Political science professor Dr. Matthew Wilson speaks as part of a panel that discussed current issues facing the presidential candidates in the November election in Hughes-Trigg Wednesday afternoon, one day after the presidential debate. SMU is hosting various events to discuss the election. (Casey Lee)

As the SMU debaters put the final touches on their topics for the second presidential debate, SMU students slowly staggered into O’Donnell Hall Tuesday evening to participate in the CCPA program’s third debate watching party.

According to the normal pattern of the past few meetings, Dr. Voth gave an overview of what to expect during the Oct. 7 presidential debate. Speaking solo this time because of Professor Salinas’s absence, he discussed the town hall format of this particular debate.

Voth explained, “a town hall debate uses a media moderator to control an audience of undecided voters.” Since the voters are still unsure of whom to support, it is the candidates’ job to persuade them.

Voth noted that this situation brings about an interesting dynamic of communication: while answering a question face to face with the audience member, the candidate must also effectively address a television audience of 40 million.

After his summary, Voth opened the floor for questions regarding the debates. Freshman debater Alex Ehmke began the dialogue, questioning, “when McCain attacked Obama about terrorist affiliations, why didn’t Obama say anything more than ‘you smeared my campaign’?”

The question-and-answer session quickly turned into an impassioned discourse on the merits and downfalls of each candidate.

While this debate had a much more subdued audience reaction than the vice presidential debate, McCain did manage to elicit amused laughter from a few of the students. The one comment, however, that everyone appreciated came from Tom Brokaw, warning both candidates, “you’re in the way of my script.”

In keeping with the tradition of previous debates, the SMU debaters took the stage to discuss each candidate.

Sophomore Victoria Sharwarko spoke first on behalf of McCain, stating, “he is willing to cross party lines to fix a sticky situation.”

Freshman debater Al Young emphasized McCain’s age during the cross-examination and furthered that theme in his opening statement supporting Obama, asserting, “McCain has lost touch with reality.”

Once the SMU debaters completed their arguments, the floor was open for students to share their ideas regarding the presidential hopefuls. The entire evening then culminated in a poll where the audience selected McCain as the winner of both the televised and student debates.