About 120 people piled into Blacksburg's Lyric Theatre on Tuesday night to watch the second presidential debate and learn how the candidates plan to fulfill their duties if elected.

The event was hosted by both the Blacksburg and Virginia chapters of AARP as part of its Divided We Fail initiative.

Divided We Fail is a nonpartisan effort to address health care and long-term financial security, two issues that the AARP says are major domestic problems that need to be resolved without dwelling on partisan politics.

The watch party included a panel discussion led by AARP national staff election specialists Clare Hushbeck, an AARP senior legislative representative, and Bill Kallio, the state director of AARP Virginia. The panel discussed issues relevant to this year's election and made note of what to watch for in the debate. Afterward, a question-and-answer session took place.

Hushbeck said that the organization chose health care and long-term financial security as its focus because these are the issues they hear the most concern about.

"You can't be under a rock at this time," Hushbeck said.

Hushbeck, addressing a largely college-age crowd, said the issues the next president will inherit will affect today's generation for years to come.

Kallio said that regardless of who is elected, Republicans and Democrats need to "reach across the table," set aside their political differences and handle the issues at hand.

"There's too much partisanship in Washington, too much gridlock, and the important issues aren't being resolved," Kallio said.