What’s new in politics this week? On Friday, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama discussed… What’s new in politics this week? On Friday, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama discussed their plans and ideas during the presidential debate. They addressed the economic crisis, taxes, foreign policy and past experiences. The Pitt Decides Focus Group sat down this week to talk about both candidates’ performances and how the debates will affect voters in November. What do students think? ‘I thought that there was no clear victor in the debates, because neither candidate really came out on top. Neither candidate really came out looking 100 percent, or even fractionally better than the other one … there were a lot of attacks, it was poorly moderated, and because of a lot of circumstances, some of which were well beyond the candidates’ control, there really wasn’t room for there to be a winner. ‘ -Charlotte Bonilla ‘I was disappointed with John McCain for using so many scare tactics and emotional stories and not focusing as much on the facts. I feel like Sen. Obama focused more on the facts and stayed on topic and was a lot more concise, compared to McCain jumping around with stories and those kind of tactics.’ -Lauren O’Leary ‘I think that a lot of what [McCain] was saying was giving off names and giving off ideas of what other people thought, but he didn’t necessarily say exactly what he wanted to do. He kept putting blame on Obama for almost nothing that he could control … I was just turned off by it.’ -Katie O’Toole ‘I think that a lot of what [McCain] was saying was giving off names and giving off ideas of what other people thought, but he didn’t necessarily say exactly what he wanted to do. He kept putting blame on Obama for almost nothing that he could control … I was just turned off by it.’ -Josh Vezza