LENDALE, Wis. - Judy Nenno loves Halloween, so when she had a few neighbors in last night, she served trick-or-treat candy, baked a pumpkin spice cake, brought out her goblin decorations, and gave her debate-watching party a name: ''Scary Politics.''
After the presidential candidates' tense, confrontational meeting in Boston last week, some Americans were bracing for a nightmare in Winston-Salem.
Last night's debate was a much more subdued affair, taking some of the fizz out of the Nennos' party and not giving these undecided voters a clear reason to vote for either George W. Bush or Al Gore.
''Too much civility almost ruins a debate,'' said Bob Nenno, 47, a media relations manager for Marquette University in Milwaukee. ''They were too nice,'' agreed Nenno's wife, Judy, 46, a homemaker, who says she isn't too crazy about either of them.
''Instead of offering so many figures and percentages, why don't they tell us what they are going to do?'' Judy said.
Seven voters in this middle-class suburb north of Milwaukee sat in Judy and Bob Nenno's living room and listened intently, seriously, to the 90-minute debate. Kevin Carr, a captain in the Milwaukee County sheriff's department who voted for Ross Perot in 1996, cupped his chin in his hands and sat on the edge of his seat.
''I'm still undecided,'' said Carr, 42. ''I was more impressed with Gore's depth of understanding of issues. He got more into the nuts and bolts of issues. Bush didn't show a depth of understanding on a whole lot of issues.
''They agreed with each other more than I would have expected,'' Carr said.
Indeed, Gore kept the behavior that annoyed so many last week in check last night; hardly an audible sigh, no interruptions, and a self-effacing manner that had him occasionally complimenting Bush and apologizing for his own tendency to be overbearing.
For his part, Bush spent almost as much of the evening describing Clinton-Gore policies he supported as pointing out his differences with the administration.
Carr's wife, Judy, who is a Spanish teacher in the Milwaukee public schools, said she was still undecided, too. ''I don't like what I hear Bush saying about education,'' said Carr, 49, the mother of two teenagers. ''We are accountable in the Milwaukee public schools, and it is not making a difference. It's going to take more than that.''
Virginia Wehse, 79, a retired dental hygienist, came to last night's debate almost certain she would vote for Bush. She left confused and undecided.
''Neither one was strong, neither said what I wanted to hear,'' said Wehse, who wondered why seniors' issues, such a central focus in the Boston debate, were largely left out last night. ''I don't want to vote on who has the better smile or smirk. But I do want to vote for someone with credibility and morals.''
The group laughed when Bush said he mangled a ''sly-abble or two,'' but questioned whether Bush making an issue of Gore's exaggerations was legitimate.
Judy Nenno liked the tone of the debate. She credited moderator Jim Lehrer with doing a better job this week keeping the debate under control. She said that, by sitting at a table rather than standing behind podiums, the candidates were unable to ''get at each other.''
Bush and Gore are desperate to win the support of undecided, Badger State voters like the Nennos and the Carrs. They are also residents of a key battleground state that both candidates have been targeting with unprecedented amounts of advertising and personal attention.
Carr, who is black, appreciated Bush's characterization of police as ''honorable, not bigoted or prejudiced'' when he answered a question about racial profiling. But he wasn't impressed with his answer on whether the racist murder of James Byrd in Texas showed the need for a toughened hate crime law. Bush said the killers would face the death penalty, a sufficient penalty.
''He's evading the issue,'' Carr said. ''He seems to be saying, `Because we are going to kill these guys, anyway, don't worry about what is wrong with the law.'''
(After the debate, Bush aides clarified that only two of the three men convicted of murdering Byrd face execution.)
Sara Kuban, a 21-year-old senior at Marquette, thought Gore scored a ''gotcha'' when he noted that he, Dick Cheney, and Joseph Lieberman were open-minded about homosexual unions.
When Bush said he supported rights ''but not special rights'' for homosexuals, Kuban said, ''Then they should be allowed to get married.''
Most of the participants thought Bush evaded moderator Jim Lehrer's questions on specifics of health care for families in Texas. And Kevin Carr stopped short when he heard an audible sigh from Gore.
''Watch it!'' he laughed.
