In the end, Friday night's presidential debate was an anticlimax to the week's preceding political dramas -- the work in Washington toward a $700 billion Wall Street bailout and Sen. John McCain's campaign "suspension" so that he, ostensibly, could help Congress negotiate a rescue. But the Arizona Republican's political ploy evaporated as quickly as it arrived, and he appeared on stage, after all, at the University of Mississippi with Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. For 90 minutes, they engaged in an earnest, workmanlike exchange. There was no "There you go again" or "You're no Jack Kennedy" -- a defining jab or memorable flourish to give either candidate a rhetorical win. But there were lessons for both sides -- and the American voter -- to take into the next two debates.

Mr. Obama has to decide if he's running for president or professor. His careful, nuanced answers to some of the questions may show him to be the new kind of candidate he promised, but it won't win him the votes of people who may fall for the McCain-Palin line that the Republican ticket is a pair of reform-driven mavericks. Neither the Illinois senator nor his party drove the policies that led to the nation's financial crisis or the costly and tragic war in Iraq. The sooner he begins to hammer away on the Republican nominee's partnership in these historic errors, the better for his Election Day prospects. Otherwise, Mr. Obama's reward on Nov. 4 will not be the White House but a mere historical footnote.

Mr. McCain showed a remarkable talent for selective recall. By repeatedly chiding his opponent for not seeking "victory" in Iraq -- however Mr. McCain defines that after five years, $550 billion from the U.S. treasury and 4,100 American lives -- he seeks to conceal his complicity in a fateful war on terror waged in the wrong country. In similar fashion, he plays up his opposition to billions of dollars in congressional earmarks, some of which were sponsored by Mr. Obama, while playing down his plan to give hundreds of billions in tax cuts to high-end taxpayers. This political sleight-of-hand will work for only so long, until the voters catch on. Then Mr. McCain will have to explain why this "maverick" looks more like a sidekick.

If the first debate proves anything it's that Americans must pay attention not just to what the candidates say but also to the records they may be trying to obscure. In five weeks voters will go to the polls to elect a president, not a slogan. Let's hope by then they can tell the difference.