Sen. John McCain is on the ropes and is expected to come out swinging at tonight’s debate at Hofstra University.
McCain is hoping to change the course of the campaign, which has been attacking Sen. Barack Obama’s character, away from Obama’s direction Wednesday night in the third and final presidential debate.
With less than three weeks until Election Day, tonight’s 90-minute debate focusing on the economic crisis offers the Republican senator from Arizona what could be one of his last big chances to persuade voters to give the race another look, according to the Associated Press. Polls show Obama, the senator from Illinois, with a clear lead nationally and in several key battleground states.
Over the weekend McCain he promised to “whip” Obama’s “you know what,” and aides indicated McCain would criticize Obama on tax policy.
Obama strategist David Axelrod said today that the Illinois senator wouldn’t offer new policy prescriptions in the debate but would try to keep the focus on his plans for improving the economy and creating jobs.
“We have always believed that as people came to know Sen. Obama — to see him, to hear him — that that would be helpful to his candidacy because he is a solid person with good ideas for how to bring about constructive change in this country,” Axelrod said.
The nationally televised forum was to focus on the economy and domestic policy, a timely topic as voters try to assess which candidate they most trust to handle the historic meltdown of U.S. financial markets. The two candidates were to be seated together at a table with CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer, the debate moderator.
Deborah Creighton Skinner is the editorial director at BlackEnterprise.com.