Kethuvim

First, it was a completely unbalanced atmosphere.  You're in a giant evangelical church, which candidate do you think has the advantage going in?  Obviously the Republican, because his ideals (which, incidentally, I don't think McCain has any to speak of) match up better with the audience. Obama didn't stand a chance of winning the audience over because the deck was stacked.

Second, I'm not your typical Christian who loves when political events take place in churches.  I hate (that may not be a strong enough word) when Christians try to exert influence in elections. It's happened too much in the past few years and it's happening again.  I keep hearing things on news channels like, "courting the evangelical vote" and "the power of the evangelical vote."  It makes me very uneasy because Jesus made it very clear that the key to living his way of life was not power, but powerlessness.  Not to mention that I wholeheartedly believe that Church and State should be separated.  Tony Campolo once said, "Mixing Church and State is like mixing ice cream and manure; it doesn't effect the manure, but it ruins the ice cream."  I think we're seeing that in the American Church right now.  It's deeply divided and the message of Jesus is continuously being compromised by a political agenda.  The manure of politics is ruining the Church.  When I see two presidential candidates sitting in a debate (it wasn't called a debate, but it pretty much was) in a church, it makes me want to puke.  

Third, the "highlights" that I watched reinforced my belief that all political candidates, regardless of party, are swindlers.  McCain was asked a question about how his faith affects his everyday life.  He says very briefly, "It means I'm saved and forgiven."  First of all, that isn't an answer to that question at all and it was equivalent to asking a group of middle school students a question about theology and they answer "Jesus."  It was a regimented answer that he thought people wanted to hear (and incidentally, the crowd ate it up and applauded it) and nothing more.  He then launched into a story about how he was tortured in Vietnam.  This part of the answer had even less to do with the question asked and people, once again, ate it up.  On a small tangent, McCain mentions his torture about once every three seconds.  Dude, I'm sorry you were tortured, I really am, but that in no way qualifies you as the best candidate for President so stop mentioning it please.  

In all fairness, I saw where Obama was asked about abortion and he did a pretty masterful job of not directly answering the question as well.  They're all swindlers, you don't get elected by telling the truth.  People in this country don't want to hear the truth, they want to hear answers that reinforce their own (often misguided) ideals, and politicians know it.  

I refuse to make a judgment call on which candidate has greater faith, because, in all honesty, I can't because I don't know their hearts.  I have my own suspicions about which candidate seems to be more sincere, but, once again, I don't trust politicians at all.