Did McCain do what he needed to shake up race?

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Republican John McCain was steady on the attack against Democrat Barack Obama at their second debate. But did he provide the kind of performance he needed to shake up a race in which he is behind?

Probably not, analysts said after a 90-minute encounter in which the two candidates prowled around a stage and questioned each other's judgment on the economy, taxes, energy and foreign policy.

"I think McCain finished exceptionally well," said Republican strategist Scott Reed. "But overall, the event is not going to rock the race."

McCain is hanging on for dear life in a race that favors Obama. He is down in opinion polls ahead of the November 4 election and in the midst of a U.S. financial crisis that a majority of Americans believe Obama is better prepared to handle.

McCain was in his element at the debate -- a "town-hall" format in which regular voters pose questions, a style he used effectively earlier this year to come back from the political grave and defeat a host of Republican rivals.

At Nashville's Belmont University, he managed to turn just about every question into an attack on Obama as his Democratic opponent sat nearby in a tall chair looking sometimes amused, sometimes annoyed.

McCain quickly went on the offensive in an opening discussion about who was to blame for government policies that led to the Wall Street crisis, saying Obama has benefited mightily from campaign contributions from executives of the two troubled mortgage companies, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

"They're the ones that, with the encouragement of Senator Obama and his cronies and his friends in Washington, that went out and made all these risky loans, gave them to people that could never afford to pay back," he said.

FIRING BACK

But Obama gave as good as he got, firing back at McCain often, for example accusing McCain of getting sidetracked from winning the war in Afghanistan by allowing the Bush administration to launch the Iraq war.

"This is the person who, after we had -- we hadn't even finished Afghanistan, where he said, 'Next up, Baghdad.'" Obama said.

For McCain, 72, the format did not lend itself to attacks on Obama's character and he shied away from such tactics after earlier in the week trying to raise questions about Obama's ties to William Ayers, who was a member of The Weather Underground, a home-grown anti-Vietnam War extremist group from the 1960s.

McCain senior adviser Charlie Black said McCain accomplished what he needed to do, saying the Arizona senator needs to move the polls five or six percentage points in 28 days and "I think we probably got a little momentum tonight, but we'll see how that goes."

"Very few debates produce haymakers. The purpose of the debates when you have a huge number of American voters actually

watching is to draw the differences on issues, and to some extent on experience and judgment," Black said.

Linda Fowler, a political science professor at Dartmouth College, said McCain appeared to hew closely to the script from the first debate two weeks ago in Mississippi.

"Nobody fell on their face, but if McCain is the person who needed a strong performance, the fact that it was adequate means it wasn't good enough," she said.

Snap polls by CBS and CNN after the debate said Obama won the debate.

"I don't see how this debate helps McCain," said Democratic strategist Jim Duffy. "If this was McCain's great opportunity, it didn't happen."

(Editing by David Wiessler)