Special Report: U.S. presidential election 2008    

    HEMPSTEAD, the United States, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- As U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama will soon to start their final debate Wednesday night at Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y., economy is the focus.

    After two rather tame confrontations in two earlier debates in Mississippi and Tennessee, the pair came here with one final chance to make their cases, side-by-side, to a nationwide audience.

    The economy is set to dominate the face-off as more bad news kept coming out of the Wall Street.

    Since their last meeting in Nashville eight days ago, the stock market has fallen further and the federal government has partially nationalized some of the nation's largest banks.

    Americans remain worried about the economy, but they still have a modicum of trust that new leaders can forge a path back to prosperity, according to a new survey released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center for the People.