Candace Suerstedt

McCain continually treated Obama with a contempt that was jarringly inappropriate in this arena. & Obama continued to deflect McCain's assertions, some of them false, with the calm strength of the Statesman he is. It seems Obama decided to be conciliatory rather than aggressive in his rebuttals though at times, I would have appreciated more confrontation on Obama's part.

Almost everyday I receive emails and phone calls from friends and colleagues who have fallen for some

Doesn't the truth stand for anything? & Words are supposed to have meaning...that is how civilized cultures have progressed. & Without a consensus in the meaning of words, we have chaos.

Was Giuliani secretly sneering at all those "community organizers" who poured humanitarian aid into New York after the terrorist flew into the World Trade Center? & He, on the other hand, was "executive" enough to parlay his name recognition, after the September 11, 2001 attacks, into forming his own

Several weeks ago, I decided to call my African American friends across the country -- some of whom I hadn't seen in years. & I was shocked to learn how many of them, especially those old enough to remember

I tried to watch with an open mind as first Obama, and then McCain subjected themselves to Pastor Rick's questions. If there was a good outcome, at least Obama's declaration of faith, honed in years of attending a Baptist Church, should lay to rest any discussion of his being a Muslim. & Aside from that, I could see no real value in the remaining hour and 45 minutes of the show. Basically Obama gave complex and philosophical answers to complex issues and McCain generally gave short, knee jerk but semi-effective sound bite answers to complex issues. &