He covered a number of issues, while also speaking in more general terms about the importance of knowing what you are for and not just what you are against.

He talked about health care, Iraq, negotiating with enemies of the US and about the image of the US in the world.

He said it is inexcusable that we have 47 million Americans without health insurance. He talked about his own mother getting ovarian cancer in her early 50s. That she was changing jobs at the time and she was more worried about losing health insurance than about surviving. She died of the cancer at age 53.

But he did not offer any specifics of what he would do on health care.

On Iraq he was a bit more specific: Calling for starting troop redeployment out of Iraq immediately but without naming a specific rate of departure or when it would be complete.

In a previous debate, he had said he would talk to enemies of the US without preconditions. He was widely criticized for this at the time and he strongly stated today he stood by his statement. He quoted John F Kennedy:

"Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate."

He said our image in the world can be restored by using our wealth internationally to build schools in the Muslim world rather than to wage war there. Schools that teach science and math rather than hatred and violence, a clear reference to the CIA programs in the 1980s that funded the latter in the name of anti-Communism.

He appealed to students not to give in to cynicism and said they need to get involved in the campaign. He is a person offering hope and if they get involved it will build their own sense of hope.

He ended with a chant he encountered at a tiny campaign event in Greenwood, SC: A city council woman there led it: "All Fired Up? Ready to Go?"