Watch the full debate from Nashville here
Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama battled over the best way to help struggling US workers in a sometimes tense presidential debate that highlighted a wide gap in their economic approaches.
With US citizens reeling under what Senator Obama called the worst crisis since the Great Depression; the rivals in the 4 November election differed frequently and showed occasional flashes of the rancour that marked their recent rhetoric on the campaign trail.
'Americans are angry, they're upset and they're a little fearful,' Senator McCain said in the second of three presidential debates, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. 'We don't have trust and confidence in our institutions.'
The Arizona senator, who has been criticised as unresponsive on economic issues, was under pressure to turn in a strong performance that would stop his slide in the polls and halt Mr Obama's surge during the economic crisis.
Two quick polls taken immediately after the debate by CBS News and CNN, both judged Mr Obama the winner.
Mr McCain could be running out of chances to recast the race. With only four weeks to go until the election, the two candidates will meet for one final debate on 15 October.
A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll of likely voters released today showed Mr Obama with a 2% edge on Mr McCain, 47% to 45%, down one point overnight and within the poll's margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
Economic plans
During the debate, which began this morning at 2am Irish time, Mr McCain proposed a program that would buy mortgages from homeowners facing financial problems and replace those mortgages with new, fixed-rate mortgages.
His campaign said it would cost roughly $300bn.
Mr Obama said Mr McCain and Republicans had supported the deregulation of the financial industry that led to the crisis.
He said middle-class workers, not just Wall Street, needed a rescue package that would include tax cuts.
'We are in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and a lot of you, I think, are worried about your jobs, your pensions, your retirement accounts,' he said.
The debate broke little new ground and featured familiar themes for both candidates.
Mr McCain portrayed Mr Obama as an eager supporter of higher taxes who was unwilling to buck his own party, but Mr Obama said Mr McCain's policies would help the wealthy and strand workers at the bottom of the economic ladder.
Both candidates vowed to focus on making the US energy independent.
Mr McCain said nuclear power was a clean source of energy that would be key to battling climate change and mocked Mr Obama.
'Senator Obama says that it has to be safe or disposable or something like that,' he said.
Mr Obama said he approved of nuclear power as one element of a broader energy plan.
Mr Obama has solidified his national lead in polls and gained an edge in crucial battleground states in recent weeks as the Wall Street crisis focused attention on the economy, an area where polls show voters prefer the Illinois senator's leadership.
Asked about a possible Treasury Secretary in their administrations, both candidates mentioned investor Warren Buffett, a supporter of Mr Obama.
Foreign policy was the topic in the final third of the debate, and the two candidates clashed sharply over the Iraq war.
Mr Obama was an early critic of the war, while Mr McCain has been a staunch supporter and urged the 'surge' strategy to increase US troops.
'Senator Obama would have brought our troops home in defeat. I will bring them home in victory and in honour,' Mr McCain said.
Mr Obama said the focus on Iraq had distracted the US from the threat in Afghanistan, and he defended his willingness to strike against terrorists in Pakistan without approval from Islamabad despite Mr McCain's criticism.
'We have fundamental differences about the use of military power,' Mr McCain said.
