Posted by Jed Lewison on Tue Oct 7, 2008 at 3:31 PM Pacific

Here's What I'm Expecting Tonight

In general, I think Obama will continue avoiding personal attacks, but will be plenty tough on McCain on the issues. He might say that McCain's response to the economic crisis was erratic, but in general the contrasts will be about his substantive policy differences with McCain.

I don't think McCain will launch any personal attacks. Sure, he'll make some false accusations about policy issues, but I don't think he's going to voluntarily raise any of Sarah Palin's lines of attack, and if a voter raises it, he's going to try and say "well that's a question Obama needs to answer."

On a substantive level, Obama will aim to make the case for why we need a clean break from the economic and foreign policy philosophies that have guided the last eight years.

McCain will try to avoid those issue as much as possible, instead trying to muddy up the debate with his false Fannie/Freddie tale and his equally false attacks on taxes.

Although the economy in general will be the overriding theme of the debate, my hunch is that the most significant clashes will come over taxes and health care. I also have a feeling that McCain might not be prepared for the aggressiveness of Obama's pushback on his tax and health care plans, particularly McCain's plan to tax health care benefits for the first time ever.

If McCain can't figure out how to handle Obama's pushback, tonight could be a devastating loss for him. I'm not saying that I expect that to happen, but one can dream, right?

Anyway, that's what I'm looking for tonight. What about you?