At Debate Gatherings, Crowds Riveted but Hungry for Answers

Little New Information Gleaned, Several Say

In the dampness of a fall evening, in circumstances almost unprecedented in U.S. history, people gathered last night across Washington to watch the two men behind lecterns in Oxford, Miss.

Wherever in the city people assembled for the first debate between the presidential candidates of the two major parties, they seemed to be carefully observing, eyes riveted on the screen.

Seated around the dining room table in the family home of Takisha Brown on Kansas Avenue NW, they snacked on chicken wingettes, salad and cheese and crackers and witnessed history.

In the best talking-head tradition, "we're commentating," said Brown, 37, a lawyer, describing a group that included friends, neighbors and even a few strangers who had learned of her gathering through the Internet.

At the B. Smith's bar in Union Station, the crowd, demonstrating behavior not always seen in such venues, was "really concentrating" on the televised back-and-forth between Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John S. McCain (R-Ariz.), said host Nadia Aovit.

About 20 people in the Capitol Hill home of law student Timothy Kelly were watching "very intently," he said. There were a lot of snacks on a big table, but "it's very focused," Kelly said. "We are very interested."

About 50 people with a variety of Mississippi connections watched together at the bar at Penn Quarter Sports Tavern in Northwest Washington. Chris Graham, 26, called them attentive, in part because of the seriousness of the economic climate.

Anna Monsour, who grew up in Natchez, Miss., said she was particularly interested in hearing about the candidates' plans for dealing with the national debt.

"I haven't heard anything about that yet," she said when the debate was halfway over.

But she said that it was exciting that Mississippi was holding the debate and that the appearance of a black candidate there seemed to symbolize a national commitment to change.

Jennifer Gorman, who was at the bar but not with the Mississippi group, said they seemed a bit "rowdy." They appeared to be mostly McCain backers, she said. "It's not very diverse in there."

About an hour into the debate, Gorman, 25, an Obama supporter who works for the Human Rights Campaign, said she wasn't getting much new information.