The best question came from Fiora from Chicago who asked what sacrifices Americans should expect to make in the years ahead, followed by the last questioner who asked, What don't you know and how would you go about learning it?
This debate, if anything, lacked sparks and electricity and at times was a little flat because both candidates lapsed into now-tired tirades about health care, negotiating with Iran with or without pre-conditions and everything else we have heard over and over.
If you watched the CNN man/woman meter, undecided women from Ohio seemed to like Obama's answers more, with men slightly more favorable to McCain.
My favorite moment came with a simple question about Iraq and what each candidate's position tells us about his judgment. Obama gave very strong, dare I say, presidential, answers about getting slowly, methodically and surely out of Iraq and redirecting some troops to Afghanistan.
Obama also had the guts to answer the question about the order of priorities of three big domestic challenges: energy, health care, entitlement programs. Obama answered the question, 10 points for that. He put them in the order mentioned. McCain said we could tackle them all at once.
Obama is currently seven to eight points ahead in the polls. He wins by not making a mistake and looking presidential. McCain who knows undecided voters dislike negative campaigning steered clear, for the most part, of nasty personal attacks that have arisen this week. He'll leave that to Sarah Palin and others.
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