John McCain and Barack Obama prepare for Nashville debate

Both candidates toured the hall in preparation for the debate, whose format is one that McCain favors. The Arizona Republican, who is behind in the polls, had unsuccessfully pushed for weekly town-hall-style confrontations.

Weeks of gyrating stock market indexes and collapsing credit markets have taken a toll on Americans. According to a Gallup Poll released today, just 9% of those surveyed said they were satisfied with the way things are going, a record low, according to the research group.

The previous low had been 12%, recorded in 1979 when rising prices and shortages of gasoline helped end the presidency of Jimmy Carter. "Gallup has recorded a 14% satisfaction level at several points -- once in the senior Bush's administration in 1992, and several times earlier this year," the group said on its website.

Almost seven of 10 respondents cited the economy for their unhappiness -- more than six times the next issue, Iraq and the war at 11%. Only 9% blamed dissatisfaction with the government or officials, even though both McCain and Obama have made Washington reform one of the key issues.

The Gallup Poll was conducted by telephone Oct. 3 to 5 with 1,011 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.

Recent polls show that Obama's lead, both nationally and in key states, has been widening as the economy has dominated the public debate. Polls show that Americans trust Democrat Obama more than Republican McCain to deal with the economy after eight years of President Bush.

Yet the Gallup Poll offered some hope for McCain since Americans said they continued to have a positive image of both candidates. McCain had a 55% favorable rating. "Obama's favorable and unfavorable ratings are neither better nor worse than they have been at previous points over the last several months," the group found.

McCain and Obama were civil in their first debate on Sept. 26, though they disagreed on issues including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. At a campaign appearance in Colorado last week, a supporter asked McCain when the nominee would become more combative. He answered that the gloves could come off tonight.

During a two-day swing through the battleground state of Florida, McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has questioned Obama's relationship to William Ayers, who was one of the founders of the 1960s-era Weather Underground, which claimed responsibility for numerous bombings. She has also cited Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who has condemned the United States.

At a rally in Jacksonville, Fla., this morning, Palin said that Obama was having convenient memory lapses.

Calling Ayers "a domestic terrorist," Palin said that Obama remembered Ayers "as just a guy in the neighborhood." Noting Obama's earlier call for diplomacy with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, she added, "Will he now claim that he was unaware of his background?"

Obama has distanced himself from Wright and has insisted he had only minimal relations with Ayers in the past. The Obama campaign has issued an advertisement that revived McCain's involvement with disgraced banker Charles Keating Jr. A congressional committee cleared McCain of improper conduct but said he had used poor judgment.

The Obama campaign also released new ads, charging that McCain has descended to "smears" because the Arizona senator is "out of ideas, out of touch and running out of time" when Americans are losing their jobs, homes and savings.

Under a 31-page agreement hammered out by lawyers for both campaigns, the candidates will sit on stools six feet apart on a horseshoe-shaped stage. They are free to roam the stage but are not supposed to entertain follow-up questions. Nor are cameras allowed reaction shots.

NBC's Tom Brokaw will serve as moderator, selecting questions from an audience of up to 150 Nashville undecided voters identified by the Gallup polling company. Brokaw will also draw on more than 6 million questions e-mailed from voters.

johanna.neuman@latimes.com

michael.muskal@latimes.com

Neuman reported from Washington and Muskal from Los Angeles.