Cool intellectuals Barack Obama and Mitt Romney face off in freewheeling town hall format Tuesday.

My comments:

Town hall format is, as name suggests, a form (format) of debate resembling public meetings in a city’s town hall in the past. In such meetings, citizens were free to attend and voice their opinions, raise questions and hear the responses from public figures.

The town hall format used in the second presidential debate between the two candidates, President Obama and Governor Romney (of Massachusetts), means that, among other things, this is a more open debate than the usual debates, in which the candidates come with largely prepared answers for largely pre-determined issues. In the town hall format, members of the public could attend this debate and ask them questions directly. And since members of the public may ask any unprepared questions, it poses greater a challenge to the candidates.

In fact, where questions from the public is concerned, it’s anything goes. Hence, the debate is described in the example above as “freewheeling” – likened to a wheel (nobody knows where it rolls to the next moment).

Related stories:

An Irish goodbye

In the wind

Try-angle

kicking up a fuss about

The coin of the realm

Toy with the idea of

Winner-take-all

Go with the moment

One throat to choke

Miss the boat

Shoe-in

Spotting and eliminating "pork"

All Greek to me

Have sth on the fire

Hard sell

Sold-out house

All bark and no bite

Leave money on the table

Boots on the ground

Jailbreak

Boots on the ground

Common thread

A fact of life

Leave no stone unturned

Train wreck

Keep up with Joneses

Finishing touch

No great shakes

Warts and all

Catch -22 situation

Pull-up trey

I'm sold

Flip-flop

Sit on its hands

Casing the joint

Free rein

Bear the brunt of

Cross one’s path

Tribute projects

Off the beaten track

At the forefront of

Seat warmer

The rule of the jungle

Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.