I think that the debate will be over two points, that Steve alluded to above.
1) Senator John McCain will continue to raise questions about Senator Barak Hussein Obama’s lack of experience on the federal level. Afterall, the junior Senator from Illinois, Obama, only served about 6 months actively in the Senate before his run for president. One cannot pay attention to the issues and vote if one is running for president. Before this, he served in the Illinois congress. Before that, he was a community organizer.
McCain will spend a lot of time reminding the American people that president is not an-on-the-job learning experience...that is if the country is to be led properly. Very dangerous international situations abound. The wrong decision could prove very painful for the USA. Domestically, we are in a recession, made worse over energy price concerns.
McCain will say that Obama doesn’t have the experience to deal with either foreign or domestic issues. McCain will contrast Obama’s lack of experience with his own gravitias in this area. 27 years in the Senate, and many years as a US Navy combat pilot and POW during Vietnam. Senator McCain will push continued tax cuts to fuel an economic comeback.
2) Senator Barack Hussein Obama will attempt to tie Senator McCain to the unpopularity of the President George Bush years. He will highlight the fact that this current recession has happened on Bush’s watch, and that McCain will likely continue at least some of Bush’s policies.
Senator Obama will also attempt to tie Senator McCain to the unpopular Iraq War, even though Obama has had to admit of late that the surge has worked, and is waffling on ending the war quickly. The Obama campaign will make an issue of McCain’s age while highlighting the fact that Obama is young.
Also...religion will not play a major role for either side. McCain has never been a sweetheart of the conservative religious organizations who are in favor of morality and pro-life/anti-abortion positions. Obama has a history of being a Muslim as a youth, and a 20 year association with Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s controversial “liberation theology” church in Chicago. This is much more of a negative for Obama. Conservative church goer’s will hold their noses and vote for Senator McCain.
Also...We will hear from the unofficial voices of left and right. MoveOn.org, funded by the extreme wealth of George Soros, will run TV ads attempting to show McCain as unworthy by saying things about him Obama’s campaign will not. A new “swiftboat” type conservative group will run TV ads highlighting Obama’s 20 association with Rev Wright, a close friend of the anti-semite Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Obama’s long friendship with the domestic terrorist William Ayers will be brought up, especially in discussion of Obama’s early refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin and not repeat the Pledge of Allegiance with his hand over his heart. And who knows what more juicy bits will come up about either candidate. I’ve got breaking news on one of them. MoveOn.org’s George Soros’ father was a Nazi sympathizer who actively pointed out Jews for the Nazi’s to take away. Little George appears in photographs accompanying his father. Ah, the spectacle of Soros showing Bush as a Nazi when he himself has the actual connection. Can anyone say “projection”? -:)