"Against a backdrop of an unfolding meltdown in global financial markets and the near-certainty of a U.S. recession, the two candidates for president used the occasion of a much-anticipated town hall meeting last night to repeat all the talking points they were making long before the recent bank failures, the free fall of stock prices and the federal government's expensive rescue efforts. "

POST DEBATE RODEO:
* "The markets took another plunge Tuesday in what pretty much everybody calls the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And we're talking about overhead projectors?" -Dana Milbank
* Meanwhile, Tom Shales felt letdown. And Howard Kurtz wanted more substance.
* 'What we still don't know about Obama and McCain.'
* Hee. rstevens on That One.
* "The McCain campaign's pivots have been more extraordinary and on a grander scale. His campaign's current hardball strategy has come to exemplify the exact sort of tactics that he has long criticized.