McCain challenges Obama on links to radical

In their fiercest encounter of the campaign, Republican John McCain heatedly demanded in their final debate Wednesday that Democrat Barack Obama explain his relationship with a Vietnam war-era radical.

Obama brushed off the attack, saying he was 8 years old when William Ayers, a founder of the radical Weather Underground, was involved in anti-war activities including the bombing of federal buildings.

Behind in the polls going into the third presidential debate, McCain came out fighting and repeated to Obama's face some of the most negative campaign allegations about the Illinois senator.

Neither candidate brought new proposals for moving the country out of its deepening financial crisis, even though polls show voter economic anxieties far overshadow all other issues, even the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The nationally televised debate was the last opportunity for Americans to measure the credentials of the candidates in a side-by-side setting, offering McCain his best remaining chance to gain ground on Obama with less than three weeks to Election Day.

The 72-year-old veteran Arizona senator defended his harsh campaigning, acknowledging this "has been a tough campaign" and its negative tone could have been avoided through a series of town hall meetings with Obama that he proposed.

Obama responded that 100 percent of McCain's ads had been negative and that he did not think the American people cared about the personal attacks.

"That's not true," McCain retorted.

"It is true," said Obama, seeking the last word, adding later that U.S. politicians must learn to "disagree without being disagreeable."

At one point McCain told Obama: "You didn't tell the American people the truth" about a key campaign pledge about taking federal funding to finance his campaign. As a result, Obama has raised far more money than McCain, although the difference has been somewhat neutralized by an advantage the Republican National Committee holds over the Democratic Party.

"He signed a piece of paper" earlier in the campaign pledging to accept federal financing, McCain said. He added that Obama's campaign has spent more money than any since Watergate, a reference to President Nixon's 1972 re-election bid, a campaign that later became synonymous with scandal.

Obama made no immediate response to McCain's assertion about having signed a pledge to accept federal campaign funds.

McCain is currently running all negative ads, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But he has run a number of positive ads during the campaign.

McCain opened the debate by saying that ending home mortgage foreclosures was the key to "putting a floor under" the U.S. economic crisis. He attacked Obama for planning to raise taxes.

Obama countered, as he has throughout the campaign, that he would cut taxes for 95 percent of earners while raising them for the richest Americans, those making more than $250,000 a year.

When questioned on what programs the candidates would have to cut given the current economic downturn, McCain said he would impose a spending freeze and knew how to cut millions out of Pentagon spending.

Obama sought again to tie McCain to the unpopular administration of President George W. Bush, recalling that there was a federal budget surplus when the Republican took office from former President Bill Clinton.

McCain quickly retorted, "Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you want to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."

Obama shot back that on the economy McCain was proposing to continue Bush's policies.

"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.

McCain also demanded to know the full extent of Obama's relationship with ACORN, a liberal anti-poverty group accused of violating federal law as it seeks to register voters, and insisted Obama disavow last week's remarks by Democratic Rep. John Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement who accused the Republican ticket of playing racial politics along the same lines as segregationists of the past.

On the economy, both men stayed with plans they laid out this week for helping move the country out of its financial crisis. More than 80 percent of Americans say the country is on the wrong track.

McCain has unveiled a $52.5 billion economic plan that calls for halving the tax rate on capital gains and reducing the tax on early withdrawals from retirement accounts, among other measures.

Obama's $60 billion proposal includes an extension of unemployment benefits, a 90-day freeze on home mortgage foreclosures, penalty-free withdrawals from retirement funds and a $3,000 tax credit to businesses for each new job created. Both candidates call for doing away with the tax on unemployment benefits.

Asked about running mates, both presidential candidates said Democrat Joseph Biden was qualified to become president, although McCain qualified his judgment by adding the words "in many respects."

McCain passed up a chance to say his own running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was qualified to sit in the Oval Office, though he praised her performance as governor. Obama sidestepped when asked aoubt Palin, saying it was up to the voters to decide.

McCain used the opening moments of the debate to accuse Obama of waging class warfare by advocating tax increases designed to "spread the wealth around." The Democrat denied it, and countered that he favors tax reductions for 95 percent of all Americans.

"Nobody likes taxes," Obama said in an exchange early in the 90-minute debate. "But ultimately we've got to pay for the core investments" necessary for the economy.

"If nobody likes taxes, let's not raise anybody's, OK?" McCain retorted with a laugh.

McCain's allegation stemmed from one of Obama's campaign appearances last weekend.

In Ohio on Sunday, Obama was approached by one man who said, "Your new tax plan's going to tax me more."

A video clip caught by Fox News shows Obama replying, "It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance at success, too. And I think that when we spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

McCain referred repeatedly to that voter, Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber from Toledo, Ohio.

Wurzelbacher watched Wednesday night's debate and said he still thinks Obama's plan would keep him from buying the small business that employs him.

About McCain: "He's got it right as far as I go."

Even so, Wurzelbacher declined to say who was getting his vote.

He said he was surprised that he was called "Joe the Plumber" repeatedly during the debate.

"It's pretty surreal, man, my name being mentioned in a presidential campaign."