check out the 1980 debates between reagan/carter, some interesting info below
CNN's latest poll of polls shows McCain trailing Obama by 8 points nationwide -- a mid-October deficit that only one presidential hopeful has overcome to win the White House in the last 50 years.
In the 1980 presidential election, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan trailed President Jimmy Carter by 8 points in a late October Gallup poll. A mere 10 days after that survey was conducted, Reagan defeated the incumbent president by nearly 3 percentage points, sealing one of the biggest turnarounds in the history of American presidential politics.
The most important event of the entire 1980 presidential campaign was the second presidential debate, which was held one week to the day before the election (October 28). Over the course of two hours, the entire race changed drastically, and what was considered an extremely tight race with the President slightly ahead became a comfortable Republican victory.
Nothing of that magnitude has happened since in any televised confrontations.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=te28Bhq2stg
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fNcnE4CbUhw