DaytonDailyNews.com

Adlai Stevenson — the Democratic presidential nominee way back in 1952 and 1956 — famously remarked that a certain political convention had reached the point at which everything that could possibly be said had been said, but not everybody had said it.

Of the 2008 presidential election, it might now be said that everything that could possibly be heard has been heard, but perhaps not everybody has heard.

Going into Wednesday night's debate between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, good citizens who have been listening all along had the sense that they were now hearing things for the umpteenth time. But different people tune into campaigns at different times. So a little tolerance of repetition is called for.

There is, after all, some merit to the point of Obama adviser David Axelrod before the debate: "We're not in the business of reinventing ourselves from debate to debate. That's not what Obama is going to do. He's been very consistent for 20 months. He'll be very consistent tonight."

That promise made life easy for Rob Portman. That former congressman from southwest Ohio had been playing Sen. Obama in Sen. McCain's preparations. (Who do you suppose played Gov. Sarah Palin in Sen. Joe Biden's preparations for the vice presidential debate: Tina Fey?)

Despite the promise of consistency, Sen. Obama did diligently prepare for the debate. He chose Ohio as the site for his preparations because, uh, the water here is highly praised by other debaters.

In truth, Sen. Obama was not the object of the greatest interest. What everybody really wanted to know was what rabbit Sen. John McCain would try to pull out of his hat. The polls have been trending south, and it's getting late.

Did he find a rabbit? He was sharp, aggressive and ready. Ohioan Joe the Plumber was his theme of the night. But the point that Sen. Obama's tax plans would hurt one particular person whose business was going to make more than $250,000 a year does not seem likely to move many people, nor should it.

Sen. McCain did settle some speculation by raising the subject of William Ayers, a formerly violent radical and a minor acquaintance of Sen. Obama, as well as the matter of the senator's ties to ACORN, the liberal group that has now been accused of fraud in voter-registration efforts in many states.

Some deluded partisans have seen magic in these issues for Sen. McCain.

In raising them, Sen. McCain seemed almost to be trying to placate those people and to justify the use of those subjects in his ads and speeches. But he didn't push very hard.

He concentrated pretty much on policy issues. He took every opportunity to critique his opponent's plans and record. The result was a useful debate. It might have bored some people at some times. But to those willing to take another look, there's real meat, as to their differences on taxes, health care, abortion and more.

Again, Sen. McCain was more dismissive and critical of his opponent as a person. More than once, for example, he accused him of being cute with words. In truth, Sen. McCain is every bit as cute.

Sen. McCain had a tough assignment. Nobody has ever actually pulled a rabbit out of a hat in a late debate to turn things around.

The pressure he has been under from right-wing "supporters" to find the magic rabbit by getting rougher with Sen. Obama is amazing. He has been intensely critical in debates and relentlessly negative in his commercials. A check a couple of weeks ago showed that all his commercials were negative.

But he has stopped short of calling Sen. Obama a terrorist, an Arab or a Muslim. The wimp!

In truth, though, both sides can go negative forever. There's always plenty of material.

Evidence that the negative, personal stuff is working in this election is decidedly scant.

What Sen. McCain could really have benefited from finding, upon reaching into his hat, was a rabbit that has a quick solution to the nation's long-term and short-term economic and international ills. Short of that, it's not about rabbits.