WASHINGTON – We still can't believe it, but we're getting used to the idea: An African-American president of the United States.

Crowds in Washington watch CNN broadcast the presidential inauguration Tuesday.

The election campaign swung from Iraq to the economy, from the fiery preacher Jeremiah Wright to the astonishing vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Barack Obama tried to downplay the role of race in the contest.

But now that the campaign is behind us, we can look at how race resonates in the result. A single paragraph from Katharine Seelye of the New York Times says it all:

"The inaugural itself will be at the Capitol, which was built by slaves who baked the bricks, sawed the timber and laid the stone for its foundation. When Mr. Obama delivers his inaugural address, he will be looking out across the National Mall, which was once a slave market, beyond the White House, also built by slaves, to the Lincoln Memorial, honoring the president who freed the slaves."

We tend to over-use superlatives in the media and we tend to repeat the obvious.

Barack Obama's inauguration is an event you can't exaggerate. Watch it yourself and look at the faces of the hundreds of thousands of people who've gathered in Washington to see it close up.

We still can't believe it but we're getting used to the idea.

CHICAGO, Illinois – This city is preparing for a very big party. A million people are expected to gather downtown Tuesday night to celebrate, if Barack Obama is elected president.

Chicago prepares for a very big party.

John McCain may be the more qualified candidate and he could still pull off an upset. But polls suggest that the U.S. is very close to making history, electing the first African-American to its highest office. Check out CNN.com's election tools and features

In fact, the campaign has been historic already. Obama has nudged America into thinking about the lingering effects of prejudice in its politics.

Hillary Clinton's candidacy got many of us talking about gender. And after Sarah Palin became McCain's running mate, she not only proved that women really had entered the very top tier of American politics in both parties, they could have a dramatic impact there.

But the top tier isn't the only one that matters.

Months ago, I met a woman named Danyelle America. She's the owner of a beauty salon that she has fashioned out of a derelict trailer in a rundown corner of Columbia, South Carolina.

America told me that her neighborhood is the kind of place where young men sell drugs and young women sell their bodies. She believes that Obama can show them something they need to see.

"Somebody's going to turn on that television and say: 'Man, if he can be the president of the United States, what can I do?' Somebody's going to do something different just because they see someone they can relate to."

This has been the longest and costliest campaign in U.S. history. It has been the most exciting one that most Americans can recall. But above all, this election will be remembered as the time when people in the U.S. realized that a black man, a woman, or almost any American really can hope to be president.

The only thing left for people to do now is to vote.

Editor's Note: International viewers can see Jonathan Mann reporting Live from Chicago as part of our extensive all day coverage of Tuesday's U.S. election.

We heard both detail and dirt. Did someone win? I thought McCain started off looking unsteady and a little nervous. He warmed up and then he "heated" up. He tried to use William Ayers, ACORN and even Joe the Plumber against Barack Obama. He laughed at Obama. (Though he did look directly at Obama from time to time, something he neglected to do in the first debate).

John McCain, left, warmed up after a nervous start in Wednesday's debate with Barack Obama.

Obama stayed calm, made his points and offered explanations for the allegations McCain made about him. He seemed composed and at ease.

McCain's own campaign advisers told our reporters that he needed to win the debate. He didn't win.

A number of polls have shown in recent days that Obama is significantly ahead and his lead is growing. He may have picked up a few percentage points but he didn't need to. He was winning going into the debate and he is still winning.

McCain is still in very serious trouble.

The McCain campaign has been talking about William Ayers for weeks and ACORN for days, stressing their ties to Obama. We were wondering if Senator McCain would bring them up tonight. He did. In case you're wondering who they are: Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground, a domestic U.S. terror group that staged deadly attacks on government officials and police officers. He was never tried or punished for the crimes he is alleged to have committed because the government's investigation relied on illegal tactics and was dropped. Ayers did support Obama's early political career and the two men did do community work together. He has lived quietly as a professor in Chicago, in relative obscurity, until this campaign got underway.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a grass-roots organization that tries to empower the poor through measures that include registering people to vote. ACORN says that it has signed up more than a million people this year. But some of its registration records suggest that its paid workers signed up Mickey Mouse once, and one teenager 73 times, among other allegations in several U.S. states. Obama did legal work for ACORN earlier in his career and has probably picked up the support of many new voters because of its work. Republicans are pushing for an investigation into ACORN's efforts and its ties to the Obama campaign.

We suspected that ACORN and William Ayers would come up, but Joe the Plumber's domination of this debate is a surprise.

As my colleague, CNN Assignment Editor Lauren Kornreich explains, Obama was campaigning in Ohio last weekend and met the man he calls Joe the Plumber. Joe told Obama he was about to buy a company that makes more than $250,000 a year and was concerned that as president, Obama would tax him more because of it.

Obama didn't want to say it tonight, but yes, Obama seemed to suggest then that when Joe the Plumber becomes Joe the Boss, his tax bill probably will go up.

Did McCain score any points by bringing them up?

I'm watching the debate and reading the comments that have just been posted.People in India, Germany and the United States, among other places, are taking part tonight. Keep sharing your thoughts and let us know where you are!

Some of you made fun of my ‘bold' prediction that the debate would either be dramatic or dull. I think we've seen a bit of both so far.

The economic talk is serious and important. But is your mind wandering a bit as they work through the numbers?

McCain spent some time trying to attack Obama on behalf of ‘Joe the Plumber.' Did it work?

Editor's Note: As with the previous U.S. debates, Jonathan Mann will be posting additional blog items, in addition to this one. So be sure to check for new posts during the debate and a wrap after it's over.  

The final U.S. presidential debate is just a few hours away and here is my bold prediction: it will either be dramatic or a little dull.Why dramatic? Because John McCain has to do something special tonight if he wants to turn the campaign around. The polls are all moving in the same direction, towards Barack Obama.

Mann: McCain has to do something special to outshine Obama.

The latest ABC/Washington Post poll gives Obama a 10 percentage point lead nationwide. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll gives Obama nine percentage points and the CBS/New York Times survey gives him a 14 percentage point lead.

It will take something memorable to shift the momentum.

Then again, the U.S. is already in the midst of something memorable: a devastating economic downturn. Both candidates have new plans to address it.

Tonight's debate would give them a terrific opportunity to explain exactly what they're offering. It's crucial that Americans understand the differences between their approaches.

Even so, if we're about to get a crash course on comparative tax plans and economic stimulus policies, a few of us might turn off our TV sets early.

The pressure is on McCain to hold our attention. He needs to win this debate.

Let me know if you think he's done it. And add your comments as the debate gets underway.

Editor's Note: CNN's Jonathan Mann will be posting several blogs during the debate, so join the discussion! And see the final U.S. presidential debate – Live – on CNN, Thursday, Oct. 16 at 0100 GMT | 0900 HK (Wed 9pm ET). International viewers can also see replays at 0900 GMT | 1700 HK and 1600 GMT | 0000 (Fri) HK.

The headline in the Los Angeles Times today says it all: "McCain is looking for another comeback."The presidential debate that will be seen Wednesday in the U.S., and early Thursday morning in most of the world, is one more occasion McCain supporters hope he can use to turn his campaign around.

John McCain pictured Tuesday unveiling his new plan to boost the struggling economy.

He did it once before, in the Republican primaries, when he seemed likely to drop from the race but eventually dominated it instead.

Now, they hope he can do it again. The debate will be more than an important opportunity – it may also be the last opportunity.

Time is running short.

The debate will be the biggest audience John McCain will have, live and unfiltered, in the three weeks that remain until Americans vote.

Polls suggest that Barack Obama's lead is strong and growing.

Prominent Republicans are saying publicly that the McCain campaign team needs to rethink its strategy.

We'll see if he has any surprises up his sleeve. And, I hope you'll join us. Hundreds of people shared their comments and observations on this site while we watched the previous campaign debates.

Join us for this one and let us know what you think!

Editor's Note: See the final presidential debate – Live – on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 0100 GMT | 0900 HK (Wed 9pm ET). CNN International viewers can also see replays of the debate at 0900 GMT | 1700 HK and 1600 GMT | 0000 (Fri) HK.

CNN's Jonathan Mann will be blogging during the debate, so join the discussion!

They talked about subjects ranging from the U.S. economy to a theoretical attack on Israel, pacing the stage and circling each other uneasily like timid prize fighters. So now we ask the key questions: were there gaffes? New insights? Any real changes in the race?

The tone of the campaign in recent weeks suggested that this might be a particularly angry encounter. John McCain had himself suggested that he would be much more aggressive. It even seemed to go that way for a while.

But overall, there wasn't much of that.

Both men explained their policies and attacked each others'. It made for a serious debate but not a remarkable one.

In the context of the larger contest, public opinion polls tell us that Obama came into the debate ahead and McCain came into it in second place, with the election just one month away.

I'd score this one a draw that McCain probably needed to win.

What about you? Who won and why?

If you overlook the contrasting styles and the sparring, this debate, like the others, really does give the candidates a chance to compare their positions. One example – healthcare – is a big issue for U.S. voters, families and businesses.Obama favors an ambitious government-assisted plan to make sure everyone in the country can have affordable, private health insurance. They couldn't be turned down. "It should be a right for every American," he said.

McCain favors a tax credit to help people buy private insurance on their own, but he wouldn't force any company to offer it.

"The fundamental difference between myself and Mr. Obama – notice he starts talking about government."

In this election, Americans really do have a very clear choice and when you watch the debates, you see it.

The mudslinging started fast. In just the second question he answered, Senator John McCain went out of his way to accuse Barack Obama of involvement with the institutions at the center of the U.S. financial meltdown. And Obama responded in kind.

John McCain and Barack Obama seen at the Nashville Town Hall-style debate.

Have you been watching the graph at the bottom of the screen? Uncommitted voters in the state of Ohio are listening and responding electronically. They clearly don't like it when the candidates turn against each other.

In fact, that was widely predicted before the debate got underway: experts said that both candidates risked alienating undecided voters if they attacked too fiercely. As we've watched, they've been careful but critical too.

So far in this debate, we've heard good questions ("How can we trust either of you when both parties created this economic crisis?") and familiar answers.

Have you been impressed?