Town hall of mirrors

THE TOWN HALL format of last night's debate in Nashville did not keep Senators John McCain and Barack Obama from repeating points they had made in their first go-round in Mississippi, but it did bring out clarifying differences in their views. Obama said flat out that he believes healthcare is a "right" of Americans and not a "responsibility," as McCain described it. The Illinois senator then described the harrowing last days of his cancer-stricken mother as she battled insurers for her benefits.

McCain, for his part, pushed a plan for the US Treasury to buy up the bad mortgages of beleaguered homeowners as one way to restore trust in the economy. He did not explain how the government would afford this, but it was an effort to counter the charge that he is out of touch with the anguish many families are experiencing.

On these two issues, the candidates seemed to respond to the national mood that, while it is fine for the federal government to bail out Wall Street (with the votes of both senators), many Americans also need their own rescue plans to deal with health costs or mortgage debt.

The debate was mercifully free of the nasty personal attacks that have crept into the campaigns in the last few days. For that, the town hall format probably deserves credit.

Again, the country saw two accomplished nominees present sharply differing views on Iraq, healthcare, and the sources of the financial meltdown. McCain's mortgage-purchase plan might deflect from Obama's charge that the Arizonan was complicit in the Bush deregulation policies of recent years - the reason Obama has pulled out in front in polls - but if McCain hoped to shake that link or change the campaign's dynamic completely last night, he failed.