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Barack Obama and John McCain met for 97 minutes.
Discussion should focus on foreign policy, but ended up including

More than half of the 90 minutes to discuss the North American foreign policy in the first debate between candidates for the presidency of the country was used to address the current economic crisis that devastated the United States. Since the beginning of the meeting, which ended up taking 97 minutes, the moderator, journalist Jim Lehrer, questioned Barack Obama and John McCain on what would be the behavior of them in relation to economic problems, if they were in the presidency.

It was only after 50 minutes of discussion on financial matters that question first appeared on international relations. With the half-time debate, Barack Obama and John McCain still managed to discuss topics such as the U.S. relationship with Iraq, Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, and even subjects that have relation with Brazil.

Both candidates avoided direct and violent confrontations during the debate, and ended up discussing earlier, by more than the formula of the meeting that they would go directly to each other.

While the form of speeches is more important that the content of the two candidates, as the researcher Alan Schroeder said in an interview with G1, the Republican senator on many occasions seemed more secure than Obama. The Democrat seemed nervous, and reached a stutter in an attempt to deny some of the accusations of McCain, who spoke in a more calm paused. Obama came to repeat a few times what McCain had said “was not true.”

An initial survey conducted immediately after the meeting by the TV network CNN, meanwhile, noted that Barack Obama is that McCain came out better. More than half of respondents, 51%, said Obama was better, against 38% who said that if McCain came out better.

Economy

The two candidates followed the same line of reasoning regarding the need for strong and immediate action to control the current financial crisis. Both said was important to support the package of the current government, but disagreed on the form of the package.

The focus of all proposals for McCain on the economy was the cutting of government spending. The Republican accused Obama of wanting to increase spending, and said that Washington is “out of control.”

Obama took a critical stance and said that all the current problems were caused by the Bush administration, which accused McCain of supporting. He avoided saying that priorities open hand on account of the economic crisis, but spoke of cutting taxes for the middle classes and to strengthen the foundations of the popular economy.

Foreign policy

After half of the debate, both candidates began to discuss foreign policy, which should have been the focus of the meeting. It was expected that John McCain had much more easily in the matter, but has been a balance between the two candidates, allowing one or another moment of disagreement stronger.

The Republican tried to show his experience repeating several times he had traveled to key countries of the discussion. At the same time, tried to show inexperience of Obama, who called naive by some positions, including the idea to meet with leaders of countries such as Irã. McCain, including, ended the debate saying that Obama is not ready to be president.

Obama, in turn, responded saying that the prosecution did not intend to invite leaders like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, for example, “to a tea” but they felt important to open dialogue. He says the foreign policy of the Bush administration is responsible for the deterioration of the image of the United States in the world, which increases the risk of attacks against the country.

Both candidates have said Iran considers a threat, and agreed with the concern about the behavior of Russia. They returned to discuss the invasion of Iraq, with Obama saying it was against from the beginning and McCain is saying more prepared to circumvent the situation.

When dealing with Afghanistan, the concern just going to neighboring Pakistan, with Obama taking a posture of surprisingly more violent than the Republican, to threaten the country militarily if it did not cooperate. McCain tried to appear less interventionist, and said he did not threaten the country, but try to approach people of Pakistan.

Brazil

For more that Brazil has not been mentioned by any of the two candidates, when dealing with issues related to economic crisis, the two discussed energy issues and the production of biofuels. The matter is among the most important trade relationship of the two countries.

According Barack Obama, the country needs to have energy independence. “We need to invest in alternative energies such as biodiesel. We need to improve the public health system,” he said. In response, McCain also talked about the importance of alternative sources of energy. “I am opposed to subsidies for ethanol, for example,” he said, directly on an issue that matters to Brazil.

Three Belgian children, aged between seven and eight years, have ransacked 143 cemetery in Essene, in Flanders, about 20 kilometres from Brussels, capital of Belgium.

Acts of vandalism, which caused many complaints, have been the work of two boys and one girl, last Saturday. Account “El Pais”, vandalised because the tombs “were boring.”

Given the young age of children, the police can not take any action. However, according to the authorities, parents of small vandals are responsible for damage caused to the civilian cemeteries.

Social services of the Court of Minors, Brussels opened an investigation to establish whether the children live in a family problem.

A bomb was found and deactivated in a private car of an official of the National Police when it was preparing to enter the headquarters of the Police in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (northern Spain).

The agent travelled about 10 kilometres with a bomb attached to his car without explodisse although, according to some information, be ready to be detonated by remote control.

The bomb was located in the arrival of the official headquarters of the National Police Corps in the town of Basauri, near Bilbao, during the review of security that is made all the cars that come in instalções.

Once verified the presence of the bomb, the authorities managed to deactivate it and are now to verify their origin and to other complementary investigations.

The last bomb of this type had been placed by the Basque terrorist organisation ETA on 9 October in automotive safety of Gabriel Ginés.

Ginés was back in custody-socialist councillor Juan Carlos Sunday in the Basque region of Galdácano.

The discovery led to the strengthening of security at the premises of Police, and the reverificação of all vehicles that were inside.