Schieffer to moderate last presidential debate

It's always a tough call for a journalist in this situation. Do you ask the question, and trust that it's evident to viewers when the candidate is completely ignoring it? Or do you press persistently, taking the risk that your conduct becomes the issue as much as the question itself — as CNN's Campbell Brown found when her questioning of a McCain aide angered the campaign.

Bruce Cain, director of the Washington program for the University of California at Berkeley, said he hoped Schieffer could compel the candidates to speak more specifically about the steps they would take to solve the economic crisis, both short- and long-term.

"We didn't, as many people have noted, hear anything in the (second) debate that we didn't hear three months ago, other than they support the bailout plan," Cain said.

New proposals carry risk
That's not entirely true, as McCain used the forum to discuss a plan to buy the mortgages of struggling homeowners. Making new proposals carry a risk; MSNBC's measurement of what undecided Republican voters were thinking while listening to the debate found an immediate negative reaction to McCain's proposal.

To a certain extent, the debates at this stage are almost moderator-proof, Cain said. The candidates have long since figured out what they do or don't want to say, and they've had a year's worth of practice making their points in regular debates.

"It may be that our expectations of what the debates are all about have to be adjusted to reality," Cain said.

Sam Feist, political director at CNN, said he believed the debate's format allows for some flexibility. "It sets the stage for the last debate to be the most interesting of the debates," he said.

Since he knew he would be moderating the debate, Schieffer has been clipping articles and consulting think-tank experts to come up with ideas for questions. He was sitting down to read the transcript of the first two presidential debates.

When he moderated a George W. Bush-John Kerry debate in the 2004 campaign, Schieffer showed up with three times as many questions as he had time to ask. He said he had a nightmare that all of his questions had been used up with a half-hour to go.

He believes the election is still very close and many people will finally make up their minds based on what they see on Wednesday.

"I don't want to think about it too much," he said, "but I think it could very well determine who our next president will be."

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