Economy shapes second debate
Politics Voters seek answers in town hall meeting format

From Wire Services

Published: October 8, 2008

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The presidential candidates turned a town hall debate Tuesday night into a festival of blame, issuing dire warnings about the other’s ability to rein in deficits and corral an economy spinning out of control.

The debate was the second of three between the two major party rivals, and the only one to feature a format in which voters seated a few feet away posed questions to the candidates.

They were polite, but the strain of the campaign showed. At one point, McCain referred to Obama as "that one,” rather than speaking his name.

"It’s good to be with you at a town hall meeting,” McCain also jabbed at his rival, who has spurned the Republican’s calls for such joint appearances across the fall campaign.

They debated at Belmont University four weeks before Election Day in a race that has lately favored Obama, both in national polls and in surveys in battleground states.

"The last president to raise taxes during tough times was Herbert Hoover,” John McCain said, linking Barack Obama to the Depression president.

Obama fired back: "We are in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression,” adding that he blamed "failed economic policies of the last eight years” — policies he accused McCain of abetting.

McCain offered the boldest sounding prescription to the crisis, saying that as president he would immediately order the Treasury secretary to start buying mortgages from people who now owe more than their homes are worth, to let them avoid foreclosure and stabilize home values. The plan, aides said, would cost $300 billion.

"It’s my proposal. It’s not President Bush’s proposal. It’s not Senator Obama’s proposal,” McCain said.

Obama made no effort to pick apart the idea. After the debate, aides pointed out that the bailout package Congress just enacted gives the Treasury the authority McCain would invoke, and they noted that Obama voiced support two weeks ago for direct mortgage buys.

The senators squabbled repeatedly over the missteps that led to the crisis, each accusing the other of ties to housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Obama tried to turn the page on that, telling one voter in the audience, "You’re not interested in hearing politicians point fingers. You’re interested in how this affects you.” Even so, he went out of his way to link McCain to deficits that have accrued under President Bush.

Economic malaise dominated the night. Stock markets are reeling. The credit crisis has spread around the globe. Retirees have lost $2 trillion worth of savings. Voters at Tuesday’s town hall-style debate in Nashville were angry about the $700 billion Wall Street bailout and scared it won’t work.

They sought reassurance and solutions.

For McCain, the goal was clear and daunting: expose the Democrat as woefully underprepared and reclaim the momentum. He conceded Michigan last week and lags by widening margins in Pennsylvania and other critical states. Allies, including his own running mate, have prodded him to take on Obama as aggressively as possible.

Obama was hardly in a position to coast, despite growing leads in national and state-by-state polls and the contest down to the final four weeks.

His task, analysts agreed, was to highlight a superior mastery of economic policy and, if possible, provoke McCain into an intemperate outburst to show himself plausibly presidential for those still skeptical about his short time on the national stage.

Obama has portrayed McCain as "erratic in a crisis” and harped on his role in the infamous Keating Five scandal. McCain has called Obama "dangerous,” and Gov. Sarah Palin accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists” — by most independent accounts, a hyperbolic description of his relationship with William Ayers, the Weather Underground founder turned Chicago community activist.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a McCain supporter, felt such attacks would be less effective than tackling the crises weighing on voters.

"That’s not what most people want to hear. …

"Times are tough,” he said. "Ideology, character and values is an important part of the presidential race, but the pocketbook and terrorism is by far the bigger part. And it’s to McCain’s advantage, it seems to me, to say that in tough times, we need a tough guy for president.”

The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates assigned the Gallup Organization to recruit uncommitted voters from the Nashville area. Moderator Tom Brokaw of NBC News chose questions from them and from others submitted via the Internet.

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