussion could have devolved into the same polarized debate but Obama took a different tack. He spoke of "common ground" and trying to "prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth." It stunted the attack.

Schieffer also brought up the elephant in the campaign: How might your running mate do if something happened to you? Easy question for Obama. Impossible question for McCain. Sarah Palin in charge is a nightmare scenario for millions and McCain recited her qualifications with a forced grin.

McCain had an odd moment during the Palin question, pandering to voters with special-needs children (Palin's son has Down syndrome), focusing on autism being on the rise and how she understands that.

He came back to it later, allowing Obama to point out how his across-the-board spending cut would impact special-needs programs. The female pandering seemed at odds with his slam on Obama's "eloquence" over abortion ban exemptions for the mother's health.

With a little more than two weeks left to campaign, the final debate was no more the game changer than either one previous. McCain was more animated, sure, but what good does that do him? His advisers have acknowledged they will lose by running on the economy, hence the vitriol campaigning.

I guess that means stand by with your mute button for the final barrage of ads and wait for the still unseen "October Surprise." It had better get a move on.

Ironically, it came out late Thursday that "Joe the Plumber" is really named Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, of Toledo, Ohio. He's an unlicensed plumber who is far from being able to start a $250,000 business, the basis for a question to Obama last weekend on the campaign trail that unwittingly made him the latest media sensation. ?

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