Republican Sen. John McCain launched a heavy assault on Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s judgment and experience Wednesday night, making a last-ditch effort in the final presidential debate to change the course of a campaign moving decidedly in his opponent’s favor.
McCain bore in on details of Obama’s new $60 billion proposal to address the country’s economic problems, saying they would mean steep tax increases for many Americans. Under the proposal, which he unveiled Monday, Obama would offer tax breaks for companies that create jobs, eliminate penalties for early withdrawals from retirement accounts, postpone foreclosures and boost federal outlays to states and cities.
“Why would you want to raise anybody’s taxes right now?” McCain asked. “We need to encourage businesses.”
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Obama insisted that his plan would raise taxes on only the top 5 percent of earners and accused McCain of proposing to give tax breaks to oil and gas companies.
“We both want to cut taxes,” Obama said. “The difference is who we want to cut taxes for.”
In the course of the exchange, the candidates made a national star of Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber who confronted Obama about his tax policies Monday at a rally in Ohio. Both men addressed their remarks directly to “Joe the Plumber,” who would not say Wednesday night whom he would vote for.
“It’s pretty surreal, man, my name being mentioned in a presidential campaign,” Wurzelbacher told The Associated Press.
McCain hits Obama on numerous issues
McCain attacked Obama on a variety of other issues during the debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., saying his opponent had reneged on a promise to accept federal matching funds for his campaign, opposed all offshore oil drilling and had distorted McCain's position on stem-cell research.
Obama has said offshore drilling is worth studying. McCain, meanwhile, said he favored most research on stem-cell projects, opposing only work on cells derived from aborted human embryos.
The attacks were a calculated gamble on the part of the McCain campaign, which has seen its polling numbers fall as its anti-Obama rhetoric has diverged from substantive policy discussions.
The sharpest attacks Wednesday night came on Obama’s ties to a national organizing group that he said was perpetrating the “biggest fraud in American history” in its voter registration drives in predominantly urban and minority communities.
McCain had said beforehand that he would also attack Obama’s ties to William Ayers, a founder of the radical 1960s activist group Weather Underground. But Wednesday night, he shifted his focus to ACORN, which has been accused by conservative commentators of voter fraud because registrars have found phony registration applications submitted by canvassers for the group.
“Mr. Ayers — I don’t care about an old washed-up terrorist,” McCain said, adding simply that “we need to know the extent of Senator Obama’s relationship” with Ayers.
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He hit much harder on Obama’s ties to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, a liberal activist group that Obama represented in a voting rights lawsuit in the 1990s.
Obama maintained that ACORN’s efforts were independent of his campaign and accused McCain of trying to change the subject from Ayers because his campaign’s attacks were not working.
“Mr. Ayers has become the centerpiece of Senator McCain’s campaign in recent weeks,” Obama complained, saying he had “roundly condemned” Ayers’ advocacy of violent reform three decades ago, before Ayers became a college professor and advocate for education programs.
“Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign. He has never been involved in this campaign. And he will not advise me in the White House,” Obama said. “The fact that this has become such an important part of your campaign, Senator McCain, says more about your campaign than it does about me.”
McCain breaks sharply with Bush
McCain also sought to shift the direction of the debate by breaking sharply with President Bush, saying Obama was running against the wrong man by criticizing the economic performance of the last eight years.
“Senator Obama, I am not President Bush,” McCain said. “If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”
Obama said that, nonetheless, McCain had voted for four of Bush’s last five budgets and said a McCain presidency would be a continuation of the Bush administration.
“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.
The exchange came as both men outlined their new proposals to rescue the faltering U.S. economy.
“Americans are hurting right now, and they’re angry,” said McCain, calling struggling homeowners “innocent victims of greed and excess on Wall Street and Washington, D.C.”
Answering criticism of the $300 billion plan he unveiled in the last debate to buy Americans’ bad mortgages, McCain said his proposal would benefit, not hurt, homeowners who had continued to pay their mortgages on time.
“It doesn’t help that person’s home if their neighbor’s house is abandoned,” he said.
McCain bore in on details of Obama’s new $60 billion proposal to address the country’s economic problems, saying they would mean steep tax increases for many Americans. Under the proposal, which he unveiled Monday, Obama would offer tax breaks for companies that create jobs, eliminate penalties for early withdrawals from retirement accounts, postpone foreclosures and boost federal outlays to states and cities.
“Why would you want to raise anybody’s taxes right now?” McCain asked. “We need to encourage businesses.”
Story continues below ↓
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Obama insisted that his plan would raise taxes on only the top 5 percent of earners and accused McCain of proposing to give tax breaks to oil and gas companies.
“We both want to cut taxes,” Obama said. “The difference is who we want to cut taxes for.”
In the course of the exchange, the candidates made a national star of Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber who confronted Obama about his tax policies Monday at a rally in Ohio. Both men addressed their remarks directly to “Joe the Plumber,” who would not say Wednesday night whom he would vote for.
“It’s pretty surreal, man, my name being mentioned in a presidential campaign,” Wurzelbacher told The Associated Press.
McCain hits Obama on numerous issues
McCain attacked Obama on a variety of other issues during the debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., saying his opponent had reneged on a promise to accept federal matching funds for his campaign, opposed all offshore oil drilling and had distorted McCain's position on stem-cell research.
Obama has said offshore drilling is worth studying. McCain, meanwhile, said he favored most research on stem-cell projects, opposing only work on cells derived from aborted human embryos.
The attacks were a calculated gamble on the part of the McCain campaign, which has seen its polling numbers fall as its anti-Obama rhetoric has diverged from substantive policy discussions.
The sharpest attacks Wednesday night came on Obama’s ties to a national organizing group that he said was perpetrating the “biggest fraud in American history” in its voter registration drives in predominantly urban and minority communities.
McCain had said beforehand that he would also attack Obama’s ties to William Ayers, a founder of the radical 1960s activist group Weather Underground. But Wednesday night, he shifted his focus to ACORN, which has been accused by conservative commentators of voter fraud because registrars have found phony registration applications submitted by canvassers for the group.
“Mr. Ayers — I don’t care about an old washed-up terrorist,” McCain said, adding simply that “we need to know the extent of Senator Obama’s relationship” with Ayers.
Click for related content
Fact check: Both candidates muddy truth
Election Day worry: ‘Does my vote count?’
NYT: Poll finds attacks by McCain turning off voters
Youth vote is in, says Obama will win
Obama calls for foreclosure moratorium
He hit much harder on Obama’s ties to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, a liberal activist group that Obama represented in a voting rights lawsuit in the 1990s.
Obama maintained that ACORN’s efforts were independent of his campaign and accused McCain of trying to change the subject from Ayers because his campaign’s attacks were not working.
“Mr. Ayers has become the centerpiece of Senator McCain’s campaign in recent weeks,” Obama complained, saying he had “roundly condemned” Ayers’ advocacy of violent reform three decades ago, before Ayers became a college professor and advocate for education programs.
“Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign. He has never been involved in this campaign. And he will not advise me in the White House,” Obama said. “The fact that this has become such an important part of your campaign, Senator McCain, says more about your campaign than it does about me.”
McCain breaks sharply with Bush
McCain also sought to shift the direction of the debate by breaking sharply with President Bush, saying Obama was running against the wrong man by criticizing the economic performance of the last eight years.
“Senator Obama, I am not President Bush,” McCain said. “If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”
Obama said that, nonetheless, McCain had voted for four of Bush’s last five budgets and said a McCain presidency would be a continuation of the Bush administration.
“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.
The exchange came as both men outlined their new proposals to rescue the faltering U.S. economy.
“Americans are hurting right now, and they’re angry,” said McCain, calling struggling homeowners “innocent victims of greed and excess on Wall Street and Washington, D.C.”
Answering criticism of the $300 billion plan he unveiled in the last debate to buy Americans’ bad mortgages, McCain said his proposal would benefit, not hurt, homeowners who had continued to pay their mortgages on time.
“It doesn’t help that person’s home if their neighbor’s house is abandoned,” he said.
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