The World

Anyone who was hoping for some reassurance at this time of financial crisis, will not have got much from tonight’s presidential election debate. I thought the McCain-Obama exchanges on the Wall Street meltdown and the bail-out plan were feeble in the extreme.

At least Obama had four succinct points to make at the beginning, before getting sidetracked into debates about “earmarks” and other irrelevances. McCain gave the impression that he thought that the source of the problem is excessive spending in Congress. Or maybe he just knew that voters would respond to slogans about “pork-barrel spending” – and would get bored or irritated by complex talk of bail-outs. Still, the level of the discussion of the financial crisis was frankly depressing.

I also thought that McCain became noticeably more confident and coherent, once the discussion switched to foreign policy. While he was rambling on about the economy, I really thought his age was showing. But when the conversation switched to stuff he actually cares and knows about, he was quite sharp and effective.

As for Obama, I thought he was relaxed, coherent and showed flashes of humour. There were also flashes of silly populism – like the repeat of his pledge to eliminate US dependence on foreign oil within 10 years. But overall, I thought he did well.

However, let’s face it, I’m a foreigner sitting in an internet cafe at a conference in China. Who knows what Joe and Josephine Sixpack will make of it all.