Debate Tonight: 9PM

Tonight's Presidential debate is in the "Town Hall" format which would seem to favor John McCain. I will be very interested to see if he continues the attacks that he and Starburst have stepped up in the past few days. I will be watching closely to see how the audience reacts if he does. Typically, voters don't like to see smears up close (unless they are Reds) and McCain could be hurt if he goes to far in front of the audience of undecideds. Also, McCain will have to look at Obama this time. It will be fascinating to see how much that pains him.

Obama has a delicate balancing act to pull off tonight. He will have to stay above the fray and address the REAL needs of the voters while trying to simultaneously fight back against the attacks as to not look weak. He has to maintain his advantage of "feeling the pain" of voters without coming across like John Kerry, unwilling or unable to fight back. Not an easy task.

Tom Brokaw is the moderator. I've never been a big fan of his. On 'Meet The Press' he has been very unimpressive and some strong arguments have been made that he leans in favor of McCain. I think that he is professional enough to not let that come through, but if his Sunday morning performances are any indication, he will ask unimaginative and sometimes uninformed questions. This debate is so important that I just hope he doesn't ask stupid questions and that he is as balanced as possible. Also, there will be questions from the audience and the internet. Those are always interesting and often unpredictable.

John McCain needs to do something huge to make up the lead that Barack Obama is building. As we've seen in this campaign, nothing is too dirty or too superficial. Maybe McCain will call his opponent Osama or come out with a Playboy bunny on each arm - who knows? But it will be interesting, and probably and little sad, t0 see what he tries.