Facing Actual Voters Can Be Tall Order

How they acted

(NEWSER) - What viewers see is as important as what they hear in debates. So what did pundits see?

• "The expressions on John McCain's face, and the irritation in his voice, said it all," writes the San Francisco Chronicle. McCain “was a portrait of frustration,” while Obama looked like the proverbial “cool hand at the tiller”—just what McCain said the country needs.

Get ready for Barack and Mac to bust some Clintonian moves

(NEWSER) - Tonight in Nashville, don’t expect either a real “town hall” format or a true debate, advises Jack Shafer in Slate. We won’t see unvetted questions or reasoned exchanges. What we can expect are some interesting moves, with the candidates taking cues from earlier performances by Bill Clinton, “the living genius of the town-hall format,” who perfected the art of debate choreography. More»

'Showdown' could switch to town hall meet if only Obama turns up today

(NEWSER) - What if they held a presidential debate and only one candidate came? The scenario is looking like a real possibility as the federal bailout deal stalls, the Wall Street Journal reports. John McCain has said he will fly to Mississippi for the debate only if an agreement is reached in Washington this morning, while Barack Obama has made it plain he will show up regardless of the status of the rescue package. More»

McCain, Obama break with tradition and carry their negative campaigning into the election's final days

(NEWSER) - Both presidential candidates are bucking tradition and remaining on the offensive in the last days of the election—a time when campaigns usually back off and focus on positive messages, the Washington Post reports. Barack Obama is spinning Dick Cheney’s endorsement of John McCain as a troubling indication of a possible Bush redux, and McCain’s newest robocalls feature Hillary Clinton’s primary season attacks on Obama. More»

Fractious Q&As and need for 'volume' forces shift to big rallies

(NEWSER) - John McCain hasn’t held one of his trademark town hall meetings since early October, and it’s not only because they started turning nasty, Politico reports. Though the question-and-answer format revealed some distressing misconceptions in the McCain faithful, town halls also are much smaller than more spectacular rallies. “The final weeks are all about volume, volume, volume,” a political scientist said. More»