McCain's aggressive attacks don't ruffle Obama in final debate

A very aggressive John McCain came after Barack Obama Wednesday night in the third and final presidential debate between the two candidates. But Obama remained unruffled.

The wide ranging 90 minute debate touched on the economy, the federal deficit, energy policy, health care, abortion, education and trade policy, but nothing in the discussion was likely to change the fundamental state of the race, according to post-debate polls.

Joe the Plumber

With polls showing the economy is the number one issue facing Americans, John McCain repeatedly referred to a man named Joe Wurzelbacher who is looking to buy a plumbing business in Toledo, Ohio. McCain referred to him as Joe the plumber and said Joe would suffer under Obama's tax plans. Obama, on the other hand, insisted that Joe's taxes would only go up if Joe earned more than $250,000 a year.

McCain brought Joe to the conversation about health care and asked what kind of fine Joe would pay if his business chose not to sign up for Obama's health care plan, at which point Obama decided to speak to Joe too. "I'm happy to talk to you, Joe, too, if you're out there. Here's your fine -- zero. You won't pay a fine, because...as I said in our last debate and I'll repeat, John, I exempt small businesses from the requirement for large businesses that can afford to provide health care to their employees, but are not doing it."

It has been a heated race in recent weeks and the candidates discussed the negative tone of the campaign but they did not back down from challenging one another at the debate. In responding to Senator McCain's attacks on taxes, Obama told the audience "nobody likes taxes" and said "I would prefer that none of us had to pay taxes, including myself. But ultimately, we've got to pay for the core investments that make this economy strong and somebody's got to do it."

McCain interjected, "Nobody likes taxes. Let's not raise anybody's taxes. OK?"

Trailing in the polls in a difficult year for Republicans, McCain also tried to distance himself from President Bush. After Obama suggested that McCain would pursue "the same kinds of policies that we pursued over the last eight years," McCain shot back: "Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago." It may have been McCain's most memorable line of the evening.

Negative Campaigning

The candidates sparred over who was to blame for the negative turn of the campaign, with McCain suggesting that the tone might have been different if Obama had agreed to his proposal for a series of joint town hall meetings throughout the country.

Later, McCain challenged Obama for his unwillingness to repudiate comments made by Rep. John Lewis, who compared McCain rallies to rallies for former segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace. Lewis criticized the angry tone at recent campaign rallies held by McCain and his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, although he later backed off of the Wallace comparison.

"And, Senator Obama, you didn't repudiate those remarks. Every time there's been an out-of-bounds remark made by a Republican, no matter where they are, I have repudiated them," McCain said. McCain said he hoped that Obama would repudiate those remarks at the debate but Obama never did.

Obama said Rep. Lewis only spoke up after reports that participants at McCain-Palin rallies were shouting "terrorist" and "kill him" when Obama's name was mentioned and said McCain's running mate "didn't stop, didn't say 'Hold on a second, that's kind of out of line.'"

Obama's Associations

Obama also tried to put to rest the question of his association with former domestic terrorist William Ayers by explaining that they had worked together on a charitable board in the 1990s and that Ayers was not involved in his campaign in any way.

To respond to allegations of guilt by association, Obama tried to create new associations. "Let me tell you who I associate with. On economic policy, I associate with Warren Buffett and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker," Obama said. "If I'm interested in figuring out my foreign policy, I associate myself with my running mate, Joe Biden or with Dick Lugar, the Republican ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, or General Jim Jones, the former supreme allied commander of NATO."

Obama said the people he listed had shaped his ideas and would be surrounding him in the White House if he won. The Democratic candidate then tried to turn the tables on McCain for even raising the issue. "And I think the fact that this has become such an important part of your campaign, Senator McCain, says more about your campaign than it says about me," Obama said.

South of the Border

McCain also took a swipe at Obama for opposing the Colombia Free Trade Agreement and suggested that Obama's opposition was because he "has never traveled south of our border."

"Free trade with Colombia is something that's a no-brainer," said McCain. "But maybe you ought to travel down there and visit them and maybe you could understand it a lot better." It was an odd statement to make from a candidate who selected a running mate who had just gotten a passport last year, but Obama never mentioned Palin's international travel experience.

For the third time in a row, polls indicated that voters felt Obama won the debate. CNN, Fox and CBS News all conducted snap polls showing Obama was considered the winner of the debate. A CNN poll also found that 80 percent of voters felt McCain spent more time attacking during the debate while only 7 percent felt Obama spent more time attacking.