McCain plays to 'The Plumber'
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE | McCain attacks Obama on Ayers, ACORN, 'Joe'
Trailing in the polls, Republican John McCain emptied both rhetorical barrels on Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday -- calling him a friend of accused terrorist Bill Ayers, an ally of a group under investigation for vote fraud, and a man who would tax "Joe the Plumber."
Except when he smiled and spoke directly into the camera to Joe the Plumber -- a voter Obama met in Ohio -- McCain remained stridently on the attack against Obama.
(AP)
PHOTO GALLERY
The final presidential debate
Fed up with Obama's claims that he would bring four more years of President Bush's policies, McCain declared, "Sen. Obama, I'm not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."
Obama, on the defensive much of the night, still kept his aplomb and played the role of deferential front-runner. Asked by moderator Bob Schieffer to state directly to one another attacks made in their ads, Obama did not return McCain's barbs about Ayers and the community group ACORN with any hits on McCain for his actions on behalf of convicted swindler Charles Keating.
Obama also took his turn speaking to Joe the Plumber, staring directly into the camera to say, "I'm happy to talk to you, Joe, too, if you're out there."
Addressing McCain's challenge for the second debate in a row to spell out how much he would fine small-business owners who did not purchase health plans for employees under his health plan, Obama said directly into the camera, to Joe: "Here's your fine: Zero. I exempt small businesses from having to pay."
McCain expressed contempt for Obama's refusal to repudiate comments from Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who said McCain and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin were stirring up the kind of emotions in crowds that reminded him of segregationist George Wallace's campaign.
Lewis "was troubled with what he was hearing at some of the rallies that your running mate was holding at which all the public reports indicate [supporters] were shouting, when my name came up, things like 'terrorist' and 'kill him,' " Obama said. "Your running mate . . . didn't stop and say, hold on a second, that's out of line."
But Obama said both he and Lewis quickly put out a statement saying that the comparison to Wallace was inappropriate.
McCain demanded that Obama give more details about his relationship with former Weather Underground activist Bill Ayers and with ACORN, a nonprofit group accused of signing up nonexistent voters in a dozen states in the last few months.
"You launched your political campaign in Mr. Ayers living room," McCain said.
"That's absolutely not true," Obama shot back. Obama's campaign has said that Ayers' coffee for Obama came after Obama launched his campaign in a Ramada Hotel.
"Forty years ago, when I was 8 years old, he engaged in despicable acts with a radical domestic group," Obama said of Ayers. "I have roundly condemned those acts."
Obama said his only involvement with ACORN came a decade ago when he was their lawyer in a federal case in Chicago. He said his campaign had no role in this year's vote fraud.
Obama did not address the $800,000 his campaign paid ACORN this year for vote-canvassing efforts.