Democratic candidate Barack Obama and Republican candidate John McCain met tonight at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., in the second presidential debate of the 2008 campaign. Several OG staffers blogged their responses to the debate. Here is sophomore Will Fernandez's reaction to the showdown.

In tonight's presidential debate, I don’t think either of the two candidates stepped up. The debate was supposed to be in a town-hall meeting format, but it went on to consist of speeches by both of the candidates, who seemed to do their best to avoid the time limits.

Neither one was impressive, nor was there a clear winner — at least not in the actual debate portion of the evening.

John McCain, in my opinion, was told to do one thing tonight: be humorous and lively. That was a mistake. His jokes about serious issues fell flat. I’m not saying politicians should be emotionless, but they have to show that they care about the issues without making bad puns and silly, meaningless remarks.

The only good image I got out of this evening came shortly after the debate itself ended. McCain left the room but Barack Obama stayed and talked with anyone who wanted to speak to him.

This is what people who are interested in their government really want to do; they want to talk to the actual politicians. This is what has made Obama the right man for this moment in American history.

He knows that each person’s voice counts, so he will listen to every person who wants to talk to him. This can be time consuming, but it’s what he does and always has done as a political leader.

So today I will have to say that my ears heard nothing new, exciting, or thought provoking, but my eyes showed me that Obama was indeed the right man.