This is it for the old warrior, McCain. If he wants to win this election, he has to win this debate tonight. The format favors him, as he’s usually less angry-looking/sounding in town hall-type formats. This is certainly the type of debate where the barf-o-meter will be off the charts. I’m sure there will be LOTS of questions by “concerned voters” that will be nothing more than thinly-veiled whines (“what about my 401K”, “I can’t afford gas”, “how are you gonna pay for my healthcare?”). I recommend Phil Gramm stay at home and read a book instead of watching this whine-fest or he might have a coronary!
Obama “looked” presidential in the first debate, which is pretty much all he has to do. He’s playing with the lead, so the game plan will be to do “just well enough”, not make any big verbal gaffes and to continue mouth platitudes and spending promises he can’t possibly keep (yeah, I’m not biased!). Obama just wants to run out the clock and that should be easy in this type of debate where, as a traditional liberal, he’ll be able to promise everyone a piece of the pie (even though the pie is half-eaten already and going fast!).
I don’t want to make a prediction as to who will win or not. Obama has the easier job, so I suppose he has an advantage, but I’ve never seen him in a town hall debate, so I’m not sure how much the format suits him. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of “umms”, but I doubt that will move the polls one way or another. McCain will have to win and win big in order to turn this race around.
