Gloves Come Off in Final Presidential Debate

The final presidential debate, held yesterday evening at Hofstra University in New York, marked the beginning of the 20-day countdown to election day. The candidates, perhaps sensing how important this final encounter would be, took the opportunity to assail one another with more vigor than in the previous two contests. Currently ahead in the polls, Obama was calm and collected, but made sure to get the last word in on many occasions. One exchange saw Obama accuse McCain of running nothing but negative campaign ads.

Noted Obama, "One hundred percent, John, of your ads, 100 percent of them have been negative." After McCain quickly shot back that this wasn’t true, Obama in turn replied "It absolutely is true." For the record, McCain has run nothing but negative ads in recent days, but has run a number of positive ads during the campaign, giving even more credence to those who note that the truth is rarely spoken or uncovered in the "made for television" debates, where half-truths, wild accusations, distortion of the facts and outright lies seem to rule the day.

During the debate, McCain was often the aggressor as he sought to make up much-needed ground in the polls and key battleground states. In all, McCain accused Obama of a number of transgressions, among them consorting with William Ayers, a 1960s-era terrorist, being a typical "tax and spend" Democrat, and for engaging in class warfare with his tax plans. Throughout, however, Obama was never at a loss for words until McCain brought up his opponent’s earlier promise to accept only federal financing for his campaign.

In a fairly well-publicized move, Obama flip-flopped on that issue when it became apparent that he’d raise much more money on his own. For those already wary of politics as usual, that particular move simply cemented Obama as a true Washington insider, though the Illinois senator’s lead in the polls also appears to be the result of a wary public – in this instance the trepidation stems from the possibility that McCain would offer four more years of policies and initiatives in the Bush mold, a perception McCain is trying hard to dispel. Noted McCain, "Senator Obama, I am not President Bush…You wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."