1、Transcript of second McCain, Obama debateNASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) - Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama debated in Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday night. NBCs Tom Brokaw moderated the debate. Here is a transcript of that debate.TOM: Good evening from Belmont University in Nashvil

2、le, Tennessee. Im Tom Brokaw of NBC News. And welcome to this second presidential debate, sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Tonights debate is the only one with a town hall format. The Gallup Organization chose 80 uncommitted voters from the Nashville area to be here with us tonig

3、ht. And earlier today, each of them gave me a copy of their question for the candidates. From all of these questions - and from tens of thousands submitted online - I have selected a long list of excellent questions on domestic and foreign policy. Neither the commission nor the candidates have seen

4、the questions. And although we wont be able to get to all of them tonight, we should have a wide-ranging discussion one month before the election. Each candidate will have two minutes to respond to a common question, and there will be a one-minute follow-up. The audience here in the hall has agreed

5、to be polite, and attentive, no cheering or outbursts. Those of you at home, of course, are not so constrained. The only exception in the hall is right now, as it is my privilege to introduce the candidates, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Senator John McCain of Arizona. Gentlemen? Gentlemen, w

6、e want to get underway immediately, if we can. Since you last met at Ole Miss 12 days ago, the world has changed a great deal, and not for the better. We still dont know where the bottom is at this time. As you might expect, many of the questions that we have from here in the hall tonight and from o

7、nline have to do with the American economy and, in fact, with global economic conditions. I understand that you flipped a coin. And, Senator Obama, you will begin tonight. And were going to have our first question from over here in Section A from Alan Schaefer. Alan ?QUESTION: With the economy on th

8、e downturn and retired and older citizens and workers losing their incomes, whats the fastest, most positive solution to bail these people out of the economic ruin?OBAMA: Well, Alan , thank you very much for the question. I want to first, obviously, thank Belmont University, Tom, thank you, and to a

9、ll of you who are participating tonight and those of you who sent e-mail questions in. I think everybody knows now we are in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. And a lot of you I think are worried about your jobs, your pensions, your retirement accounts, your ability to send your

10、 child or your grandchild to college. And I believe this is a final verdict on the failed economic policies of the last eight years, strongly promoted by President Bush and supported by Senator McCain, that essentially said that we should strip away regulations, consumer protections, let the market

11、run wild, and prosperity would rain down on all of us. It hasnt worked out that way. And so now weve got to take some decisive action. Now, step one was a rescue package that was passed last week. Weve got to make sure that works properly. And that means strong oversight, making sure that investors,

12、 taxpayers are getting their money back and treated as investors. It means that we are cracking down on CEOs and making sure that theyre not getting bonuses or golden parachutes as a consequence of this package. And, in fact, we just found out that AIG, a company that got a bailout, just a week afte

13、r they got help went on a $400,000 junket. And Ill tell you what, the Treasury should demand that money back and those executives should be fired. But thats only step one.The middle-class need a rescue package. And that means tax cuts for the middle-class. It means help for homeowners so that they c

14、an stay in their homes. It means that we are helping state and local governments set up road projects and bridge projects that keep people in their jobs. And then long-term weve got to fix our health care system, weve got to fix our energy system that is putting such an enormous burden on families.

15、You need somebody working for you and youve got to have somebody in Washington who is thinking about the middle class and not just those who can afford to hire lobbyists.TOM : Senator McCain?MCCAIN: Well, thank you, Tom. Thank you, Belmont University. And Senator Obama, its good to be with you at a

16、town hall meeting. And, Alan , thank you for your question. You go to the heart of Americas worries tonight. Americans are angry, theyre upset, and theyre a little fearful. Its our job to fix the problem.Now, I have a plan to fix this problem and it has got to do with energy independence. Weve got t

17、o stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that dont want us very - like us very much. We have to keep Americans taxes low. All Americans taxes low. Lets not raise taxes on anybody today. We obviously have to stop this spending spree thats going on in Washington. Do you know that weve laid a $1

18、0 trillion debt on these young Americans who are here with us tonight, $500 billion of it we owe to China? Weve got to have a package of reforms and it has got to lead to reform prosperity and peace in the world. And I think that this problem has become so severe, as you know, that were going to hav

19、e to do something about home values. You know that home values of retirees continues to decline and people are no longer able to afford their mortgage payments. As president of the United States, Alan, I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in A

20、merica and renegotiate at the new value of those homes - at the diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those - be able to make those payments and stay in their homes. Is it expensive? Yes. But we all know, my friends, until we stabilize home values in America, were never goin

21、g to start turning around and creating jobs and fixing our economy. And weve got to give some trust and confidence back to America. I know how the do that, my friends. And its my proposal, its not Senator Obamas proposal, its not President Bushs proposal. But I know how to get America working again,

22、 restore our economy and take care of working Americans. Thank you.TOM: Senator, we have one minute for a discussion here. Obviously the powers of the treasury secretary have been greatly expanded. The most powerful officer in the cabinet now. Hank Paulson says he wont stay on. Who do you have in mi

23、nd to appoint to that very important post? Senator McCain?MCCAIN: Not you, Tom. TOM : No, with good reason.MCCAIN: You know, thats a tough question and theres a lot of qualified Americans. But I think the first criteria, Tom, would have to be somebody who immediately Americans identify with, immedia

24、tely say, we can trust that individual. A supporter of Senator Obamas is Warren Buffett. He has already weighed in and helped stabilize some of the difficulties in the markets and with companies and corporations, institutions today. I like Meg Whitman, she knows what its like to be out there in the

25、marketplace. She knows how to create jobs. Meg Whitman was CEO of a company that started with 12 people and is now 1.3 million people in America make their living off eBay. Maybe somebody here has done a little business with them.But the point is its going to have to be somebody who inspires trust a

26、nd confidence. Because the problem in America today to a large extent, Tom, is that we dont have trust and confidence in our institutions because of the corruption on Wall Street and the greed and excess and the cronyism in Washington, D.C. TOM: All right. Senator McCain - Senator Obama, who do you

27、have in mind for treasury secretary?OBAMA: Well, Warren would be a pretty good choice - Warren Buffett, and Im pleased to have his support. But there are other folks out there. The key is making sure that the next treasury secretary understands that its not enough just to help those at the top. Pros

28、perity is not just going to trickle down. Weve got to help the middle class. OBAMA: And weve - you know, Senator McCain and I have some fundamental disagreements on the economy, starting with Senator McCains statement earlier that he thought the fundamentals of the economy were sound. Part of the pr

29、oblem here is that for many of you, wages and incomes have flat-lined. For many of you, it is getting harder and harder to save, harder and harder to retire. And thats why, for example, on tax policy, what I want to do is provide a middle class tax cut to 95 percent of working Americans, those who a

30、re working two jobs, people who are not spending enough time with their kids, because they are struggling to make ends meet. Senator McCain is right that weve got to stabilize housing prices. But underlying that is loss of jobs and loss of income. Thats something that the next treasury secretary is

31、going to have to work on.TOM: Senator Obama, thank you very much. May I remind both of you, if I can, that were operating under rules that you signed off on and when we have a discussion, it really is to be confined within about a minute or so. Were going to go now, Senator McCain, to the next quest

32、ion from you from the hall here, and it comes from Oliver Clark (ph), who is over here in section F. Oliver?QUESTION: Well, Senators, through this economic crisis, most of the people that I know have had a difficult time. And through this bailout package, I was wondering what it is thats going to ac

33、tually help those people out.MCCAIN: Well, thank you, Oliver, and thats an excellent question, because as you just described it, bailout, when I believe that its rescue, because - because of the greed and excess in Washington and Wall Street, Main Street was paying a very heavy price, and we know th

34、at. I left my campaign and suspended it to go back to Washington to make sure that there were additional protections for the taxpayer in the form of good oversight, in the form of taxpayers being the first to be paid back when our economy recovers - and it will recover - and a number of other measur

35、es.But you know, one of the real catalysts, really the match that lit this fire was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Ill bet you, you may never even have heard of them before this crisis. But you know, theyre the ones that, with the encouragement of Senator Obama and his cronies and his friends in Washin

36、gton, that went out and made all these risky loans, gave them to people that could never afford to pay back. And you know, there were some of us that stood up two years ago and said weve got to enact legislation to fix this. Weve got to stop this greed and excess. Meanwhile, the Democrats in the Sen

37、ate and some - and some members of Congress defended what Fannie and Freddie were doing. They resisted any change. Meanwhile, they were getting all kinds of money in campaign contributions. Senator Obama was the second highest recipient of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac money in history - in history. So

38、 this rescue package means that we will stabilize markets, we will shore up these institutions. But its not enough. Thats why were going to have to go out into the housing market and were going to have to buy up these bad loans and were going to have to stabilize home values, and that way, Americans

39、, like Alan, can realize the American dream and stay in their home. But Fannie and Freddie were the catalysts, the match that started this forest fire. There were some of us - there were some of us that stood up against it. There were others who took a hike.TOM: Senator Obama?OBAMA: Well, Oliver, fi

40、rst, let me tell you whats in the rescue package for you. Right now, the credit markets are frozen up and what that means, as a practical matter, is that small businesses and some large businesses just cant get loans. If they cant get a loan, that means that they cant make payroll. If they cant make

41、 payroll, then they may end up having to shut their doors and lay people off. And if you imagine just one company trying to deal with that, now imagine a million companies all across the country. So it could end up having an adverse effect on everybody, and thats why we had to take action. But we sh

42、ouldnt have been there in the first place.Now, Ive got to correct a little bit of Senator McCains history, not surprisingly. Lets, first of all, understand that the biggest problem in this whole process was the deregulation of the financial system. Senator McCain, as recently as March, bragged about

43、 the fact that he is a deregulator. On the other hand, two years ago, I said that weve got a sub-prime lending crisis that has to be dealt with. I wrote to Secretary Paulson, I wrote to Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, and told them this is something we have to deal with, and nobody did anything a

44、bout it. A year ago, I went to Wall Street and said weve got to reregulate, and nothing happened. And Senator McCain during that period said that we should keep on deregulating because thats how the free enterprise system works. Now, with respect to Fannie Mae, what Senator McCain didnt mention is t

45、he fact that this bill that he talked about wasnt his own bill. He jumped on it a year after it had been introduced and it never got passed. And I never promoted Fannie Mae. In fact, Senator McCains campaign chairmans firm was a lobbyist on behalf of Fannie Mae, not me. So - but, look, youre not int

46、erested in hearing politicians pointing fingers. What youre interested in is trying to figure out, how is this going to impact you? This is not the end of the process; this is the beginning of the process. And thats why its going to be so important for us to work with homeowners to make sure that th

47、ey can stay in their homes. The secretary already has the power to do that in the rescue package, but it hasnt been exercised yet. And the next president has to make sure that the next Treasury secretary is thinking about how to strengthen you as a home buyer, you as a homeowner, and not simply thin

48、k about bailing out banks on Wall Street. TOM: Senator Obama, time for a discussion. Im going to begin with you. Are you saying to Mr. Clark (ph) and to the other members of the American television audience that the American economy is going to get much worse before it gets better and they ought to

49、be prepared for that?OBAMA: No, I am confident about the American economy. But we are going to have to have some leadership from Washington that not only sets out much better regulations for the financial system. The problem is we still have a archaic, 20th-century regulatory system for 21st-century

50、 financial markets. Were going to have to coordinate with other countries to make sure that whatever actions we take work. But most importantly, were going to have to help ordinary families be able to stay in their homes, make sure that they can pay their bills, deal with critical issues like health

51、 care and energy, and were going to have to change the culture in Washington so that lobbyists and special interests arent driving the process and your voices arent being drowned out.TOM: Senator McCain, in all candor, do you think the economy is going to get worse before it gets better? MCCAIN: I t

52、hink it depends on what we do. I think if we act effectively, if we stabilize the housing market - which I believe we can, if we go out and buy up these bad loans, so that people can have a new mortgage at the new value of their home - I think if we get rid of the cronyism and special interest influ

53、ence in Washington so we can act more effectively. My friend, Id like you to see the letter that a group of senators and I wrote warning exactly of this crisis. Senator Obamas name was not on that letter. The point is - the point is that we can fix our economy. Americans workers are the best in the

54、world. Theyre the fundamental aspect of Americas economy. Theyre the most innovative. Theyre the best - theyre most - have best - were the best exporters. Were the best importers. Theyre most effective. They are the best workers in the world. And weve got to give them a chance. Theyve got - weve got

55、 to give them a chance to do their best again. And they are the innocent bystanders here in what is the biggest financial crisis and challenge of our time. We can do it. TOM: Thank you, Senator McCain. Were going to continue over in Section F, as it turns out. Senator Obama, this is a question from

56、you from Theresa Finch. Theresa ?QUESTION: How can we trust either of you with our money when both parties got - got us into this global economic crisis? OBAMA: Well, look, I understand your frustration and your cynicism, because while youve been carrying out your responsibilities - most of the peop

57、le here, youve got a family budget. If less money is coming in, you end up making cuts. Maybe you dont go out to dinner as much. Maybe you put off buying a new car. Thats not what happens in Washington. And youre right. There is a lot of blame to go around. But I think its important just to remember

58、 a little bit of history. When George Bush came into office, we had surpluses. And now we have half-a-trillion-dollar deficit annually. When George Bush came into office, our debt - national debt was around $5 trillion. Its now over $10 trillion. Weve almost doubled it. And so while its true that no

59、bodys completely innocent here, we have had over the last eight years the biggest increases in deficit spending and national debt in our history. And Senator McCain voted for four out of five of those George Bush budgets. So heres what I would do. Im going to spend some money on the key issues that weve got to work on.You know, you may have seen your hea