US presidential election

Debate: focus on the economy, candidates stick to positions

Article published on the 2008-10-08 Latest update 2008-10-08 11:37 TU

In the first, and only, town hall format debate between the two candidates for president of the United States, neither Democrat Barack Obama nor Republican John McCain veered far from what they have previously said about the economy, health care and foreign policy.

Moderator Tom Brokaw first fielded questions from an audience of 80 undecided voters in Nashville, Tennessee.

“It was a calm debate,” said Washington correspondent Dick Rossé. “No big news was created. In fact many people found it downright boring.”

Early on, McCain introduced perhaps the only new proposal - a 300 billion dollar plan for the government to buy mortgages directly from homeowners.

“I would order the Secretary of the Treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes,” he said.

“Is it expensive? Yes. But we all know, my friends, until we stabilise home values in America, we're never going to start turning around and creating jobs and fixing our economy.”

The McCain campaign released a press release minutes after the senator spoke, dubbing this the “McCain Resurgence Plan”, suggesting that funds from the 700 billion dollar economic rescue plan passed by Congress on Friday could be used to replace failing mortgages with fixed-rate mortgages.

When asked about the financial crisis, Obama continued to point to what he called the failed economic policies of the Bush administration, and then he brought up tax cuts.

“Neither man had any quick, easy solutions,” Rossé told RFI. “It was a typical wonk-like debate on issues.”

Neither candidate had anything new to say about health care or foreign policy.

Obama went into the debate leading in the polls by four to eight per cent. Some were expecting McCain to do better than the Democrat in front of a live, town-hall-format audience.

Often appearing angry, while Obama seemed to keep his cool, McCain may not have gained any ground in this debate.

“I would say on balance, [Obama] did probably win on points in tonight’s debate,” said Rossé. “He’s on a roll. The momentum is there. At this point, it’s Obama’s election to lose.”