Debate sees an aggressive McCain and a cool Obama

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, trailing in most key polls, brought a new, more aggressive posture to Wednesday night's debate with Democratic rival Barack Obama — the last of three. 

With less than three weeks before Election Day, Sen. McCain (Ariz.) had promised to go after Obama more forcefully in their last meeting, and he did just that, accusing the Illinois senator of lying, wanting to raise taxes and associating with unscrupulous people and organizations.

{mosads}The Democrat, however, knowing that McCain needed a knockout blow, seemed to take McCain's best punches, explaining himself when warranted and focusing on the ongoing financial crisis and domestic policy at other times.

McCain came out of the gate swinging, hitting his rival for waging “class warfare” and repeatedly referring to “Joe the plumber,” an Ohio voter Obama told this week would benefit more from a strong economy than from tax cuts for the wealthy.

Obama told the plumber that his small business would do better if his customers had money to spend, saying “when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

McCain seized on that statement, accusing Obama of wanting wealth redistribution through higher taxes.

“I will not stand for a tax increase on small business income,” McCain said. “50 percent of small business income taxes are paid by small businesses. That's 16 million jobs in America. And what you want to do to Joe the plumber and millions more like him is have their taxes increased and not be able to realize the American dream of owning their own business."

Obama continued to insist that he would cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans, adding that McCain’s plan would follow that of the Bush administration, giving tax cuts to wealthy corporations and the rich.

McCain fired back at Obama that he is “not President Bush.”

“If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should’ve run four years ago,” the Arizona senator said.

The last debate’s theme was domestic policy, and the candidates squared off on issues, such as abortion, on which they hadn’t touched in previous debates.

Moderator Bob Schieffer asked the candidates about the negative tone of the campaigns, leading McCain to bring up Obama’s connection to 1960s domestic terrorist William Ayers and ACORN. In response to both, Obama tried to set the record straight, calmly explaining his limited relationships with both.

McCain, however, acknowledge that "it's gotten pretty tough," again expressing his distaste for comments Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) made over the weekend comparing McCain, in a sense, to segregationist and former Alabama Gov. George Wallace.

"And I regret some of the negative aspects of both campaigns," McCain said. "But the fact is that it has taken many turns which I think are unacceptable." 

In response, Obama said he thinks "the American people are less interested in our hurt feelings during the course of the campaign than addressing the issues that matter to them so deeply."

"And there is nothing wrong with us having a vigorous debate like we're having tonight about healthcare, about energy policy about tax policy," Obama said. "That's the stuff that campaigns should be made of."

The Obama campaign said after the debate that McCain needed a "game-changer," and he came up short.

"Once again, Barack Obama won a clear victory because he made the case for change for the middle class, while John McCain just had angry and negative attacks," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said. "Barack Obama showed the steady leadership that the American people need, and offered specific plans on the issues that matter to the middle class – creating jobs, cutting healthcare costs, building a new energy policy, and getting our economy moving. Sen. McCain said that George Bush isn’t on the ballot, but he couldn’t name a single way that his economic policies will be any different. This was John McCain’s last chance for a game-changer, and he didn’t get it.”

McCain's campaign, however, said it was McCain who demonstrated his concern and plan for action for the middle-class.

"He vowed to fight for 'Joe the Plumber' every day he is president and he affirmed his belief that we shouldn't raise taxes just to 'spread the wealth,'" McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said. "While Barack Obama is measuring the drapes and campaigning against a man not even on the ballot, John McCain demonstrated that he has the experience, judgment, independence and courage to fight for every American."