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McCain takes off the gloves in final debate with Obama
HEMPSTEAD, New York, (AFP) - - John McCain went for the jugular in his third and final debate with Democrat Barack Obama as the Republican vied to stage a dramatic revival of his flagging White House hopes.
McCain, down a hefty 14 points in one new poll as the United States weathers its worst financial crisis in decades, savaged Obama's ties to 1960s radical William Ayers and said his tax plans were nothing more than "class warfare."
Keeping his composure, Obama in turn accused McCain of vying to distract voters on a day that New York's Dow Jones share index posted its second-biggest points fall ever on mounting fears of a crippling US recession.
McCain, 72, said he did not care about "an old washed-up terrorist" like Ayers, once a bomb-throwing militant in the Weather Underground group who is now a Chicago professor of education.
"But as Senator (Hillary) Clinton said in her debates with you, we need to know the full extent of the relationship with you," he said, glaring at Obama seated on the other side of a narrow table at New York's Hofstra University.
McCain also assailed the liberal group ACORN, which is accused in several states of adding fraudulent names to pro-Obama voter registration lists, and chided Obama for persistently linking him to President George W. Bush.
"Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago," McCain said, proclaiming his record of bucking the Republican line in contrast to Obama's inexperience.
Obama, 47, accused McCain of wildly distorting the truth over both Ayers and ACORN, and said voters were dismayed by the "100 percent negative" tone taken by the Republican's campaign at a time of rampant economic anxiety.
The Democrat said a better guide to his future administration would be current associates such as billionaire investor Warren Buffett, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and ex-NATO commander General Jim Jones.
"Those are the people, Democrats and Republicans, who have shaped my ideas and who will be surrounding me in the White House," the Illinois senator said.
"And I think the fact that this has become such an important part of your campaign, Senator McCain, says more about your campaign than it says about me."
Obama said he could be forgiven for mistaking McCain's policies for Bush's "because on the core economic issues that matter to the American people on tax policy, on energy policy, on spending priorities, you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush."
He praised McCain's "commendable independence" against Bush policies "on key issues like torture."
"But when it comes to economic policies, essentially what you're proposing is eight more years of the same thing. It hasn't worked. I think the American people understand it hasn't worked," he said.
Obama added: "And what is important is making sure that we disagree without being disagreeable. And it means that we can have tough, vigorous debates around issues.
"What we can't do, I think, is try to characterize each other as bad people. And that has been a culture in Washington that has been taking place for too long."
As millions of voters fret about possibly losing their jobs and health care, the perils of a negative strategy from McCain were clear as Obama built up a commanding lead in several polls.
A New York Times-CBS News poll late Tuesday had the Democrat ahead of McCain by the huge margin of 14 points, 53 to 39 percent, compared to a lead of just three points before last week's second presidential debate.
CBS said 21 percent of respondents now had a less favorable view of McCain in light of his Ayers-related character attacks on Obama and his choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as running mate.
New polls of battleground states by CNN-Time-Opinion Research Corp. showed Obama up five points among registered voters in Colorado, by eight in Florida, by three in Missouri and by a yawning 10 points in Virginia.
Florida decided the 2000 election in favor of Bush, and Virginia has not backed a Democrat for the White House since 1964.
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Enlarge Photo
A chart showing opinion poll ratings for US presidential candidates. John McCain went for the jugular in his third and final debate with Democrat Barack Obama as the Republican vied to stage a dramatic revival of his flagging White House hopes.