The October 7 debate was a crucial night for Senator John McCain. Senator Barack Obama is pulling ahead, up 8 and 9 points in Tuesday's Gallup and Rasmussen national tracking polls, respectively. McCain, who has admitted his weakness on the economy, is at a serious disadvantage in current conditions.

However, McCain was supposed to be the master of the town-hall format. The Democratic National Committee came out with a video Monday playing up expectations of McCain's performance because he is supposed to be so comfortable in town halls.

Unfortunately for both candidates, the town-hall format seemed to find that perfect combination of boring and awkward. The candidates were forced to balance talking to the moderator, NBC's Tom Brokaw, to the audience, and to the questioner.

When they decided to allow follow-ups on the Pakistan question towards the end of the debate, they had to address each other as well, which made things even messier. To Brokaw's frustration, both candidates had issues staying within time limits, which made them both look bad.

Given the awkwardness of the format, portraying an air of confidence and looking "presidential" was even harder than usual. But Barack Obama clearly won on style and body language.

McCain was visibly nervous, repeating phrases like "my friends" and wandering around the stage. Obama seemed more focused, smiling while McCain criticized him, avoiding direct jabs, and generally staying above the fray.

In terms of content, three questions are crucial to understanding who won tonight: Who were the candidates talking to, what were they saying, and what weren't they saying?

The target audience

The target here was clear: the middle class. Middle-class voters are at the core of this election. They are worried about their jobs, they are worried about their mortgages, and they are looking for someone to fix the economy.

Undecided voters across the country want specific plans as to how the candidates plan to address financial regulation, home loans, health care and energy issues. Foreign policy is important to these undecided voters, but it is definitely secondary to the economy. The key about the target audience of this debate, though, was that it was the same for both candidates.

Tough economic questions

Foreign policy differences

On foreign policy, McCain used the traditional argument that he has the necessary experience. Answering a Pakistan question, he briefly referenced "Waziristan, where I've visited-a very rough country" to emphasize how seasoned he is on foreign policy issues.

But Obama scored big when he turned the inexperience argument on its head by saying, "There are some things I don't understand. I don't understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, while Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are setting up base camps and safe havens to train terrorists to attack us."

With that answer, Obama placated liberal pundits who said he hadn't been aggressive enough in the last debate and positioned himself as a Washington outsider.

Better left unsaid

Two names not mentioned in this debate: Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. The intense discussion of Palin and her record has died down, and last week's vice-presidential debate was not the unmitigated disaster that both parties feared it might be, so the VP candidates have largely lost relevance in this race.

Another name not mentioned: Phil Gramm, now an unofficial adviser to the McCain campaign. Gramm was a major proponent of the deregulations that are now being blamed for the financial crisis, and he famously called the U.S. "a nation of whiners." Obama had a couple of opportunities to attack McCain on this but he didn't-a clear indication that he has made a conscious strategic decision to stay positive.

Snap polls of debate-watchers suggest a big win for Obama, but with 27 days now left on the least predicable campaign in recent history, anything is possible.