| NASHVILLE — John McCain came here Tuesday hoping the second presidential debate would help him jar loose a campaign that for the past three weeks has been about the economy, the economy and the economy.
He didn’t get his wish.
Energized in his demeanor, McCain took his case to Barack Obama at Belmont University with waspish intensity, and he came with at least one big new idea on how the country can weather this financial storm. But the transcendent threat of the nation’s economic crisis utterly dominated the evening — another night when millions of Americans did not hear a crisp counterargument from McCain about why the Democrats can’t blame the meltdown on eight years of Republican White House rule.
By night’s end, while McCain knocked Obama back on his heels at times, Democrats felt their nominee had made no misstep and that a playing field utterly focused on economic issues still strongly favors the Illinois senator.
McCain needed to move the conversation beyond the economy, but a 500-point drop Tuesday of the Dow Jones Industrial Average made it virtually impossible.
Much of the debate was a substantive discussion of the $700 billion bailout legislation, the prospect of the economy worsening before it gets better, and the housing crisis.
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