@lady tee: "Can we the people afford to have Palin step in as President? SHE'S NOT QUALIFIED."

I love it when people point out that McCain has been a senator longer than Obama, and then imply that Obama isn't prepared for the office. However, that gets to your point: if Obama isn't qualified, then Palin is in no way qualified either. If someone wants to argue that Palin is qualified, then they must concede that Obama is absolutely qualified.

Personally, I'd like to see a third party candidate in the office, but that's neither here nor there.

Adam Lopez said: "... Please God watch over our nation, and please have favor with us."

@Adam: As a devout Christian, I am concerned about your sentiments. Are you saying that your faith in God and Jesus will waver if McCain does not get elected? As a God fearing man, how can you claim to understand God's will? There is no doubt that God watches over our nation. No matter who wins, God is with us.

I really dont understand why we have to sit through so much name calling and degrading og characters. I would like to here the issues at hand and how they will be handled once electedinto office. I watched the town meeting debate and to me it seems like McCain was a little too energetic. Almost like he had a nervous condition, which caused me to also think about his age and what if something happens to him and he was elected as president. Can we the people afford to have Palin step in as President? SHE"S NOT QUALIFIED. This worries me.

The debate was a great one

This debate was alot closer than the last two, but John McCains' belittling nasty remarks is one of the reason he is losing in these debates. If he spend more time being strong on the issues instead of making arrogant remarks to Obama he would be better off. Also, John McCain is not being very truthful on alot of issues: #1 He said he always defended Obama when people said nasty things about him.(only once when the lady said he was an arab and he only said that because it was to his benefit.) #2 He said Obama ran a nasty campaign( from what I recall Obama didn't say anything about John McCain until his so-called running mate said he was palling around with terrorist and I didn't hear John defending him then.) So what!. He just doesn't want to stick to the issues which is the economy and the war in Iraq that we shouldn't have been in in the first place. God forbid if John died in office if he was president, and you get stuck with Sarah Palin, who can't name any supreme court rulings. Shows how much she knows.

I feel McCain won this debate. He was strong and direct. I am sick and tired of the news people always saying Obama won the debate. I they watching the same show!

i think that obama won this because he was really caring about the peoples struggles

@Adam:

When it comes to giving out scores for effective communication, Obama used his time to delineate a plan, so he gets the win. McCain did effectively sow the seeds of doubt - again and again - and accomplished little else. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

In short, the entire debate was about Obama: either Obama was getting his message out, or McCain was questioning Obama. I think this strategy will connect with the people who are already scared, but I am skeptical that McCain's performance will have the desired effect of scaring new people.

I believe John McCain is winning this debate by far. He is bringing out the truth about Barrack Hussein Obama, and the truth hurts. Obama has socialist views on health care and on the economy. If history has taught us anything, it is that Socialism does not work, for example look at the USSR and all the Eastern European countries during 1991.

During this very crucial time in our nation’s history, we need a man with experience who can run our country into the right direction. Obama has no experience in Washington, nor has he ever worked with everyone in Congress.

Obama is by far the most far left liberal and inexperienced candidate in our country’s history.

Please God watch over our nation, and please have favor with us.

@David - are you suggesting that these would be good questions for the debate? I think it starts off good, but wanders into Obama-specific territory. Since they're not equally applicable to both candidates, it doesn't seem like a good question for a debate.

#3 is oddly framed - this could also get to the heart of special interest groups, political action committees, lobbyists, etc. Honestly, I am having trouble identifying the core of the question, but I have an idea.

Here's my remix:

1) In 30 seconds and in language understandable to the average 5th grader, what is the role of the US Federal Government?
2) From where does the US Federal Government derive its authority to "bail out" people and institutions that make poor financial decisions?
3) Do campaign promises that involve budgetary alterations (allocations or refunds) constitute outright bribery in exchange for votes?

A three part, minute and a half series of questions:
1) In 30 seconds and in language understandable to the average 5th grader, what is your opinion for the role of the US Federal Government?
2) Given the response to 1 and in 30 seconds, why it is the role of the UC Federal Government to bail out people that make poor financial decisions, for example, signing an agreement to purchase a half million dollar home, when the person only makes $40,000 per year and pays nothing down; ends up losing the home: or a person taking $40,000 to Vegas betting on a 500,000 slot machine and looses?
3) The media has indicated that one part of the Obama tax plan will be to give money back to "middle- income" people. However since the media indicates that some 40% of "middle-income" people do not pay any Federal tax, this would seem like paying people for their vote; which is not legal for I think punishable under the law. Your 30 second comment on this?

I don't have TV so I watched the last presidential debate online. I had trouble finding a good feed until I settled on Hulu. Unfortunately, it seems there wasn't enough bandwidth to go around. Hopefully this debate will have better (online streaming) quality.

I created this video playlist of the highlights of the last two Presidential Debates between Mccain and Obama. You can also watch both full length debates as well.

http://www.redux.com/playlist/best_of_the_2008_presidential_debates