“Joe the Plumber” was a big hit among members of the Linn County GOP Wednesday night. So was Sen. John McCain.

Before the watch party began at the Linn County Republican Headquarters in Marion there was a hope that McCain would take advantage of the final presidential debate to draw clear distinctions between himself and Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama.

“I want to see McCain really stress the difference between himself and Obama,” Cedar Rapids resident Bill Dahlsten said. “Obama is just a raging liberal, there’s no two ways about it. After $700 billion on this bailout, I don’t know where the money is going to come from for all this warm and fuzziness that I keep hearing about from [Obama].”

Dahlsten added that he wasn’t hoping for McCain to attack Obama, but to conduct the debate in such manner that viewers could see clear-cut differences between the two candidates and their proposed policies.

Carlin Stover, an undecided 22-year-old from Cedar Rapids, said he has been unable to watch much of the earlier debates and that he was looking forward to listening as the two candidates met for the final time.

“I don’t really necessarily have any specific hopes for tonight,” Stover said pre-debate. “I just want to know what the people who want to run our country have to say and what they want to do for us. I’ve heard mixed reviews about what Obama has said and what McCain has said. What I hope will happen tonight is that I will become closer to my final decision.”

By the end of the night, Stover’s decision was not finalized, but he was leaning closer to McCain.

“[McCain] just seemed more honest,” Stover said. “I’m not necessarily saying that I know everything that he supports and is against, but he seemed very honest and very citizen-based. I thought he presented himself as very concerned about the American people — the individuals, not a group of people — and stressed that everyone has to make a difference.”

Stover plans to vote on Election Day and said that he “still has a couple of days to figure it out.” He plans to now go to the Internet and complete further research on the candidates.

Dahlsten and Marion resident Robert Vonk said that McCain did what he needed to do, especially on the issue of fiscal conservatism.

“I was impressed,” Vonk said. “I liked what McCain had to say, especially when he was talking about Fannie [Mae] and Freddie [Mac] and the tax cut issue. McCain made it clear that under Obama’s plan the top 5 percent of Americans will have their taxes raised. Those are the people who are providing jobs in this country. … [President Ronald] Reagan understood that you cut taxes on those providing jobs and that spurs the economy.”

Dahlsten, who describes himself as a fiscal conservative, said he would have liked to have heard the candidates discuss how government has become more centralized.

“One of the things that got us into this mortgage mess was government-directed policy on risky loans,” he said. “Jim Leach was screaming 15 years ago about the pushing of these loans. There was just no fiscal sense in any of it. Greed, profits, self-interest — call it what you want — they are good, but not when they divorce themselves from reality. You tend to get that a lot of times with centralized political decision-making. There’s a sense of euphoria that wipes out reality, and now we’re paying for it.”

McCain received the biggest applause line of the night when he told Obama that if he wanted to campaign against President George W. Bush he should have run four years ago.

“That was definitely the line that I enjoyed the most,” Vonk said, while Dahlsten nodded his agreement.

Marion resident Joni Scotter, who said that she just wanted to see McCain show up and give the American people a real glimpse into his personality, said that was the part of the debate that had her clapping the loudest.

“Every time Obama brings up the subject of Bush, I think, ‘Uhh, you are running against McCain,’” Scotter said after the debate. “And [McCain] isn’t anything like Bush. He isn’t. McCain is a warrior. McCain is independent. McCain rocks the boat.”

Scotter, who says her favorite president of all time is Bush, believes that Bush has not done a good job of standing up for himself.

“He does the Bible verse,” she said and then turned her head to the right and smacked her own cheek before turning her head the opposite way and smacking the other cheek. “[Bush] doesn’t have it in his heart to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute here,’ but I wish he did. So, he’s going down with four years of real slamming, but will go down in history as one of the greatest presidents in the world because he has kept the United States terror-free since 9-11.”

She’s also convinced that McCain will be the type of person who will stand up for himself. That, she says, is one of the big differences between the two men. Scotter thought McCain did well by looking more aggressive in the final debate, but admits that she would have liked for him to go even further.

“McCain has come out and stated the differences between the two candidates,” Vonk said. “It’s up to the voters now.”