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Chattanooga: Candidates come out swinging in debate, but local voter group not swayed

By: Matt Wilson
(Contact)

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Michael Blank & Bob Hartje

Despite jabs from both presidential candidates in Tuesday’s debate, many panelists in a Times Free Press focus group said the sparring match didn’t have much effect on how they plan to vote.

Larry Ingle, 71, said he didn’t hear much new.

“Much of what I heard was them saying their talking points over and over and over again,” he said.

A group of about 25 people gathered on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to watch the debate, going on about 130 miles away at Belmont University in Nashville. A few participants said the debate did sway them, at least a little, toward U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., or U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Michael Blank, 35, said he was impressed by Sen. McCain.

“I was leaning toward Barack Obama, and I think I’m now more undecided as to which I would choose,” he said. “I feel like we got some more definite answers out of McCain’s answer’s tonight.”

But Bob Hartje, 59, who came into the debate undecided, said he thought Sen. Obama gave more concrete answers.

“I was concerned that Sen. Obama would spend a lot,” he said. “I was concerned about his domestic policy. I got a message today that he was not going to spend, spend, spend. I got a message that he was going to reduce the size of government.”

Most in the group — 18 — said they had decided before the debate whose name they would mark on their ballots on Election Day. At the end of the debate, about the same number said they knew who’d they’d vote for, but it wasn’t the same exact people.

Poll data show that the number of undecided Tennessee voters in this year’s presidential race is decreasing as time ticks down toward the Nov. 4 election.

A Rasmussen Reports poll conducted in late June put the number of undecided voters in Tennessee at about 8 percent. By late September, when Mason-Dixon Polling and Research conducted a statewide survey for the Times Free Press, that figure had decreased by 2 percentage points.

The Times Free Press poll also showed a 16-point lead for Sen. McCain in Tennessee over Sen. Obama. Most other polls show Sen. McCain with a similar lead in the state.

But nationwide, Sen. Obama is leading in most polls. In the latest Gallup Poll daily tracking update, for instance, he leads Sen. McCain by 9 percentage points — 51 percent to 42 percent, the Associated Press reported.

Also in the Times Free Press poll, more than half of the 625 respondents said the economy was the No. 1 issue facing the nation.

Staff Photo by Tim Barber A group of 25 people listen as Times Free Press reporter Matt Wilson informs attendee's on how the proceedings will go during and following the viewing of the presidential debate Tuesday night.

Some of the participants in Tuesday’s panel at UTC said they wished the candidates had said more about the economic crisis.

Brittiny Lattimore, 21, said she wanted to hear more from Sen. Obama on how health care and the economy go hand-in-hand.

Kate Burkhalter, 25, said she wanted to hear more about gas prices, and she noted one statement that caught her attention.

“I was a little concerned with McCain’s proposal for a spending freeze,” she said.

Tuesday’s debate, which featured a town-hall format, was the second of three presidential debates this year. The third, set for Oct. 15 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., will focus on the economy and domestic policy, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

That debate will occur on the first day of early voting in Tennessee.

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