The final question asked what the candidates didn't know and how would they learn it. Both offered what amounted to a closing argument and personal soliloquy.
Obama repeated the narrative of his unlikely rise from a single-parent home. "I know that I wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for the fact that this country gave me opportunity," he said. "I came from very modest means. I had a single mom, and my grandparents raised me."
Getting the last word, McCain said the world is so volatile that even basic questions of political geography are a mystery. He then made a veiled reference to his years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
"I know what it's like in dark times," McCain said. "I know what it's like to have to fight to keep one's hope going through difficult times."
The final debate is set for Oct. 15 at Hofstra University in Long Island, N.Y.
--
mark.barabak@latimes.com
michael.finnegan@ latimes.com
Barabak reported from San Francisco and Finnegan from Nashville. Times staff writer Peter Nicholas contributed to this report.
