In a  bit of an odd exchange: McCain appears to forcefully propose a spending freeze on everything but defense spending and money for veterans. But when pressed on whether he really wants this, he says it’s something we should look at....

			Whether America has to be ready to carry out military action inside Pakistan, an important ally, and against Iran’s nuclear program. In one of the more heated moments of the debate, Mr. Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, argued that he would take the war to Osama bin Laden’s cave door, whether Pakistan cooperated or not. And it was Mr. McCain, the Republican nominee, who argued that without Pakistan’s cooperation, any such operation was doomed. Mr. McCain took the position that Mr. Bush had taken until this summer, when the president gave up on the Pakistani government in frustration. With no public announcement, Mr. Bush loosened the reins on American forces to go into sovereign Pakistani territory. Mr. Obama essentially argued on Friday night that Mr. Bush should have done that years ago, ridiculing the $10 billion that the administration had paid to the Pakistani military with little result. At its core, the candidates’ argument is about the “central front” in the war on terrorism. Mr. Obama said it was, and always has been, Pakistan’s tribal areas and the neighboring areas of Afghanistan. Iraq, he argued, was a dangerous distraction. Mr. McCain made the case that Iraq was the central front, noting that Mr. bin Laden himself had declared that the battleground with America. The debate over Iran became the testing ground on where the candidates stood on pre-emption and engagement. Mr. McCain repeatedly referred to Iran as an “existential threat” to Israel. But curiously, given his hawkish statements in the past, Mr. McCain did not repeat his previous argument that it might be better to attack Iran than to live with an Iranian nuclear weapon. Instead, he called for more-effective sanctions, suggesting that he does not think Mr. Bush ever really rallied the United States’ allies, namely France, Germany and Russia, to pressure Iran. Mr. Obama shot back, arguing that the war in Iraq has empowered Iran. And he pointed out that the Iranians have built 4,000 centrifuges during the Bush years. (The International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest number is slightly lower: 3,800.) But Mr. Obama turned the discussion to argue that even while pressing Iran, the United States has to engage the Iranians directly. On this, he is in agreement with many in the State Department, though not Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Mr. McCain echoed the Bush administration’s argument, that negotiating directly with the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would “legitimize” him, and that you do not sit down with Iranian leaders until they first meet “preconditions.” That has been American policy since 2006. The Bush administration has refused to sit down with Iranian leaders until they suspend building the centrifuges that produce uranium.

			t was hard to tell if there were more disagreements voiced during the presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama or after it on television. The networks’ pundits moved quickly Friday to put into perspective a debate seen by tens of millions of Americans, although a clear winner didn’t emerge. It was a reflection of cautiousness, the closeness of the race and the influence of furious spinning by both campaigns. Rarely has the perennial battle seemed more important than this year, with both candidates facing an agitated electorate and both men locked in a tight battle that could be altered by the long-term perceptions set by these debates. To this end, the Obama campaign worked overnight to release, at the crack of dawn, an advertisement criticizing Senator McCain for failing to utter the words “middle class.” It was unclear whether Mr. Obama’s campaign was even spending a lot of money to broadcast the ad, which seemed directed at the opinion-leaders who would be appearing on the Sunday morning talk shows or writing about the debate in their columns for the next few days. For its part, the McCain campaign had already released an Internet video citing several instances in which Mr. Obama had said he agreed with his rival’s positions, a talking point that began to evolve even as the debate was going on Friday night. The frenzied activity was part of an intensive battle to shape public perceptions in the vital closing weeks of a razor-tight race.