G. Frink's

A Pew Research Center survey released today suggests that tonight's presidential debate will be won by the candidate who most persuasively articulates sound plans for the economy.

Americans have retained their optimism, concluded the Oct. 9-12 Pew survey, but "are concerned about the nation's economic problems almost to the exclusion of every other issue."

The poll found not only a clear advantage for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama as "best able to deal with the problems of financial institutions," but also indicated that going negative tonight could be the end of Republican Sen. John McCain's presidential hopes, if negative campaigning has not already undone him.

Amid the worst economic troubles since the Great Depression, incumbent North Carolina Republican Sen. Liddy Dole offers what The Fayetteville Observer calls "the nastiest, most misleading, negative ad of the campaign," and she's losing.

Dole expects her misleading allegations of atheism to alienate part of the state's heavily evangelical electorate from Democrat Kay Hagan, when in fact voters know their intelligence is being insulted by the ad and their attention distracted from the real issues and their solutions.