The most electric moment of last night’s debate was when Barack Obama responded to John McCain’s rebuttal about Pakistan, when John McCain criticized Barack Obama for supposedly announcing he would launch attacks on Osama bin Laden in Pakistani territory. You remember the moment. It was Obama’s best moment in an overall restrained debate performance, and it was his best moment because it was restrained by mercy. Obama came back and argued that John McCain’s reckless words and actions as concerns Iran, North Korea and Iraq was by far the most irresponsible of actions possible in the situation. Here’s the youtube of that portion of the debate, and here’s the relevant section of the transcript, from CNN.com:

Obama: Just — just — just a quick follow-up, because I think — I think this is important.

Brokaw: I’m just the hired help here, so, I mean…

Obama: You’re doing a great job, Tom.

Look, I — I want to be very clear about what I said. Nobody called for the invasion of Pakistan. Sen. McCain continues to repeat this.

What I said was the same thing that the audience here today heard me say, which is, if Pakistan is unable or unwilling to hunt down bin Laden and take him out, then we should.

Now, that I think has to be our policy, because they are threatening to kill more Americans.

Now, Sen. McCain suggests that somehow, you know, I’m green behind the ears and, you know, I’m just spouting off, and he’s somber and responsible.

McCain: Thank you very much.

Obama: Sen. McCain, this is the guy who sang, “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” who called for the annihilation of North Korea. That I don’t think is an example of “speaking softly.”

This is the person who, after we had — we hadn’t even finished Afghanistan, where he said, “Next up, Baghdad.”

So I agree that we have to speak responsibly and we have to act responsibly. And the reason Pakistan — the popular opinion of America had diminished in Pakistan was because we were supporting a dictator, Musharraf, had given him $10 billion over seven years, and he had suspended civil liberties. We were not promoting democracy.

This is the kind of policies that ultimately end up undermining our ability to fight the war on terrorism, and it will change when I’m president.

There’s the most electrifying moment of the debate in Nashville at Belmont University, and at that very moment Barack Obama could have done so much damage to John McCain that I am convinced McCain would have slipped his tether. The Maverick would have kicked himself out of his stall and gone over the edge. Barack Obama did not go on, however, sticking to the format of the debate. Still, John McCain was on his heels, as you can see in his response, making a whiney excuse for why he actually said “bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran.”

McCain: Not true. Not true. I have, obviously, supported those efforts that the United States had to go in militarily and I have opposed that I didn’t think so.

I understand what it’s like to send young American’s in harm’s way. I say — I was joking with a veteran — I hate to even go into this. I was joking with an old veteran friend, who joked with me, about Iran.

Yes, it was all an innocent joke, of course, but we know about John McCain’s temper. We saw him struggle with it in forming that response to Barack Obama. I contend that Barack Obama had an opening at that point in the debate where he could have simply destroyed John McCain, not just by winning the Presidency, but by ruining John McCain’s reputation forever. There were words Barack Obama could have said at that juncture that would have pushed John McCain over the edge into temperamental oblivion, and scores of millions of citizens would have been there to witness the McCain Meltdown.

What words of Obama’s could have caused such a meltdown? He could have kept the floor after talking about John McCain’s recklessness as concerns Iran, North Korea and Iraq, and he could have listed several other times in John McCain’s career when he has been reckless. He could have held the stage and ticked off the following (these are my words):

But John, it is not just that you boasted of bombing Iran, not just that you called for the annihilation of North Korea, and not just that you called for the invasion of Iraq, where Osama bin Laden simply couldn’t be found. John, you have made a long career of recklessness, and it’s time for the American to see the string of bad judgements on your part.

In 1967, John McCain, what was your role in the devastating fire on the USS Forrestal, a disaster that took the lives of 134 US servicemen? There are many reports your plane was involved in starting the fire, and that your plane was the source of two bombs that vastly spread that fire. You escaped that fire, John, but many of your fellow servicemen did not.

In your first term in the Senate, John, you became involved in the Keating Five scandal, a financial crisis that is a precursor of our current crisis, also caused by your push for deregulation as a favor for your friend Charles Keating. John, you vacationed at Charles Keating’s house in the Caribbean shortly before the Savings and Loan crisis, caused in part by Charles Keating, a crisis which cost our government $2 Billion to reimburse depositors of Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan, and the total Savings and Loan crisis cost taxpayers $160 Billion. You’ve got nerve to talk about earmarks, John.

These decisions are reckless, John, and so is your attitude towards our current crisis. You just now claimed you would direct the Secretary of the Treasury to rework the mortgages of hundreds of thousands of Americans, but all your campaign has done over the past week is dwell on attack after attack. Americans deserve to hear their Presidential candidates talk about the biggest issue concerning them, John, and you simply won’t talk about those issues unless you can grandstand about it on a big stage. How many people lost their homes last week because you wouldn’t engage on this issue, John?

John McCain, this is a big stage right here. How about taking responsibility right here for your errors in judgement?

I am convinced that if Barack Obama had followed up his earlier comments with something like what I’ve written above, then John McCain would have responded with either a massive aneurism or a screaming fit. John McCain’s temper would have slipped a cog and the debate would have ended right there, John McCain an angry and gibbering menace in front of the American people.

Don’t tell me those episodes of McCain’s, where his judgement was devastatingly awful, did not cross Barack Obama’s mind. Heck, even telling the story about John McCain’s role in the Keating Five would have sent the man over the edge. The result would be a broken Maverick, a headcase showing himself off to the American people as reckless not just in rumor but live on TV.

Barack Obama, I am convinced, knew pushing too many of John McCain’s buttons would have boxed John McCain into a corner, and that McCain’s brand of being a “Maverick” would have been destroyed. John McCain’s reputation would have been destroyed as well, and he wouldn’t be able to hide from the shame even if he owned 700 homes.

Barack Obama chose not to destroy John McCain. He chose mercy instead for a man manifestly tied to many, many scandals that would make any legislature cringe. In the long run, I am not so sure Barack Obama showing mercy is a good thing for our country, but oddly, I am proud he did not break the Maverick. That would be merciless, and I think mercy is a far better quality for a President.