Senator McCain meets Senator Barack Obama at Belmont University in Nashville in the second of three presidential debates.
The event starts at 9 p.m. Eastern and runs for 90 minutes. You can see it on the networks, most of the cable shows and all over the Internet.
The debate comes just a month before Election Day, a time when undecided voters — are there really any left? — traditionally start making up their minds. It affords Mr. Obama a chance to “seal the deal,” since most opinion polls show him leading Mr. McCain.
This should make for a riveting encounter. Mr. McCain needs to do something dramatic to halt his slide. He and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have taken a sharply negative turn on the campaign trail, and he may well continue that tone tonight.
The format is a town-hall style meeting, with about 80 uncommitted voters on stage with the two candidates, and that may play to Mr. McCain’s strength. He has a way of warming up with a live audience and feeding off their energy.
But here’s the thing about voters: they are concerned with their pocketbooks (or wallets, as the case may be). So while Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin have been trying to get some mileage out of Mr. Obama’s past — and fleeting — association with a former 1960s radical, it seems likely that the voters will pull tonight’s conversation back to issues that matter most to them, like the economy, health care and education.
