Both men effectively made their points at times - both got outpointed by the other on some questions as well.

The debate began on a somber note, focused on the current economic troubles in the US and on Wall Street.

McCain used that to propose a plan that's been talked about mainly by Congressional Democrats, where the feds would basically buy up all kinds of bad mortgages and help those homeowners stay in their homes.

The $300 billion plan was about the only "new" thing that I heard last night. Maybe I'm naive, but I would have thought one or both candidates would have come armed with something fresh for this debate, especially since the Wall Street bailout approved by Congress didn't fix things.

"McCain plan NOT NEW," bellowed the quick postgame press release from Team Obama, saying the feds were given the power to do exactly that in the bailout.

Obama meanwhile came out of the gate and tied McCain to the Bush Administration and the economic troubles of today, a theme that he's certain to repeat for the next 27 days.

Now if you thought that McCain was going to come into this debate talking about names like Ayers, Rezko and Wright, I didn't see that at all.

Slash and burn would not have worked. Just look at how turned off Democratic voters were when Hillary Clinton tried to put the screws to Obama in some of their later debates.

Obama did about what he had to do. He parried McCain on various points. He made sure to get in a few extra words after the red light came on. He did fine. Both of them did fine.

But just like in debate number one, both of them doing fine isn't enough to shake up this race.

I still think McCain needed to put something big and new on the table with regard to the economy. In two straight debates, the question has been asked of the candidates, what would you give up from your plans in order to address the economy.

Basically, neither candidate has answered that question in any kind of satisfactory manner.

If you want to change the direction of this race, one of two things has to happen. Either Obama must commit a major gaffe, or McCain must put something new on the table.

Neither of those things happened on Tuesday night in Nashville.

There is one final debate next Wednesday night at Hofstra University in New York.