McCain takes on Obama, questions his character

New York: Senator John McCain played offense against Senator Barack Obama during much of the final presidential debate as he challenged his rival on his policies, judgment and character.

Obama said that he is the candidate who can bring "fundamental change" to the country and continued to try to link McCain to President Bush.

In one of the more forceful moments of the debate, McCain turned to Obama and said, "I am not President Bush."

"If you want to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. I'm going to give a new direction to this economy and this country," the Arizona senator said.

Going into the debate, Obama was leading McCain by eight per cent points in CNN's average of national polls.

McCain asked Obama to clarify his relationship with Bill Ayers, a former 1960s radical who belonged to the Weather Underground.

"Ayers is not involved in this campaign, he has never been involved in my campaign, and he will not advise me in the White House," Obama said.

McCain's campaign has charged that Obama's association with Ayers should cause voters to question his judgment.

Ayers was a founding member of the radical Weather Underground, a group that was involved in bombings in the early 1970s, including attacks on the Pentagon and the Capitol.

Obama said on Wednesday that the fact the McCain keeps bringing Ayers up "says more about your campaign than it says about me."

McCain again said that Obama has not repudiated comments made last weekend by Representative John Lewis.

Lewis on Saturday compared the feeling at recent GOP rallies to those of segregationist George Wallace.

"I think Congressman Lewis' point was that we have to be careful about how we deal with our supporters," Obama said.

"I do think that he inappropriately drew a comparison between what was happening there and what had happened during the civil rights movement, and we immediately put out a statement saying that we don't think that comparison is appropriate," he said.

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Asked why would the country be better off if their running mate became president rather than their opponent's running mate, Obama said Senator Joe Biden is "one of the finest public servants that has served in this country."

Obama said Biden has a "consistent pattern" of "fighting for the little guy."

"That's what he's done when it comes to economic policies that will help working families get a leg up," he said.

McCain praised his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin, as a "role model to women and reformers all over America."

"It's time that we had that breath of fresh air coming into our nation's capital and sweep out the old-boy network and cronyism that's been so much a part of it," McCain said.

Obama offered measured praise for Palin, whose qualifications have been widely scorned by Democrats. "I think that obviously she's a capable politician," Obama said, adding that she had "excited the base in the Republican party."

McCain and Obama also went back-and-forth over the negative rhetoric that has dominated the campaign trail in recent days.

McCain accused Obama of spending "more money on negative ads than any campaign in history."

Obama responded that McCain's campaign had been running exclusively negative ads, and that the public found McCain to be running a more negative campaign than Obama.

McCain said he has a record of crossing party lines to get things done and told Obama that his "argument for standing up to the leaders of your party isn't very convincing."

Obama promised that he would "go through the federal budget page by page, line by line, and cut programs that don't work" as president, echoing a vow his rival has made repeatedly.

McCain in turn promised an "across the board spending freeze." He said he would balance the federal budget in four years, and went on to name specific programs including subsidies for ethanol when moderator Bob Schieffer pressed both candidates to identify specific budget cuts they would make.

The candidates also butted heads over tax policy during the debate.

Both candidates made frequent mention of "Joe the plumber."

Last weekend, while Obama was canvassing for support in Holland, Ohio, the Democratic nominee ran into a man since dubbed Joe the plumber.

He asked Obama if he believed in the American Dream -- he said he was about to buy a company that makes more than $250,000 a year and was concerned that Obama would tax him more because of it.

Obama explained his tax plan in depth, saying it's better to lower taxes for Americans who make less money, so that they could afford to buy from his business. McCain characterized Obama's plan as trying to "spread the wealth around."

"We're going to take Joe's money, give it to Sen. Obama, and let him spread the wealth around. I want Joe the plumber to spread the wealth around," McCain said.

He added, "Why would you want to increase anybody's taxes right now? Why would you want to do that to anyone, anyone in America, when we have such a tough time?"

Obama countered that both he and McCain want to cut taxes, but that his plan would cut taxes for "95 percent of American families," more than McCain's plan.

McCain insisted that the government needed to help keep people in their homes, "putting a floor" under falling home ownership in the face of the mortgage crisis.

Obama charged that McCain's plan could end up being a giveaway to "the banks" rather than to homeowners.

The national general election poll of polls consists of six surveys: LATimes/Bloomberg (October 10-13), CBS/New York Times (October 10-13), American Research Group (October 11-13), Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby (October 11-13), Gallup (October 11-13) and Diageo/Hotline (October 11-13). It does not have a sampling error.