Washington - The presidential contest turned increasingly nasty yesterday as Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain launched new personal attacks ahead of the second presidential debate.
Tonight's format, with direct questions from voters, could benefit McCain, who prefers that setting. But this may be the only built-in advantage for the Republican, who trails in polls amid a darkening economic climate.
Obama says McCain is desperately trying to distract voters from the economy by employing smear tactics. Many Democrats are worried that they might work.
In a radio interview, Obama tried to reassure supporters.
"One of the things we've done during this campaign, we don't throw the first punch but we'll throw the last," he said on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, which claims a largely African-American audience of 8 million.
McCain is attempting to tie Obama to controversial Chicago figures and accusing the Democrat of not being open with voters about his past.
Obama said that "if John McCain wants to have a character debate, then I'm happy to have that debate, because Mr. McCain's record, despite him calling himself a maverick, actually shows that he is continually somebody who relies on lobbyists for big oil and big corporations, and that he makes decisions oftentimes on what these lobbyists tell him to do."
McCain and running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin were resorting to negative campaigning "because they don't want to talk about the economy and the failed policies of the last eight years," Obama said.
A few hours later, Obama opened a new character attack of his own, linking McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal of the 1980s to the latest financial crisis. Also yesterday, Obama released a new attack ad against McCain, calling him "erratic" and as "out of touch" as President Bush.
McCain, in turn, took a personal swipe at Obama, using the word "angry" to describe the first African-American on a major party ticket.
At a campaign rally in the battleground state of New Mexico, McCain echoed his own latest negative TV ad, which attempts to exploit voter doubts about Obama. The commercial begins with a narrator asking "Who is Barack Obama?" and calls the Democrat "dishonorable," "dangerous" and "too risky for America."
"Who is the real Barack Obama?" McCain said to supporters in Albuquerque. "My friends, you ask such questions and all you get in response is another angry barrage of insults."
