By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
October 15, 2008
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - John McCain repeatedly assailed Barack Obama's
character and campaign positions on taxes, abortion and more
Wednesday night, hoping to transform their final presidential
debate into a launching pad for a political comeback. "You
didn't tell the American people the truth," he charged.
Unruffled, and ahead in the polls, Obama parried each accusation,
and leveled a few of his own.
"One hundred percent, John, of your ads, 100 percent
of them have been negative," Obama shot back in an uncommonly
personal debate less than three weeks from Election Day.
"It's not true," McCain retorted.
"It absolutely is true," said Obama, seeking the
last word.
McCain is currently running all negative ads, according to
a study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But he has
run a number of positive ads during the campaign.
The 90-minute encounter, seated at a round table at Hofstra
University, was their third debate, and marked the beginning
of a 20-day sprint to Election Day. Obama leads in the national
polls and in surveys in many battleground states, an advantage
built in the weeks since the nation stumbled into the greatest
economic crisis since the Great Depression.
With few exceptions, the campaign is being waged in states
that voted Republican in 2004 Virginia, Colorado, Iowa and
in many of them, Obama holds a lead in the polls.
McCain played the aggressor from the opening moments of the
debate, accusing Obama of waging class warfare by seeking tax
increases that would "spread the wealth around."
The Arizona senator also demanded to know the full extent
of Obama's relationship with William Ayers, a 1960s-era terrorist
and the Democrat's ties with ACORN, a liberal group accused
of violating federal law as it seeks to register voters. McCain
insisted Obama disavow last week's remarks by Rep. John Lewis,
a Democrat, who accused the Republican ticket of playing racial
politics along the same lines as segregationists of the past.
Struggling to escape the political drag of an unpopular Republican
incumbent, McCain also said, "Sen. Obama, I am not President
Bush... If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should
have run four years ago."
Obama returned each volley, and brushed aside McCain's claim
to full political independence.
"If I've occasionally mistaken your policies for George
Bush's policies, it'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 said.
McCain's allegation that Obama had not leveled with the public
involved the Illinois senator's decision to forgo public financing
for his campaign in favor of raising his own funds. As a result,
he has far outraised McCain, although the difference has been
somewhat neutralized by an advantage the Republican National
Committee holds over the Democratic Party.
"He signed a piece of paper" earlier in the campaign
pledging to accept federal financing, McCain said. He added
that Obama's campaign has spent more money than any since Watergate,
a reference to President Nixon's re-election, a campaign that
later became synonymous with scandal.
Obama made no immediate response to McCain's assertion about
having signed a pledge to accept federal campaign funds.
Asked about running mates, both presidential candidates said
Democrat Joseph Biden was qualified to become president, although
McCain added this qualifier: "in many respects."
McCain passed up a chance to say his own running mate, Alaska
Gov. Sarah Palin, was qualified to sit in the Oval Office,
though he praised her performance as governor and noted her
work on behalf of special needs children. The Palins have a
son born earlier this year with Down Syndrome.
Obama sidestepped when asked about Palin's qualifications
to serve as president, and he, too, praised her advocacy for
special needs children.
But he quickly sought to turn the issue to his advantage by
noting McCain favors a spending freeze on government programs.
"I do want to just point out that autism, for example,
or other special needs will require some additional funding
if we're going to get serious in terms of research.. Aif we
have an across-the-board spending freeze, we're not going to
be able to do it," he said.
In addition to differences on taxes and spending, McCain said
Obama advocated trade policies that recalled those of Herbert
Hoover, who presided over the start of the Great Depression.
Obama has called for tougher provisions in trade negotiations,
arguing that is necessary to avoid undercutting the wages paid
American workers.
McCain also said Obama has aligned himself with "the
extreme aspect of the pro-abortion movement in America" and
had voted present while in the Illinois Legislature on a measure
to ban one type of procedure late in a woman's pregnancy.
Obama said the bill would have undermined Roe v. Wade, the
Supreme Court ruling that granted abortion rights, and had
been opposed by the Illinois Medical Society.
"I am completely supportive of a ban on late-term abortions,
partial-birth or otherwise, as long as there's an exception
for the mother's health and life, and this did not contain
that exception," he added.
McCain sarcastically paid tribute to "the eloquence of
Senator Obama. He's (for) health for the mother. You know,
that's been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America
to mean almost anything."
McCain's allegation about class warfare stemmed from one of
Obama's campaign appearances last weekend.
In Ohio on Sunday, Obama was approached by a man who said, "Your
new tax plan's going to tax me more."
A video clip caught by Fox News shows Obama replying, "It's
not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make
sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance
at success, too. And I think that when we spread the wealth
around, it's good for everybody."
McCain referred repeatedly to that voter, Joe Wurzelbacher,
a plumber from Toledo, Ohio.
Wurzelbacher watched Wednesday night's debate and said he
still thinks Obama's plan would keep him from buying the small
business that employs him.
McCain's reference to Ayers reprised campaign commercials
he has run to try and raise doubts about Obama's fitness to
serve.
Ayers, who was a member of the violent Weather Underground
in the 1960s, hosted a meet-the-candidate event for Obama in
an Illinois race many years later.
"The fact that this has become such an important part
of your campaign, Sen. McCain, says more about your campaign
than it says about me," Obama replied.
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