Some praised Barack Obama's "vision" while others were impressed with John McCain's promise of victory in Iraq, but Americans watching the second presidential debate, whether in a crowded tavern in McCain Country in Arizona or a quiet Midwestern living room, said they saw no knockout punch.

Across the country, voters gathered in school lounges, restaurants, bars and their homes to watch the town hall debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. The meeting took place just four weeks from Election Day amid an increasingly bitter campaign.

The debate focused on the troubled economy, health care and other domestic issues as well as foreign policy. For one longtime Republican in the swing state of Ohio, Obama's performance Tuesday night was enough to push him into the Democratic senator's column.

"I think Obama won, big time," said Ed Ruszkiewicz, 62, a retired physician in Toledo, Ohio, who re-registered this year as a Democrat. "When Obama spoke he had some depth to it, and he seems to have a vision of what he wants to do and he can explain it well - much better than what I think he had done before. I was just very impressed."

Ruszkiewicz felt that while Obama landed "a lot of little punches" there was no "knockout punch" by either senator.

Another Ohio voter still hasn't made up his mind. Thomas Henige, a 71-year-old retired computer consultant from North Royalton, a Cleveland suburb, said his slight leaning toward McCain has disappeared though he's not sold on Obama.

"I felt we were watching people interviewed for two different jobs: Obama for president, and McCain for Secretary of Defense," he said.

But there were no such doubts for Mike Kiepke, 62, and his wife, Judy, 65, who were among a crowd of about 50 patrons gathered at Tom's Tavern in downtown Phoenix, Ariz. The couple cheered the Arizona senator, especially when he insisted that American troops would return home from Iraq victorious.

"He's doing wonderful," said Kiepke, a retired school maintenance worker and Vietnam veteran. "He's very strong, clear and concise. He's got a real command of the subjects tonight."

But restaurant manager Gabriel Delavara, 35, another Tom's patron, saw no decisive rhetorical blow.

"You hear, `The gloves are off,' but it was a lot more refined than that," he said, adding there was "nothing groundbreaking in this debate."

At the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., there were divided opinions among several dozen students who gathered in a lounge to watch the debate.

Brandon Holt, 29, thought Obama was the clear winner though he said the 90-minute debate lacked "electricity."

Holt supports Obama but felt McCain fared better than he had in the first debate. "The setting better fit McCain," he said. "He didn't look like a crotchety curmudgeon. He almost seemed like a guy that you could, in a sense, like."

With the economy foremost on many voters' minds, some were especially interested in what the candidates had to say about financial issues.

Ernso August, a 28-year-old nursing student at the Florida school, laughed when McCain discussed his economic policy. "Senator McCain is really for the elite, not for the middle class," he said. "Eighty percent of the population is middle class and that's what we've got to focus on."

But Mark Coombs, 22, is firmly in the Arizona senator's corner. "McCain has a record to cite," he said. "Obama doesn't."

Alicia Heilman, 20, a self-described moderate Republican from Pennsburg, Pa., also likes McCain and believes he has a record of bipartisanship that will help deal with the troubled economy.

"I don't think one person or party can solve it. We need to come to a consensus, and Barack Obama has never shown he can reach across the aisle," said Heilman, who watched the debate at Bethlehem Brew Works, a microbrewery where the Democratic nominee drank a beer during an unscheduled campaign stop last April.

Republican Julian Stolz, 20, a community college student who serves on a school board north of Allentown, was there, too, wearing a "Nobama" pin. He thought McCain was the "clear winner."

"He was really in his element tonight," Stolz said. "McCain is at his best when he can look people in the eye and tell them what he thinks."

McCain was far less popular among a young happy-hour crowd that gathered at The 500 Club, a storied Mission district watering hole in San Francisco, where chatter, hoots and clapping punctuated the debate.

McCain's assertion that the economy will recover to a loud shout of "liar," from someone at the end of the long, polished wood bar, and raised cheers from the audience.

Although the listeners clearly favored Obama, he got his share of heckling, too, and many in this urban, left-leaning enclave found Obama's positions lacking on energy and gay rights.

Leaning against a nearby booth, web software developer Randy Reddig, 31, said he's a Democrat and nothing he heard at the debate changed his mind.

"McCain was trying to paint Obama as inexperienced, and I think it backfired," Reddig said. "McCain came across as pretty patronizing to the audience, telling them what they didn't know or understand."

Peter Calabrese, 37, who works in Internet sales in San Francisco said he was hoping the debate would show a side of the candidates that would win him over.

"I was listening for some sort of compassion, some understanding of the reality people are living in," Calabrese said. "I felt Obama at least tried to relate to normal people, on a real level. McCain was so stiff."

But he wasn't completely sold by either candidate.

"I don't have 100 percent confidence in either one of them," he said. "We've got a really big mess on our hands, and sorting this out will take a long term commitment. That's what I'm looking for, and I'm not seeing that in either person."

In Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Adele Beal, a 72-year-old retiree, was impressed by the Democratic senator's talk of the need for Americans to sacrifice.

"I thought Obama's answer was wonderful," she said. "He was literally involving the people, talking about saving energy in your home. I liked that. I think we all feel right now we're floundering and we'd like to do something."

After watching the debate, she said McCain did demonstrate he was "able to have some empathy for what the average Joe is going through."

She's still leaning toward Obama, but still has reservations about both candidates.

"The main thing we all really want ... is a strong leader," she said. "You really want to trust one of them more than the other. ... It's so hard."