US Election: Obama makes strong showing in Tennessee debate

i felt the debate was overall a success. obama showed the difference in policy vs the old school mentality. ‘change’ is not just a phrase. we have a real choice this time around. please vote your conscious. m.

GUARDIAN UK Ewen MacAskill and Suzanne Goldenberg in Nashville October 08 2008

Barack Obama and John McCain shake hands at the end of the second presidential debate. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Barack Obama delivered his strongest ever debate performance on Tuesday night to deny John McCain a comeback in his faltering presidential campaign.

McCain, losing ground in the polls as the Republicans bear the brunt of public anger at the economic crisis, needed a game changing moment in the debate. It did not materialise.

Instead, Obama did better than expected, delivering crisper and less academic answers than he did in his earlier encounters against Hillary Clinton during the primary campaign. He also made more of an effort to connect emotionally with the experience of ordinary Americans.

The town hall debate at Nashville’s Belmont University offered a mix of questions from the studio audience and the internet. It produced a more substantive airing of the candidate’s views on the economic meltdown and healthcare reform than the first encounter nearly two weeks ago.

The format initially was thought to favour McCain’s relaxed and humourous style.

But the Republican seemed uncomfortable, jumping up from his high chair to march towards the audience, and rambling in his answers. At one point, he referred to Obama as “that one” – a reference that caused some women in the audience to wince.

The age gap between the two men – McCain is 72 and Obama is 47 – has seldom been as obvious. The Republican, asked how the economic crisis would affect the three top priorities of his administration, appeared unable to remember what they were and jotted down a note.

That was a gift to Democrats in the spin room who variously described McCain’s performance as “confused”, “agitated” and “odd” – all digs at his age.

In an acknowledgment that the night had failed to shift the public focus on the economy, or inflict serious damage on Obama, a key McCain adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, accused the moderator, Tom Brokaw, of hijacking the format of the debate.

McCain will have another opportunity to reverse his fast-declining political fortunes in a debate in New York state next Wednesday.

After a halting start for Obama, the turning point came 20 minutes into the 90-minute encounter when both men were asked by a woman in the audience why anyone should trust either party since both had been responsible for the economic mess.

Obama, doing what he failed to do up to that point, personalised the economic discussion by noting that motorists in Nashville were paying $3.80 a gallon to fill up their cars.

“I understand your frustration and your cynicism, because while you’ve been carrying out your responsibilities – most of the people here, you’ve got a family budget. If less money is coming in, you end up making cuts. Maybe you don’t go out to dinner as much. Maybe you put off buying a new car. That’s not what happens in Washington.”

Obama spoke of the importance of spending $15bn a year over 10 years to gain energy independence.

The Democrat became most personal when speaking about health reform. He recalled his mother dying of cancer at age of 53 because insurance companies would not pay up, and said that the government has to crack down on them.

McCain went even further than Obama to try to forge an emotional bond with the studio audience, offering extravagant praise for their questions. “You go to the heart of America’s worries tonight. Americans are angry, they’re upset, and they’re a little fearful. It’s our job to fix the problem,” he told a questioner.

The Republican was also less formal than Obama in his speaking style.

But McCain’s efforts to show that he identified with ordinary Americans were undermined by the lack of specificity in his responses. The Republican frequently resorted to material from his stump speeches.

Obama, though he too fell back on rehearsed material, offered details and appeared realistic about the tough decisions awaiting the next president. That could sway independent voters who are angry about government spending under George Bush.

While McCain insisted that the next president would be able to deal simultaneously with energy, healthcare and social security, Obama admitted there would be stark choices. “We’re going to have to prioritise just like a family has to prioritise,” he said.

The mud-slinging taking place between the two campaigns – in speeches and in ads – was absent from the debate. Aides for both camps said it was not an appropriate setting for those attacks.

Yet there were clashes. When McCain reprimanded Obama for talking too loudly in public about his plans to bomb inside Pakistan in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Obama shot back that McCain had not exactly shown decorum by singing ‘bomb, bomb Iran’ during a rally in South Carolina last year.

Obama, in what appeared to be a well-rehearsed line, also took up McCain’s frequent put-down from the first debate in which the Republican candidate accused his rival of “not understanding”. Obama replied that he understood well enough it had been a mistake to invade Iraq.