By Cynthia Manker

The second presidential debate between Demo­­­crat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain took place at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. The hot topic of the evening was of course the current financial crisis. Fundamental differences were also discussed. According to the polls, surveys, commentators and general public, Obama scored highest on the debate scorecard.

In order to boost his campaign McCain, a 72-year-old veteran senator, really needed to come out of this debate as a victor. McCain never landed the knockout punch to take down Obama and his campaign. Obama was also the only one to mention education and the need to include it as a priority.

McCain's struggle revolves around persuading voters to elect another Republican president in spite of the plummeting popularity of Bush during his eight years in the White House. The economic challenges include retirement accounts evaporating, tens of thousands of homes in foreclosure, unemployment climb­ing and the plunging stock market trying to re­bound. Image

The town-hall style format was seen as an advantage for McCain, who does best before small audiences. However, this audience was instructed to show little to no emotion and they certainly can follow directions.

Both Obama and McCain were able to maintain their "presidential stature" while keeping animosity on the back burner as they answered domestic and international policy questions. McCain appeared comfortable as he addressed audience members directly was able to actual look at Obama during this time, unlike the previous debate. It was labeled by some as a rather subdued de­bate, just a tad boring, be­cause it lacked strong confrontation.

Recently McCain's campaign has unloaded a smear Obama tactic digging deep to stir doubt about his background and affiliations.  The attacks included Obama's links to William Ayers, a reformed activist and current Chicago professor. Obama has also unloaded a commercial questioning McCain's past involvement with the Keating scandal that occurred two decades ago. During the debate neither of these issues came up. Their insults were on issues. McCain quipped at one point that trying to pin down Obama's tax plan was like "trying to nail Jell-O to the wall."

The questions were to come from voters in the audience at Belmont University, however in the end most of them were from moderator, veteran NBC newsman Tom Brokaw. The audience was selected by Gallup, the polling organization, and was split three ways among voters leaning toward McCain, those leaning toward Obama and those undecided. Brokaw screened their questions and also chose others that had been submitted online.

The candidates continuously went into overtime when answering questions and/or responding to their opponent. Both men repeated many of the points they made previously during the September 26th debate.

Obama faithfully continued to link McCain to President George W. Bush, stating the financial crisis as the "final verdict on the failed economic policies of the last eight years." Time and time again Obama reminded the audience of McCain's consistent support of Bush. One recent poll shows that only 9% of Americans are satisfied with President Bush.

Contending that Bush, McCain and others had favored deregulation of the financial industry, Obama said, "they predicted that it would let markets run wild and prosperity would rain down on all of us. It didn't happen."

McCain pointed to large donations Obama received from individuals at two now-disgraced mortgage industry giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whom he blamed for precipitating the housing crisis that triggered the meltdown by backing risky mortgages. McCain did offer a major new proposal, a $300 billion program for the U.S. government to buy up bad home mortgages directly from homeowners and mortgage providers.

The legislation allows but does not require Treasury to purchase mortgages directly. Obama has said previously that idea should be studied, and his campaign and some analyst contended McCain's proposal was not a new one.

"It's my proposal, it's not Senator Obama's proposal, it's not President Bush's proposal," McCain said.

"There were some of us who stood up against this," McCain said of the failure to impose new regulations on the mortgage giants ahead of the current financial crisis. "There were others who took a hike."

Obama focused on connecting with middle class Americans. He stressed his understanding of the plight of everyday Americans worried about their jobs, falling home values and health care. He talked about his mother fighting with insurance companies while she was dying of cancer at age 53. McCain also tried to paint a picture of hardship describing that his dad was often away from home.

On national security, the candidates repeated familiar positions on Iraq. McCain rebuked Obama for opposing the buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq that is credited, in part, with reducing violence.

McCain said Obama "...was wrong about Iraq and the surge. He was wrong about Russia when they committed aggression against Georgia." In a condescending manner McCain continued, "And in his short career he does not understand our national security challenges. We don't have time for on the job training."

Not to be punched Obama was able to duck and counter McCain with sarcasm. "I don't understand some things -like how the United States could face the challenge it does in Afghanistan after spending years and hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq. I don't understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, while Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaida are setting up base camps and safe havens to train terrorists to attack us."

"We made a bad judgment going into Iraq in the first place," said Obama. He reminded the audience that the war on terrorism began in Afghan.  "I would encourage democracy there.  If Pakistan is unwilling to take out Bin Laden then we will," stated Obama.

McCain did manage to ruffle Obama's feathers somewhat and probably regrets it. He accused Obama of foolishly threatening to invade Pakistan and said, "I'm not going to telegraph my punches, which is what Sen. Obama did."

Obama was quick on his feet and responded with a bit more intensified emotion compared to his previous answers." This is a guy who sang bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, who called for the annihilation of North Korea."

Brokaw also asked the candidates when they would use troops for a humanitarian crisis, even if U.S. national security were not at risk.

Obama cited the World War II holocaust and the mass killings in Rwanda, when he stated, "When ethnic cleansing is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us. There's a lot of cruelty around the world. We're not going to be able to be everywhere all the time."

Referring to failed U.S. interventions in Lebanon in the 1980s and Somalia in the 1990s, McCain said, "We must do whatever we can to prevent genocide."

The candidates were also able to elaborate on their stance revolving Russia, nuclear weapons and possible Treasury secretaries. In the end the analysts say the debate was no game changer for McCain.

Political analyst Torie Clarke commented,  "Record versus rhetoric is not enough."  McCain was comfortable in the format he said but his years of experiences may not be enough for a win. Polls show voters have more confidence in Obama's ability to handle the economy. But his inability to lock up the race also reflects how many Americans remain uncertain about Obama, a 47-year-old first-term senator seeking to become the United States' first black president.

Unfortunately, neither candidate gave a precise plan for the current financial crisis. Both stumbled around the financial crisis and brought up plans from months ago. The debate gave McCain and Obama an opportunity to show justifiable anger regarding the budget nightmare.

This debate was crucial and it is still a tight race but in the end it is all about the electoral votes. Will Obama come out once again as the winner of the third debate? Both campaigns are working hard to have the answer in their favor. The next presidential debate is scheduled for October 15, 2008. with a domestic policy focus and will be held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.