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Nashville, Tennessee is home to America's Country and Western music, a genre renowned for broken-hearted, jilted cowboys crying into their drinks, deserted by their women and disowned by their hounds.
The city also hosted the second US presidential debate on Tuesday, and sadly, it sounded just like a bad Country and Western song.
Why? The lines from Barack Obama and John McCain were well rehearsed and scripted and the performances were staged. For undecided voters, there was little to choose, and even less music to the ears.
"There wasn't much new from the past debate, but they did present voters with clear contrasts," said Diana B. Carlin, a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas who has surveyed political debates for more than 20 years. "They had very different philosophies, and as an undecided voter, if you were looking for something particular, you probably found it."
Even for voters looking for trash-talk as a result of the buildup to the event, there was little. There was no "I feel your pain" moment as with Bill Clinton in 1992. Wall Street is in uncharted territory, the US foreign policy is in tatters, personal debt loads are staggering, but for the two, it was the same old song. And it's playing like a broken record.
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