Town Hall Gives Mac Preferred Platform

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»

Comeback unlikely for grumpy-seeming Republican

(NEWSER) - The debate last night was all about whether John McCain could pull off a game-changer; while some pundits saw his best debate performance yet, most agreed that he didn't score.

• Time’s Mark Halperin liked what he saw at first, as McCain "showed off the best of himself—dedicated, sincere, patriotic, cheery, earnest, commanding." But he lost it in the second half, getting "aggressive and distracted."

Says he will get tough with both candidates

(NEWSER) - CBS veteran broadcaster Bob Schieffer has vowed to stand firm when he moderates the final presidential debate tonight, and will press the candidates to answer questions put to them, Politico reports. Jim Lehrer, Gwen Ifill and Tom Brokaw have come under fire for being too easy on candidates in previous televised debates. Schieffer may be aided by an in-your-face format in which he and the candidates will be seated together. More»

Abortion, Supreme Court among issues ignored in McCain-Obama encounters thus far

(NEWSER) - There's just one debate to go, and a surprising number of "hot buttons have gone unpressed," writes John J. Pitney, Jr. in the National Review. A search of the previous debates' transcripts turned up plenty of topics that demand a visit:

• Abortion: “So far, nobody has even uttered the word in the debates,” despite the sharp contrast between the candidates.

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.