On Wednesday, Oct. 15, the final presidential debate will take place between Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Barak Obama (D-IL) on the south campus of Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.
It is felt by many that McCain has the most to gain or lose in this debate. A recent poll indicates that Obama is slowly widening his lead over McCain in many battleground states. Polls can be misleading, but polling data shows that the battleground state with the most presidential implications, Ohio, is locked into a dead heat between the candidates.
Ohio, with its 20 electoral votes, was the state that decided the last presidential election with President George W. Bush narrowly defeating Sen. John Kerry. No Republican has ever won the White House without first winning Ohio.
An Iowa poll shows Obama with a 55 to 40 percent lead over McCain. In Minnesota, polls show Obama with a 10 percent lead. However, in Ohio, the most recent poll has Obama with a narrow 2 percent lead. The poll has a 3 percent margin of error.
These poll results seem to confirm that the economy – banking crisis, the rough ride on Wall Street and drastic increase in unemployment, have voters paying attention to the debates. To date, the candidate that has sent the most trusted message, according to poll data, has been Obama.
A CNN/Time poll completed in early October demonstrates that not only is Obama leading by a 51 to 46 percent margin, it also indicates that Obama is more trusted on matters pertaining to the economy than McCain.
Arguably it is agreed that Obama won the first two rounds, although for some, the second debate, based upon the town meeting format, was a draw. Some political pundits feel Obama won simply because he did nothing to lose.
When Obama and McCain go at it at Hofstra University for their final debate, many think that the charismatic senator from Illinois will win hands down.
Issues that face the two candidates will remain fairly constant – the economy, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, health care, senior entitlement programs such as social security, Medicare and Medicaid and rising unemployment. It remains to be seen which candidate can impress the national audience one more time at the final debate.
In the final analysis, the matter will be decided by voters on Tuesday, Nov. 4. The debates, the rhetoric and the diatribe will boil down to the American people, as it should be. The burden of fixing the economy, solving wartime crises and correcting the unemployment always comes down to the American public. They decide who is elected and they decide how diligent their efforts will be at policing the elected officials put into office on the strength of the ballot boxes across the land.
