Obama camp anticipates McCain’s ‘nastiest’ attacks

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s campaign on Tuesday said it expects GOP rival John McCain to “launch his nastiest attacks” at tonight’s debate. 

“John McCain is running out of time for a game-changing event,” Sen. Obama’s (Ill.) press secretary Bill Burton said in a pre-debate memo.

{mosads}“In order to change the dynamics of this race, we anticipate that McCain will launch his nastiest attacks and continue to lie about Barack Obama’s record and his vision to fundamentally change our country,” Burton stated. “We don’t know if McCain will continue his refusal to even look at Obama on stage — like in their first debate — but we fully expect that his “turn the page” strategy to ignore the economy will be seen in full view for 90 minutes of character attacks against Barack Obama.”

The Obama spokesman also continued a line of attack against McCain, calling the Arizona senator “erratic.”

“John McCain just doesn’t get it. The American people aren’t interested in nasty, false attacks, and they’re not interested in four more years of Bush policies. But that’s all he’s offering,” Burton stated.

“If all he does is attack Barack Obama, as he’s said he’ll do, it will be yet another colossal missed opportunity,” Burton added.

The spokesman also sought to lower expectations for Obama, saying that he is a “decided underdog” because the debate will be held in a town hall format, a setting in which McCain does “extremely well.”

“It’s been his favorite format throughout his career and we think that he will of course do very well,” the campaign stated, pointing to a compilation of newspaper reviews of McCain’s town hall performance.