WaPo - Debate Preview - Obama Camp - "We are expecting to see John McCain at the top of his game,"

[Median Democrat]

A rare point of agreement by both the McCain and Obama camps touting McCain's mastery of the townhall format. It will be interesting to see if McCain takes a page out of Palin's book and uses questions about the economy and healthcare to attack Obama's character and patriotism. It will also be interesting to see if McCain continues to try to play mindgames, and piss of Obama, the way he did to Romney and the way he tried to do to Obama in the first debate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/10/05/ST2008100502674.html

/snip

McCain has done so many of these over the years that it's probably going to be the best kind of forum he is going to be in," said his former campaign manager Terry Nelson. "It's a great opportunity for him and the campaign."

Obama aides were trying to raise expectations for McCain even higher.

"We are expecting to see John McCain at the top of his game," said Jen Psaki, a campaign spokeswoman. "Town halls have been the signature event of both of his presidential campaigns -- he likes them, feels he does well at them and credits them for his political comeback in the summer of 2007."

* * *

This official said McCain is looking forward to the debate because he likes the freewheeling town hall format, and he expects it to focus on the candidates' economic plans.

"The key for McCain, if he is to close the race, is to argue that the change Obama wants is change Americans don't want," said Sara M. Taylor, former White House political director for President Bush. "Whether it's higher taxes or increased government involvement in health care, Senators McCain and Obama couldn't be more different."

Gibbs, the Obama strategist, said that any personal or character-based attacks from McCain would be complicated by the style of the debate, in which the candidates will take questions posed by audience members and, through moderator Tom Brokaw of NBC, from people online.

"I think they've announced they want people to forget about the economy and talk about Barack Obama," Gibbs said. "I think that's very dangerous and very hard in a debate where you are taking questions from real people."

/snip

[Raschel]

1. Eh, the old not very smart man will look weak next to young, brilliant Obama.

Remember, he's been stressing quite hard for awhile now and he's very old physically. I think he'll bomb.