It all depends on the host and the moderators. If the host is CNBC and the moderator is Chris "Thrill Up My Leg" Matthews, he'll throw hardballs at McCain and softball floaters to Obama. However, McCain is not going to fall for a scenario like that.
McCain has been in the Senate for 21 years, Obama for less than three, so McCain has far more exposure to real world issues than Obama does. Both camps will work hard to ensure their man is well prepared. McCain and Obama will be playing for all the marbles and voters will be watching for substance rather than style.
McCain knows that Obama's health care plan appears, on the surface, to be more more attractive to many than his own. But he's not going to let Obama get away with talking about what his plan will look like when it is in place and running like a well-tuned machine. He's going to challenge Obama to explain how he's going to structure it, finance it, and implement it; Obama has no answers for those types of questions.
Many conservatives, including me, don't like some of McCain's ideas, but at least his agenda is reasonably realistic. Obama's so-called "Blueprint For Change" is an outsized hallucination.
McCain is moderately liberal; Obama is so far left that he can't deny he's all but a socialist. McCain is looking for solutions to problems; Obama is looking for someone to blame them on. McCain wants to change the way we do some things; Obama wants to change America and see how it works out.
Ask a voter why he's concerned about losing his home. The answer will likely be, in part, "Because I worked hard to buy that house!" And that voter will understand, if he doesn't already, that he has worked hard for EVERYTHING he has and he will work hard for everything he ever will have. He knows "the government" is not going to give him a house, a car, free healthcare, and everything else Obama wants thim to believe will come his way without effot if only he votes for the "Yes We Can!" candidate. Ask that voter why the "We" is in that chant if President "I Will" has promised him that "He" will provide...(you name it).
A key element of McCain's campaign, both in debates and on the stump, will be to show that Obama CANNOT make good on his promises. Obama will have to show that he CAN. But he CANNOT. And the voters who now flock to his rallies and join in the chorus of "YES WE CAN!" will change their tune and start chanting "TELL US HOW -- NOW!"
"Huh?" will not be an acceptable answer.
