John McCain went on the attack in tonight’s final debate, slamming Barack Obama for his association with one-time domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and for “class warfare” tax policies.
On issue after issue, McCain – who has been urged by some Republicans to step up his assault as Obama has climbed in the polls – hit the Democratic nominee with tough language and questions directed foursquare at his opponent.
For the first time in a face-to-face encounter, McCain brought up Ayers, a former Weather Underground member who served on a charity board with Obama and who hosted an event for Obama at his Chicago home early in Obama’s political career.
At the Hofstra University debate, McCain said he didn’t care about an “old, washed-up terrorist” like Ayers, but then added: “As Senator Clinton said in her debates with you, we need to know the full extent of that [relationship].”
“We need to know the full extend of Sen. Obama’s relationship with ACORN,” McCain continued, bringing up the voter registration group that has been rocked by a scandal amid reports that employees turned in fake registrations.
McCain repeatedly struck at Obama’s plan to raise taxes on the wealthy.
“The whole premise behind Senator Obama’s plans are class warfare – let’s spread the wealth around,” McCain said in the third and final presidential debate.
Obama says he needs the cash to fund tax cuts for the middle class and pay for investments.
Speaking directly to his opponent in a sharp exchange, McCain asked: “Why would you want to increase anyone’s taxes right now? Why would you want to do that to anyone in America, when we have such a tough time?”
McCain then raised the story of “Joe the plumber” – Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio worker who was featured in today’s Post after he questioned Obama how his business would cope with the Democrat’s plan to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000.
“You were going to put him in a higher tax bracket, which was going to increase his taxes,” he said. “I will not stand for a tax increase on small business income.”
Obama played defense most of the night, smiling frequently and never losing his cool.
On taxes, Obama said McCain wants to provide “$200 billion in additional tax breaks to some of the wealthiest corporations in America,” and said 95 percent of Americans would get a tax cut under his own plan.
“What I want to do is to make sure that the plumber, the nurse, the firefighter, the teacher, the young entrepreneur who doesn’t yet have money – I want to give them a tax break now,” he said.
Obama mentioned that he was 8 years old when Ayers “engaged in despicable acts with a domestic terrorist group.”
He said Ayers, now a college professor, “has become the centerpiece of Senator McCain’s campaign over the last two or three weeks,” and said he wanted to talk about the economy and jobs.
Though he represented ACORN as a lawyer years ago, Obama said the fake registrations “had nothing to do with us – we were not involved.”
McCain pushed back against Obama’s repeated efforts to link him to President Bush.
“Senator Obama, I am not President Bush,” the GOP candidate said. “If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”