Tonight is Round Two between Barack Obama and John McCain, in a format that should seem to favor McCain:  the town hall.  McCain’s been doing town halls basically all year long, and if there’s a debate where he could really separate himself from Obama, this should be it.

Not that I have high expectations for McCain.  The man who refuses to bring up Rev. Wright hasn’t ever really dominated a debate.  (Not that Obama ever has, either.)

Tonight’s format?  The town hall means the candidates will likely be surrounded by a group of about 50 “undecided” voters – and I put “undecided” in quotes because you never know how liberals will define “undecided.”

Tom Brokaw is the moderator, another left-leaner like Gwen Ifill, and he gets to select the questions that will be asked from a pool that was already pre-selected.  Definitely expect to see lots of questions about the economy, and the current fad for this week:  old connections both candidates have that make them look bad.

My buddy Phil e-mailed me this week asking what I thought of the Biden/Palin debate and I replied that whoever people prefer, they generally think won (hence me giving the edge to Palin).  Phil said he thought the result was Biden in an overwhelming win.

Well, Palin must have done all right, because CBS reports that the race has tightened after the VP debate.