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October Stirs Up Ghosts For McCain, Obama

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The Associated Press

Published: October 7, 2008

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The two men who supposedly exemplified a different kind of politics are engaged in an increasingly bitter campaign as character attacks are emerging to compete with issues such as the troubled economy.

With the election four weeks away, chances dimmed that Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama could reclaim the often lofty images they cultivated early in their presidential bids as their campaigns focused new attention Monday on decades-old events involving a former radical from Chicago and a convicted thrift owner from Arizona.

McCain's campaign added another figure when his running mate, Sarah Palin, said there should be more discussion of Obama's incendiary former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

Obama and McCain faced cameras Monday with harsh words for each other. Obama, taking a break from debate prep in Asheville, N.C., accused McCain's campaign of "smear tactics."

In Albuquerque, N.M., McCain delivered an unusually scathing broadside.

He accused Obama of lying about McCain's efforts to regulate the home loan industry. And he suggested Obama is a mysterious figure who cannot be trusted.

"Who is the real Barack Obama?" McCain said to a cheering crowd.

"Ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults."

Obama, meanwhile, has learned the lessons of Michael Dukakis and John Kerry.

Those Democrats lost presidential elections after hesitating to counter hard-hitting and factually dubious attacks on their character and judgment.

"We don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last," Obama said Monday on Tom Joyner's syndicated radio show.

Several Democrats said on Sunday talk shows that Obama's campaign would revisit McCain's long-ago involvement in the thrift scandal if the personal attacks on him continued.

Within hours, the Obama campaign released a memo and Web video doing just that.

DEBATE

WHAT: Presidential candidates' debate

WHEN: 9 p.m. today

WHERE: Belmont University in Nashville

FORMAT: Town meeting

TOPICS: Economy and foreign policy

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