First Debate Stuck in Limbo

(NEWSER) - John McCain and Barack Obama met tonight in the final presidential debate, their testiest meeting so far on a range of issues from the economy to negative campaigning, NBC reports. McCain pushed back against Obama's attempts to link him to the Bush administration. “Senator Obama, I’m not President Bush. If you want to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.” Obama kept it up, though, saying America doesn't need the "same failed policies." More»

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.

Candidates won't be as easily able to duck pointed questions in tonight's debate format

(NEWSER) - The presidential candidates will be walking into a lion’s den tonight, forced to face those most dangerous of creatures: undecided voters. The town-hall debate could be a “snooze-fest,” writes John Dickerson on Slate, but there’s also a chance “Ponytail Guy”—the town-haller who famously befuddled George H.W. Bush in 1992—will show up. If that happens, John McCain could be in trouble. More»

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»

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»