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.
Obama's $60 billion economic proposals includes an extension of unemployment benefits, a 90-day freeze on home foreclosures, penalty-free withdrawals from retirement funds and a $3,000 tax credit for each new job.
Both candidates also call for doing away with the tax on unemployment benefits.
McCain has also hinted that he may raise the topic of Obama's links to Bill Ayers, a Vietnam War era radical and one-time member of the violent Weather Underground group.
Ayers, a university professor in Chicago and education expert, and Obama both worked with some of the same charity foundations in Chicago, and Ayers hosted a reception for Obama when he first ran for the Illinois state Senate.
McCain's campaign, particularly in television ads, has raised questions about Obama's judgment and his background in associating with the one-time radical. Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, has described Obama as "palling around with terrorists."
In response, Obama has asked why McCain hasn't brought up the issue face-to-face in earlier debates. That, in turn, prompted McCain to tell a St. Louis radio station KMOX: "I was astonished to hear him say that he was surprised that I didn't have the guts to bring up Ayers" at the last presidential debate.
"I think he is probably ensured that it will come up this time," McCain added. Gibbs, spokesman for Obama, said the campaign is "always prepared for him (McCain) to be hyper aggressive in his attacks."
"I just think that doesn't work in an environment where so many people are concerned about the issues in front of them, not scare tactics they don't see as helping to pay the bills," Gibbs said.
Obama's campaign, for its part, has taken some shots at McCain, increasingly labeling him "erratic" and "lurching" for solutions to the economic crisis. The words suggest unsteadiness by the four-term senator, who is 72.
Regardless of the debate performances Wednesday night, the campaigns will keep their focus squarely on the key tossup states, particularly Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia, and New Hampshire.
Palin planned to make her first stop Wednesday in New Hampshire, while Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., Obama's running mate, was continuing his swing through Ohio and hinted at a stop in West Virginia, where some polls have shown the race tightening.
As the election builds toward Nov. 4, both sides are also fighting over voter registration in the critical Midwest states.
On Tuesday, a federal appeals court ordered Ohio's top elections official to set up a system by Friday to verify the eligibility of new voters.
The full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a lower court ruling that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must use other government records to check thousands of new voters for registration fraud. Ohio Republicans has sued Brunner, a Democrat.
Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett called the ruling a victory for the integrity of the electoral process.
Brunner previously had said there was no way to implement the system with such speed. In Oregon, meanwhile, the secretary of state's office said 2.14 million Oregonians are registered to vote — at least 2,000 above the previous high-water mark set in the 2004 presidential election.
Contributing: wire reports