The two men met for 90 minutes against the backdrop of the nation?s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and intensive negotiations in Congress over a $700 billion bailout plan for Wall Street.

Despite repeated prodding, Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama refused to point to any major adjustments they would need to make to their governing agendas ? like scaling back promised tax reductions or spending programs ? to accommodate what both men said could be very tough economic times for the next president.

For the first 40 minutes, Mr. Obama repeatedly sought to link Mr. McCain to President Bush, and suggested that it was policies of excessive deregulation that led to the financial crisis and mounting economic problems the nation faces now.

"We also have to recognize that this is a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by George Bush, supported by Senator McCain ? the theory that basically says that we can shred regulations and consumer protections and give more and more to the most and somehow prosperity will trickle down,? Mr. Obama said. ?It hasn?t worked and I think that the fundamentals of the economy have to be measured by whether or not the middle class is getting a fair shake.?

Mr. McCain became more animated during the second part of the debate, when it shifted to the advertised topic: foreign policy and national security. The two men offered strong and fundamentally different arguments about the wisdom of going to war against Iraq ? which Mr. McCain supported and Mr. Obama opposed ? as well as how to deal with Iran.

More than anything, Mr. McCain seemed intent on presenting Mr. Obama as green and inexperienced, a risky choice during a difficult time. Again and again, sounding almost like a professor talking down to a new student, he talked about having to explain foreign policy to Mr. Obama and repeatedly invoked his 30 years of history on national security (even though Mr. McCain, in the kind of misstep that no doubt would have been used by Republicans against Mr. Obama, mangled the name of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and he stumbled over the name of Pakistan?s newly inaugurated president, calling him ?Qadari.? His name is actually Asif Ali Zardari.).

?I don?t think I need any on-the-job training,? Mr. McCain said in the closing moments of the debate. ?I?m ready to go at it right now.?

But Mr. Obama seemed calm and in control and seemed to hold his own on foreign policy, the subject on which Mr. McCain was assumed to hold a natural advantage. Mr. Obama talked in detail about foreign countries and their leaders, as if trying to assure the audience that he could hold his own on the world stage. He raised his own questions about Mr. McCain?s judgment in supporting the Iraq war.

?You like to pretend like the war started in 2007 ? you talk about the surge. The war started in 2003,? Mr. Obama said. ?At the time, when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong. You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong.?

There were no obvious game-changing moments ? big mistakes, or the kind of sound bites that dominate the news for days ? in the course of the 90-minute debate, held at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Still, the debate served as a reminder of just how different these two men would be as president as they appeared for their first extended session together before a huge audience, including many Americans who are just beginning to focus on this long-lasting race.

The differences were in no small part stylistic and visible with a glance to the stage: a youthful 47-year-old young black man who has been in the Senate for three years standing on one lectern, facing a 71-year old white-haired fixture of the Senate standing across from him. In many ways, Mr. Obama was a very different candidate than he was during the primary battles. He answered questions directly and affirmatively, typically looking right into the camera as he spoke.

Throughout the debate, Mr. Obama called Mr. McCain by his first name; Mr. McCain did not. The direct engagement was encouraged by the moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, who declared, ?I?m just determined to get you all to talk to each other,? though it was an invitation that the two men repeatedly ignored.

Mr. McCain was feisty and aggressive but, particularly during the start of the debate, his language and demeanor offered a reminder of just how much he was a creature of the United States Senate, as he used phrases that were no doubt understandable in Washington but might have been lost to the audience at home. He spent much of the first 20 minutes of the debate criticizing Mr. Obama for supporting earmarks, special projects sought by members for their district. ?The United States Senate will take up a continuing resolution tomorrow or the next day ? sometime next week ? with 2,000 ? 2,000 ? look at them, my friends,? he said. ?Look at ?em. You?ll be appalled. And Senator Obama is a recent convert, after requesting $932 million worth of pork-barrel spending projects.

?I will wear his bracelet with honor,? Mr. McCain recalled, raising his right hand to show the bracelet that still remains on his arm.

The moment he finished, Mr. Obama said, ?I?ve got a bracelet, too.? He told the story of a Wisconsin woman who presented him with a token from her son who was killed in the war. She asked Mr. Obama to end the war so other mothers do not share her anguish.

If Mr. Obama came into the debate seeking to link the economic crisis to Mr. McCain and to Mr. Bush, Mr. McCain sought to portray his rival as a naïve interloper; he barely looked at him all night, and seven times used a variation of the phrase that Mr. Obama ?doesn?t understand.?

?I?m afraid Senator Obama doesn?t understand? and ?What Senator Obama doesn?t seem to understand? and ?Senator Obama still doesn?t understand? were Mr. McCain?s constant refrains, delivered with a frozen smile and a hint of condescension.

?A little bit of naïvete there,? Mr. McCain said after Mr. Obama?s remarks on a question about the American-Russian relationship.

The two men were somewhat wary of the debate?s unusual format ? each had two minutes to answer a question, and then five minutes for free-flowing and perhaps unpredictable debate. During the first question, they generally kept outlining their policy views rather than engaging directly.

?Ten days ago, John said the fundamentals of the economy are strong?? Mr. Obama started.

?Say it directly to him,? said Mr. Lehrer, the moderator.

?John, you said 10 days ago the fundamentals of the economy are strong ? ?? Mr. Obama said to laughter.

?Are you afraid I couldn?t hear him?? Mr. McCain said to Mr. Lehrer, to more laughter.

The differences between the two men included taxes, Iraq and the Iran. When Mr. McCain was asked how he would deal with the economic crisis, he talked about curbing government spending, especially what he said was $18 billion in spending on the pet projects known as earmarks.

?The first thing we have to do is get spending under control in Washington. It?s completely out of control,? he said, and assailed Mr. Obama for requesting $932 million in earmark spending as a senator.

?That kind of thing is not the way to rein in runaway spending in Washington, D.C.,? he said ?That?s one of the fundamental differences that Senator Obama and I have.?

Mr. Obama responded by assailing Mr. McCain?s call for tax cuts for the wealthy. ?Let?s be clear: earmarks account for $18 billion in last year?s budget. Senator McCain is proposing -- and this is a fundamental difference between us ? $300 billion in tax cuts to some of the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the country, $300 billion. Now, $18 billion is important; $300 billion is really important.?

Turning to Mr. McCain, he said: ?John, it?s been your president who you said you agreed with 90 percent of the time who presided over this increase in spending, this orgy of spending and enormous deficits and you voted for almost all of his budgets.?

Mr. McCain accused Mr. Obama of having ?the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate.? He chuckled aloud, adding: ?It?s hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the left.?

A few moments later, Mr. Obama responded: ?John mentioned me being wildly liberal. Mostly, that?s just me opposing George Bush?s wrongheaded policies since I?ve been in Congress.?

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/us/politics/27debatecnd.html?hp

Crisis financiera y política exterior dominaron el debate

Mientras Obama se refería a su oponente como John; McCain lo trató con distancia

Detienen al inspector de la Aviación por "conspirar"

Comisión de la AN difundió grabación que involucra a Vinicio De Sola