NASHVILLE — Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama fought over taxes and how to get America back on track during their second debate Tuesday night in Nashville.

Sen. McCain vowed to have the federal government step in, buy up “bad” home mortgages and renegotiate the terms in an effort to “give some trust and confidence back to America.”

“It’s my proposal; it’s not Sen. Obama’s proposal; it’s not President Bush’s proposal,” said U.S. Sen. McCain, R-Ariz. “But I know how to get America working again, restore our economy and take care of working Americans.”

Sen. Obama, meanwhile, said the current economic crisis, which he called the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, is the “final verdict on the failed economic policies of the last eight years.” He said those policies, “strongly promoted by President Bush and supported” by Sen. McCain, included stripping away consumer regulations while promoting efforts to “let the market run wild.”

He pledged to crack down on Wall Street CEOs and push tax cuts for middle-class Americans.

Sen. McCain charged that “nailing down Sen. Obama’s various tax proposals is like nailing Jell-O to the wall.”

The two candidates’ exchanges on these and other issues often were blunt in the 90-minute debate at Belmont University. But while the candidates questioned one another’s judgment, they largely avoided the personal attacks that have dominated the campaign since last weekend.

The town-hall style debate, moderated by NBC’s Tom Brokaw, featured questions on domestic and foreign policy posed largely by undecided Nashville area voters selected by the nonpartisan Gallup Organization. Some questions were fielded via the Internet.

With polls showing Sen. Obama pulling ahead, Sen. McCain was under pressure to make a better showing than in the candidates’ first debate. He was aggressive from the start, citing his own proposal to soothe a deteriorating economic situation that Congress had hoped to resolve with last week’s $700 billion rescue package for the financial industry.

Later, Sen. McCain said he is well versed in foreign affairs, and he questioned Sen. Obama’s judgment.

“My judgment is something that I think I have a record to stand on,” Sen. McCain said, noting that the challenge a president faces when trying to decide on use of military force is “to know when to go in and when not.”

But Sen. Obama questioned Sen. McCain’s judgment when it came to the Iraq War and possible conflict with Iran.

“When Sen. McCain was cheerleading the president to go into Iraq, he suggested it was going to be quick and easy — we would be greeted as liberators,” Sen. Obama said, later noting Sen. McCain now “is the guy who’s saying bomb, bomb Iran ... That is not an example of someone speaking softly.”

Both men dodged questions about Medicare reform.

Sen. Obama said the country has a “moral commitment as well as an economic imperative” to address health care coverage in general. He attacked Sen. McCain’s general health care plan, saying, “what he doesn’t tell you is he’s going to tax your employer-based health care benefits for the first time.”

Sen. McCain countered, saying his rival’s health care proposal would put mandates on employers and result in the loss of health care coverage.

“We have got to give people choice in America and not mandate things on them,” Sen. McCain said.

The two presidential hopefuls are scheduled to debate one more time at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., on Oct. 15. Their first debate was on Oct. 7 in Oxford, Miss.

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