HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - John McCain confronted Barack Obama, sometimes angrily, over taxes and spending, personal associates and political tactics last night in by far the most spirited debate of the campaign.
Economics was the focus of the third and final presidential debate that, in an eerie rerun of their last encounter, took place within hours of another stomach-churning plunge on Wall Street.
McCain was the aggressor from the outset, accusing Obama of practicing "class warfare" by calling for tax increases on those earning more than $250,000 a year.
The Republican senator spiced his attack by quoting his rival to the effect that Obama's policies would "spread the wealth around."
McCain also had a vigorous new answer to Obama's familiar charge, repeated last night, that President Bush's economic policies would continue under a McCain administration.
"Senator Obama, I am not President Bush," said McCain. "If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. I'm going to give a new direction to this economy in this country."
Obama replied that "if I occasionally have mistaken your policies for George Bush's policies, it's because on the core economic issues that matter to the American people ... you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush."
The Republican shot back that he had "the scars to prove" his apostasy on issues of importance to Bush and his party, including excessive government spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq and the Medicare prescription drug plan.
McCain, who described the debate as a "very healthy" discussion, leveled one of the harshest charges of the campaign.
He accused ACORN, a community organization that the Republicans have made an increasing focus of attacks, of "maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."
Using rhetoric straight out of the early 1950s Red-scare era, McCain described ACORN as "a front organization" and said its connections to Obama's campaign "need to be examined."
Obama replied that ACORN has paid organizers to register voters and that some of those hired by the organization filled out the forms themselves and didn't really register voters.
"It had nothing to do with us. We were not involved," said Obama, who claimed his only connection with the organization was in representing them as a lawyer in a suit to enforce the motor-voter registration law in Illinois.
