McCain vs. Obama: a Town-hall Style Debate in Nashville Tonight

In the run up to tonight’s debate in Nashville, Kate Seelye at the Caucus (NY Times) mentions that Obama is leading McCain in most of the national polls; however, both CBSNews and Reuters/CSpan/Zogby Tracking now show Obama ahead of McCain by only three points. And according to RealClearPolitics, Obama’s average national lead has shrunk to 5.3 points today. The race is still tight.

Seelye offers scheduling information for the second presidential debate and also a few pointers regarding what to expect from McCain and Obama:

“If Senator John McCain is in fact trying to shift the focus of attention away from his ability to deal with the economy, it should show up tonight on the debate stage.

“Mr. McCain meets Senator Barack Obama at Belmont University in Nashville in the second of three presidential debates.

“The event starts at 9 p.m. Eastern and runs for 90 minutes. You can see it on the networks, most of the cable shows, all over the Internet and, of course, right here, live. We will also be live blogging the debate as it unfolds and fact-checking along the way. And tonight we have asked members of the U.S. military to watch the debate along with us and share their thoughts.

“The debate comes just a month before Election Day, a time when undecided voters — are there really any left? — traditionally start making up their minds. It affords Mr. Obama a chance to “seal the deal,” since most opinion polls show him leading Mr. McCain.

“This should make for a riveting encounter. Mr. McCain needs to do something dramatic to halt his slide. He and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have taken a sharply negative turn on the campaign trail, and he may well continue that tone tonight.

“The format is a town-hall style meeting, with about 80 uncommitted voters on stage with the two candidates, and that may play to Mr. McCain’s strength. He has a way of warming up with a live audience and feeding off their energy.

“But here’s the thing about voters: they are concerned with their pocketbooks (or wallets, as the case may be). So while Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin have been trying to get some mileage out of Mr. Obama’s past — and fleeting — association with a former 1960s radical, it seems likely that the voters will pull tonight’s conversation back to issues that matter most to them, like the economy, health care and education.

“Questions posted on the Internet for the debate show that voters are intensely interested in what the candidates will do to shore up the tanking financial system. They also want to know how the $700 billion bailout for Wall Street will alter their plans for other domestic and foreign programs.”

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