McCain seeks to revive campaign in second debate
Posted: 08 October 2008 0220 hrs

	Photos  of
	Related News • Obama slams McCain for sordid attacks amid economic peril • Feisty Palin escapes gaffes, but Biden wins snap polls • Biden, Palin clash on finance crisis in VP debate Special Report • US Presidential Elections 2008

NASHVILLE, Tennessee: Republican John McCain faced fierce pressure in Tuesday's second presidential debate to grab a lifeline for his sliding campaign in the increasingly nasty White House duel with Barack Obama.

The rivals will come face-to-face in McCain's favoured town-hall style setting in Nashville, Tennessee, after the Republican's barrage of attacks on Obama's character ignited a fierce war of words with the pace-setting Democrat.

Less than a month before the election on November 4, the debate marks one of Arizona Senator McCain's last chances to transform a race which seems to be sliding away, with Obama profiting politically from the economic meltdown.

Obama, 47, has solid leads in most national opinion polls, and has taken a stranglehold on the US electoral map, piling up advantages in the key battleground states each candidate must win to take the White House.

McCain, 72, egged on by his combative running mate Sarah Palin, Monday unveiled an fresh assault on Obama , suggesting he did not share basic American values and slamming him over what he said were questionable past relationships.

Palin charged Obama with "palling around" with terrorists, a reference to his past acquaintance with 1960s radical William Ayres, as McCain asked the question "Who is the real Barack Obama?"

"I am just so fearful," Palin said at a rally on Monday, "that this is a man who does not see America as you and I see it, as the greatest force for good in the world."

Obama hit back at McCain by pointing to his embroilment in a devastating 1980s financial scandal which wiped out the savings of many retired people, and connection to jailed savings and loans tycoon Charles Keating.

A McCain supporter asked the Republican on Monday "when are you going to take the gloves off?" McCain replied with a grin - "How about Tuesday night?"

It was possible the intimate town-hall format at Belmont University would defuse the most intense clashes between Obama and McCain, given that the candidates will answer questions mostly from undecided voters in the audience.

The format puts a premium on a candidate's capacity to interact individually with voters - a skill famously shown by Bill Clinton in a 1992 town hall debate to give him an edge over president George Bush.

The Obama campaign fired off a pre-emptive strike in a campaign memo on Tuesday, accusing McCain of plotting a vicious character attack to detract from voter concerns about his readiness to meet the economic crisis.

"John McCain is running out of time for a game-changing event," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton in the memo.

"In order to change the dynamics of this race, we anticipate that McCain will launch his nastiest attacks and continue to lie about Barack Obama's record and his vision to fundamentally change our country."

But McCain advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer told MSNBC Obama was guilty of "shameful mischaracterisations" of the Republican's retirement savings and healthcare plans.

"Character does count," she said. "One of the reasons it counts particularly with Senator Obama is because he has so little known about him. He talks a lot but there is not a record to examine."

The debate, which will contrast McCain's edgy town-hall style with Obama's cool persona, comes a day after Wall Street stocks crashed despite President George W. Bush's signing of a 700-billion-dollar financial bailout last week.

McCain and Obama will have two minutes to answer each question selected by NBC newsman Tom Brokaw, followed by a five-minute discussion between them.

New polls meanwhile show Obama with a clear lead over his rival, with a Gallup survey pushing him to an eight-point advantage, and a CNN poll showing the Illinois senator with a 53 percent lead over 45 percent for McCain.

In battleground New Hampshire, a key McCain target, Obama was up eight points in the CNN poll, while the race was tied at 49 percent in solidly Republican North Carolina, where Obama stayed for debate preparation.

In midwestern Ohio, often the decisive general election state, Obama held a three percent lead over McCain in the CNN survey.

A Washington Post-ABC poll of Ohio voters also released on Tuesday gave the Democrat a six-point edge.

A CBS poll however suggested that the race has tightened from a nine point Obama lead to a four point gap since last week's vice presidential debate. - AFP/de