Their respective campaign aircraft stalked each other along adjacent taxiways before Mr McCain's Boeing 737 cut in front and roared into the air while Mr Obama was left waiting at the end of the runway.
Unfortunately for Mr McCain, the Republican candidate, there were few comparable moments of superiority in Tuesday's debate. The Arizona senator was under pressure to clinch a clear-cut victory to change the dynamic of a race he is currently on course to lose.
Instead, most pundits judged the contest a tie and a CNN poll showed that more than half of voters gave the advantage to Mr Obama, the Democratic candidate, compared with less than a third who considered Mr McCain the winner.