... Whoever "he" may turn out to be.

A man named Leo Anderson asked perhaps the hardest question of Tuesday night's third and final presidential debate, scolding Texas Gov. Bush for appearing "overly proud" when he spoke in the previous debate of enforcing the death penalty.

Bush's face hardened as Anderson continued with a note of disbelief and disapproval: "Are you really, really proud of the fact that Texas is number one" in executions?

Bush looked Anderson in the eye, replying quietly that he was sure justice was meted out in each case. But, he added, "I'm not proud of that record, sir." It was the only time in 90 minutes of give and take that Bush did not use a first name to address the voters ringing the candidates' theater-in-the-round stage.

This nationally televised encounter let uncommitted Missouri voters, and not PBS newsman Jim Lehrer this time, frame the issues for the campaign homestretch.

But it was Gore who was most aggressive in his responses, crossing the red-carpeted stage and visibly startling Bush as he asserted he supports special consumer rights for HMO patients.

"What about the Dingell-Norwood bill?" Gore demanded.

"I'm not quite through," Bush snapped back.

After his muted performance in the last debate was roundly panned and Bush appeared to creep up in the polls, Gore came charging back again and again in Tuesday's forum.

He pressed Lehrer's patience as the moderator tried to enforce strict rules negotiated by both sides in advance -- and time limits indicated by small lights on the stage.

GORE: "We have a direct disagreement on this."

LEHRER: "Just a minute, Mr. Vice President. I wanted to -- you know, the way the rules go here, now, two minutes, two minutes, and then I'll decide whether we go on."

GORE: "Right."

Bush scolded Gore as he ran overtime. "Not paying attention to the lights ...."

The questions submitted by farmers and teachers and gun owners, added up to 18 on schools, 12 on foreign and defense policy, others on health care, tax relief and prescription drugs.

Not all were asked, but the tally alone offered some perspective on what fence-sitting voters here care about in the remaining 2 weeks before Election Day.

There were no stumpers or trick questions, but letting ordinary people in on the campaign ritual offered a bit of unpredictability and color unseen in the previous two debates where Lehrer alone asked the questions.

One woman needed help reading her own handwriting.

Taking her turn with the microphone at the third and final presidential debate, Marie Payne Clappey (ph) squinted at the regulation index card on which the Commission on Presidential Debates insisted she write her question.

"There you go, I've got -- ," Bush offered as he fished for the reading glasses in his breast pocket. She found her own.

At another point, as Gore again barged right through the time limits an audience member visible over his shoulder shook with barely suppressed laughter. Bush caught her eye and winked.