Debate day reading list for the second Obama-McCain verbal battle

The second presidential debate is fast approaching. We'll be live blogging the town-hall style forum here, beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST, like we did the first faceoff between John McCain and Barack Obama and the encounter between the vice presidential nominees.

Until then, here's a short list of some of the most interesting debate-related stories from all over the Internet:

Town-hall debates are supposed to be about the voters. So we first present you with two up-close looks at voters in swing states. The New Yorker's George Packer wrote about disaffected voters in Ohio, and our own Peter Wallsten wrote about small-town Virginians.

Wallsten also took note of the increasingly negative turn of the campaign -- and what that means for tonight.

Slate magazine discussed the potential benefits and pitfalls of the town-hall-style debate, while Politico examined how they have shaped past elections. Politico's conclusion: Talking points are rarely effective in this kind of forum.

The New York Times, by the way, reported that at least 6 million questions have been submitted to be asked at the debate.

Rolling Stone is out with a scathing profile of McCain (no surprise about that slant). Meanwhile, our own Dan Morain and Bob Drogin recently profiled the man behind McCain -- chief strategist Steve Schmidt.

An finally, here's an interesting piece on Google search trends during last week's vice presidential debate. Did you know that the most popular search during the debate was "maverick?" Or that the number of Google queries about Joe Biden jumped by a factor of more than 70? The searches for Sarah Palin, who had been very much in the public eye before the debate, increased only by a factor of 6.

Want to know the buzzwords of tonight's debate? You'll have to stay tuned . . .

-- Kate Linthicum/Don Frederick

Comments

[JSmith]

Who is William Ayers?
William Ayers was a radical who opposed a stupid war in a far away land where John McCain flew 23 bombing runs before he was shot down. Wonder how many innocent civilians died on the ground in those bombing runs. Any one wondered?It was a stupid war which ended in humiliation of American armed forces with over 50,000 troops dead and more than a million Vietnamese dead.
This is the same John McCain who along with the Bush administration threw dust into the eyes of the American people and asked us to launch a war based on fabricated intelligence. Remember Colin Powell showing fabricated intelligence of WMDs at UN which were never found?This is the same John McCain who would want us to be in Iraq for a 100 years, and would happily bomb bomb Iran.By God, the worst hell is reserved for those who value non American lives cheaper than American lives. Pray for your redemption before the day of judgement you conservative thugs who have stolen America. Your time has come to an end. Nov 4 th is the day of judgement. The Republican thugs will be thrown out of the White House.

[JJ]

Well, if either of these guys want my vote, they'll have to back off with the mudslinging. I haven't totally made up my mind yet which candidate I think will do the least amount of further damage to our country, so for me it's a "wait and see" situation tonight! Personal insults will most certainly lose my vote.

[larry clifton]

The last thin g in the world Mccain would do is "listen" to the LA Times give him advice. he understatnds as most Americans, that LA Times, NY Times and most newspapers have been in the tank for Obama since day one.
This will come back to haunt newspapers in readership for a very long time. If McCain loses, we don't buy your papers. If McCain wins, we don't buy your papers.
Anyway you look at it, large newspapers are going extinct - mostly because of their bias and political manipulations.
Coastal regions have a name for newspapers: FISHWRAPPERS.

[PulSamsara]

Why would America REWARD complete Republican failure ?

We wont.

[Jaime Yarbrough]

Why are there NO 3rd party candidates on stage
asking and answering questions????

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY ??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fortune]

Obama represent the poor, the workers, the societism/communism, the idealism, and he can't keep clear of terrorism.
Mccain represent the rich, the bourgeois, the capitalism, the realism, and he can't keep clear of bushism.
Who can represent the world? Obama, of course.
Who can represent the USA? Mccain, of course.
Who should we choose as the president of USA? Mccain, of course!

[steve rodriguez]

There go the Obama camp so quickly jumping on the race card! Obama knows how to play the "victim game!" That's why I will not vote for him! There will be 4 years of playing the race card! Just like the rapper Ludacris raps, "paint the White house black!"