An unremarkable affair

By any measure, Tuesday night's second presidential debate was relatively unmemorable and unlikely to change the game much, similar to last week's vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.

As was the case with that event, I viewed Tuesday night's town hall forum with apprehension, fully expecting punches to be thrown in both directions and vitriolic references to be made to the Keating Five and Bill Ayers. Remarkably, neither one came up even once during the course of the debate. Nor, for that matter, was any mention made of either candidate's running mate. The discussion was fully focused on John McCain and Barack Obama, overshadowed by two consecutive days of bad news on Wall Street despite last week's passage of the $700 billion economic bailout package.

Economic fears, of course, are largely attributable for McCain's plummeting poll numbers and general loss of traction in his campaign. He needed a near-perfect and crowd-wowing performance on Tuesday to dig himself out of the hole into which he's fallen. To that end, he failed. Although far more composed than in the first debate and committing no major gaffes (save, perhaps, referring to Obama as "that one" during a response), McCain did not deliver any particularly memorable lines or offer up any proposals significantly unique from the ones he's made already. In fact, he stuck largely with the talking points he used in Oxford, Miss., on Sept. 26.

On the other hand, so did Obama, whose performance was good but not masterful. He clearly reiterated his positions on the economy, the health care crisis, and the Iraq war, but not in an especially engaging way. Between his responses and those of McCain, it would have been easy to forget that this debate was designed to be a town hall format in which both candidates were to directly address undecided voters from the audience.

With this debate over, only one remains before the general election on Nov. 4. Even if McCain totally dominates in that one, it may be too late to reverse the direction of his campaign. Barring any unforeseen events or stunning revelations between now and the beginning of next month — which can never, ever be ruled out, and so I make this statement very cautiously and almost reluctantly — we may be seeing an early picture of how Election Day 2008 will turn out.