The 3rd and Final Presidential Debate @ Hofstra; Media Coverage & Analysis
The moderator promoted MyDebates.org and it's a MySpace!!!
Who is "Joe the Plumber"? "This weekend," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said today, "a plumber concerned that Senator Obama was going to raise his taxes asked him directly about his plan. The response was telling. Senator Obama explained to him that he was going to raise his taxes to quote 'spread the wealth around.'" - ABC News
UPDATE: "Joe the Plumber" Actually "Sam the Liar"
Discussing "Joe the Plumber" @ the Debate |
Obama's discussion w/ "Joe the Plumber" |
WATCH: Debate Analysis on CNBC
Discussing whether McCain scored a knockout punch, with Keith Boykin, The Daily Voice editor; Kevin Madden, former Romney Advisor; CNBC's Larry Kudlow, Michelle Caruso Cabrera and Bill Griffeth.
» Obama should be happy.
» "McCain did a better job contrasting his vision of lower taxes and lower spending." - Larry Kudlow
» Obama said "Financial Crisis" more than McCain.
» McCain needed a game changer and did not get it.
» McCain attempted to set himself up as a separate identity.
» McCain needs the investment class.
» McCain needs the swing voters.
» "Joe the Plumber" was made famous tonight (video above).
» Spread the wealth but tax success does not add up.
» Voters don't on the specifics of proposals.
» Voters do go by the overall message.
» The fundamentals right now are favoring the Democrats.
WATCH: Discussing the Debate on CNBC
Analysis of the debate, with Greg Valliere, Stanford Financial Group; Andy Busch, BMO Capital Group; CNBC's Larry Kudlow, Michelle Caruso Cabrera and Bill Griffeth.
» It's about the body language.
» McCain looked rattled. Obama was cool.
» "The DOW is the big story. The economy is the big story."
» They should have been asked the candidates opinion on the bank injection.
» "Every single poll shows the economy is #1 and at the tip of that #1 is the financial blow up and the bank blow up. He should have put both candidates on the spot."
» "In times of fear people want to turn to big brother which is the Democrats."
» "This is the greatest economic crisis of our lifetime and it might get worse. Should have been at the top of their list."
» "The economic tail is going to wag the political dog for the final 19 days of this campaign."
» "Which candidate do the voters have the more confidence in? Game, Set, Match to Obama."
» "When people are fearful and uncertainty they all want to turn to big brother and that is where the Democrats sit. It doesn't matter that we're going to have a trillion dollar deficit next year and maybe even higher then that. We'll figure out how to pay for that later."
» "The only poll that matters is the poll on election day" - Kudlow
» McCain will continue to go for investors. - Kudlow
» Obama may back off of the taxes in this time of criss. - Kudlow
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McCain, Obama get tough, personal in final debate
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - John McCain assailed Barack Obama's character and his campaign positions on taxes, trade and more Wednesday night, hoping to turn their final debate into a launching pad for a campaign comeback. "You didn't tell the American people the truth," he said.
Unruffled, and ahead in the polls, Obama parried each charge, and leveled a few of his own.
"One hundred percent, John, of your ads, 100 percent of them have been negative," Obama shot back in an uncommonly personal debate less than three weeks from Election Day.
"That's not true," McCain retorted.
"It is true," said Obama, seeking the last word.
McCain is currently running all negative ads, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But he has run a number of positive ads during the campaign.
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McCain vs. Obama: The final debate
Wed Oct 15, 10:27 PM ET
The abortion issue | 7:10 pm
The third and final presidential debate, which is focusing on the economy and domestic issues, is taking place at Hofstra University in New York. The two candidates are seated together at a table with CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer, the debate moderator.
The debate turns to Roe v. Wade and how it would affect choosing nominees for the Supreme Court.
McCain says, "I'm a federalist. I think the decision should lie with the states." He explains how he would choose a Supreme Court justice: "Nominees should be chosen for their qualifications, not by applying litmus tests."
Obama replies that he agrees a litmus test should not be the deciding factor for a judicial nominee. He says that abortion is a moral issue: "I believe that Roe v. Wade was rightly decided," he says. In regards to abortion, "women...are in the best position to make this decision. I will look for judges with an outstanding judicial record."
Biden vs. Palin | 6:45 pm
The third and final presidential debate, which is focusing on the economy and domestic issues, is taking place at Hofstra University in New York. The two candidates are seated together at a table with CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer, the debate moderator.
The debate turns to the running mates. Schieffer asks, "Why would the country be better off if your running mate became president rather than your opponent's?"
Obama says, "Biden has some of the best foreign-policy credentials of anybody." He talks about how Biden never forgot where he came from, and how his running mate has a history of "fighting for the little guy." Obama then highlights Biden's passing of the "landmark 1994 crime bill, the 'violence against women' bill."
About Palin, McCain says, "Americans have gotten to know Sarah Palin, they know she's a role model to women and a reformer,'" calling her a "breath of fresh air." He then says that he respects Biden, but that he has "been wrong on a number of foreign-policy issues."
'On the attack' | 6:30 pm
The third and final presidential debate, which is focusing on the economy and domestic issues, is taking place at Hofstra University in New York. The two candidates are seated together at a table with CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer, the debate moderator.
Schieffer raises the issue of how the campaign has turned negative, an opportunity for McCain to raise questions about Obama's ties to '60s radical William Ayers. But McCain, surprisingly, doesn't bite. Instead, he expresses disappointment in Obama's refusal to do joint town halls, take public funding, and his campaign's negative ads.
Obama talks about how people at rallies were yelling "terrorist" and how Gov. Sarah Palin didn't say a word. Obama then took on his ties to Ayers himself: "Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign. He has never been involved in my campaign. And he won't advise me in the White House." He then turns to the ACORN voter registration controversy, saying his campaign had nothing to do with ACORN.
'I am not President Bush' | 6:20 pm
The third and final presidential debate, which is focusing on the economy and domestic issues, is taking place at Hofstra University in New York. The two candidates are seated together at a table with CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer, the debate moderator.
The second question touches on which programs would have to be cut due to their economic plans. Obama hits McCain for voting for Bush's tax proposals. McCain fires back: "I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should've run four years ago." McCain then says that he can balance the budget in four years. He also says that Obama would raise taxes on people making as little as $42,000 a year.
Once again, it's the economy | 6:16pm
With most polls showing Sen. Barack Obama leading nationally and in key battleground states, Sen. John McCain is once again looking to change the direction of the race. His debate performance will undoubtedly be a key part of his 'comeback' strategy. Obama's goal for tonight: 'Do no harm.'
The third and final presidential debate, which is focusing on the economy and other domestic issues, takes place at Hofstra University in New York. The two candidates are seated together at a table with CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer, the debate moderator. According to CNN, Shieffer will have more latitude in asking follow-up questions.
Schieffer opens by asking both candidates, ''Let's try to tell the people some things that they haven't heard."
The first question of the night: "Why is your economic plan better than your opponent's?"
McCain opens with condolences for an ailing Nancy Reagan, then jumps right in: ''We have to have a short-term fix and long-term fixes."
Obama focuses his answer on the middle class, saying ''What we haven't yet seen is a rescue package for the middle class." He goes on to specify some key points of his plan: "End tax breaks for firms shipping jobs overseas...help families with a middle-class tax cut...and let homeowners renegotiate mortgages."
And they're off...
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Warped facts in last presidential debate
By CALVIN WOODWARD and JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writers 25 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Facts went astray on tax cuts, negative campaign advertising and oil exports when Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain engaged Wednesday in their third and final presidential debate.
Some examples:
OBAMA: "Every dollar that I've proposed, I've proposed an additional cut, so that it matches."
THE FACTS: The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that his programs would add $281 billion to the deficit at the end of his first term. The analysis includes Obama's proposals for saving money.
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McCAIN: "We have to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much."
THE FACTS: This is a reference to U.S. spending on oil imports. McCain has repeatedly made this claim. But the figure is highly inflated and misleading. According to government agencies that track energy imports, the United States spent $246 billion in 2007 for all imported crude oil, a majority of it coming from friendly nations including neighboring Canada and Mexico. An additional $82 billion was spent on imported refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel and fuel oil. A majority of the refined products come from refineries in such friendly countries as the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Trinidad-Tobago and the Virgin Islands.
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OBAMA: "One hundred percent, John, of your ads — 100 percent of them — have been negative."
THE FACTS: The statement is true when it comes to McCain's current commercial spots. But by saying McCain's ads "have been" 100 percent negative, Obama ventures into misleading territory. McCain is currently running all negative ads, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But he has run a number of positive ads during the campaign.
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McCAIN: "Sen. Obama is spending unprecedented amounts of money in negative attack ads on me."
THE FACTS: Obama is spending unprecedented amounts of money on ads, period — negative or otherwise. Obama is outspending McCain and the Republican Party by more than 2-to-1 in presidential ads. At one point in August, 90 percent of the ads Obama was airing were against McCain. A study conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that about 34 percent of Obama's ads are now negative.
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OBAMA: "I want to provide a tax cut for 95 percent of working Americans, 95 percent."
THE FACTS: Obama constantly says this. But the independent Tax Policy Center says his plan cuts taxes for 81.3 percent of all households in 2009.
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McCAIN: Said of Obama's running mate Sen. Joe Biden: "He had this cockamamie idea of dividing Iraq into three countries."
THE FACTS: Biden actually proposed dividing Iraq into three semiautonomous regions, not separate countries. He was a prime sponsor of a nonbinding Senate resolution that called for Iraq to have federal regions under the control of Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis in a power-sharing agreement similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia.
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McCAIN: "Now, we have allocated $750 billion. Let's take 300 of that billion and go in and buy those home loan mortgages and negotiate with those people in their homes, 11 million homes or more, so that they can afford to pay the mortgage, stay in their home."
THE FACTS: Ordering the government to buy up bad mortgages to cut homeowners' monthly payments might sound good, but experts are skeptical. They say the plan McCain is promoting is unlikely to solve the housing crisis that's pushing the economy toward recession. One big problem: The vast majority of the toxic home loans that are clogging financial markets and freezing up credit have been repackaged into complex investments that the government would be hard-pressed to unravel and buy. And the government could end up paying far more than they would ever be worth. That could primarily help banks and lenders with taxpayer money.
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McCain brings up '60s radical in questioning Obama
NEW YORK - Republican John McCain is raising rival Barack Obama's link to a 1960s radical in the final presidential debate.
McCain brought up Obama's tie to William Ayers, a former member of the violent Weather Underground who later became a university professor in Chicago. Ayers hosted a meet-the-candidate event at his home for Obama when the Democrat first ran for office and served on two boards with him.
Said McCain: "We need to know the full extent of that relationship."
Said Obama: "The fact that this has become such an important part of your campaign, Senator McCain, says more about your campaign than it says about me."
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Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama battled fiercely on Wednesday in their liveliest and most contentious debate, with McCain attacking Obama's tax plan, campaign tone and relationship with a former 1960s radical.
The presidential rivals complained about the negative approach of each other's campaigns during a tense and frequently testy debate. McCain said the tone could have been elevated if Obama had agreed to his request for a series of town hall meetings.
McCain also called on Obama to explain his relationship with former 1960s radical William Ayers, who Obama served on a community board with in Chicago. Obama said he was simply an acquaintance.
"Mister Ayers is not involved in my campaign," Obama said.
McCain, an Arizona senator, entered the debate under intense pressure to turn in a strong performance that could turn around a presidential race that has shifted decisively in Obama's favor after weeks of economic turmoil and plunging stock markets.
Opinion polls three weeks before the Nov. 4 election show more voters say they trust Obama's leadership on the economy, which has dominated the campaign-trail discussion and dwarfed McCain's expertise in foreign and military policy.
McCain rebuked Obama for frequently claiming that he is too close to the policies of President George W. Bush.
"Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush you should have run four years ago," McCain said.
Obama said he sometimes had trouble spotting the difference.
"If I occasionally mistaken your policies for George Bush's policies, it's because on the core economic issues that matter to the American people, on tax policy, on energy policy, on spending priorities you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush," Obama said.
Joe The Plumber
The candidates fought over their tax plans and promised to help working Americans like "Joe the plumber." McCain criticized Obama's proposal to raise taxes on Americans who make more than $250,000 a year, saying it would hurt small business owners like a plumber named Joe who Obama met on the campaign trail.
"Why would you want to raise anybody's taxes right now?" McCain asked Obama. "We need to encourage businesses."
Obama said his plan would cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans and raise them on only a small slice of the most high-income Americans, while McCain would give tax breaks to oil and gas companies.
"We both want to cut taxes," Obama, an Illinois senator, said in their third and final White House debate at Hofstra University. "The difference is who we want to cut taxes for."
Several recent opinion polls have shown McCain's attacks on Obama's character have largely backfired, increasing unfavorable opinions about McCain among voters looking for solutions on the economy.
But the two candidates spent long stretches battling over the grievances about their campaigns and not discussing the economy.
The debate focused on domestic policy and the economy. Obama and McCain were seated at a table with moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS News instead of standing at podiums as in the first debate.
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Video from CNN:
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FOX News Version: Mint Romney's analysis that McCain was successful
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