Stakes high as Obama, McCain head for final debate

— -- Sen. John McCain, slipping in the national polls, faces Sen. Barack Obama Wednesday night in the final presidential debate before the Nov. 4 election to discuss economic and domestic issues at Hofstra University in New York.

CBS' Bob Schieffer will host the debate on Long Island that will feature a format in which both candidates will be seated at a table.

The face-to-face meeting comes as the latest CBS-New York Times poll of likely voters shows Obama leading 53 to 39.

McCain spokesperson Nicole Wallace on Wednesday challenged the poll's findings, saying the campaign believes the Arizona senator is trailing by only six points. She said on CBS' Early Show that McCain, who prefers playing the fighting underdog, "has been here before" and come back to win.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs dismissed comments by McCain that Obama was already "measuring the drapes" at the White House. He said Obama is working hard in battleground states and "not stopping in upholstery stores" along the way.

Wallace, appearing on the same program, complained of fawning media coverage of Obama, saying "it's like running against God." She added: "You can't criticize Barack Obama or he calls you a liar. You can't question his record or his surrogates play the race card."

The debate offers one of the last opportunities for both candidates to make their case, particularly about economic issues, before a combined audience of millions.

In the lead up to the meeting, both offered plans this week to tackle the nation's financial crisis.

The Arizona senator cast himself as a fighter for the American middle class at odds with the Bush administration over economic issues.

"We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change. ... As president I intend to act, quickly and decisively," McCain said Tuesday.

He announced a $52.5 billion economic plan to halve the tax rate on capital gains and reduce the tax on withdrawals from retirement accounts, among other measures.