Taking the gloves off

Last Modified: 07 Oct 2008
By: Felicity Spector

In the countdown to the second televised US presidential debate, the mudslinging begins, writes Felicity Spector.

Just when you thought it couldn't get nastier, get this - Sarah Barracuda is on the attack, telling John McCain he might as well "take the gloves off" in tonight's Presdential debate.

With the latest Gallup poll showing Obama now eight points ahead - holding his lead for 10 days in a row - and many battleground states heading from red to blue, the Republican team are desperate to change the message from the economy onto Obama's character, at a time when many floating voters still say they don't know who he really is.

A sign of things to come, perhaps: at that Palin rally in Florida, the opening speaker, Mike Scott, referred to the Democratic challenger as "Barack Hussein Obama", as Mrs Palin again suggested he was "not one of us". This is pretty dirty stuff, some might even say potentially racist. But then, this is a state which has swung from safe Republican territory to a possible Democratic gain.

As for McCain himself, he's been busy trying to blame Obama for the failure by congress to pass the multi-billion dollar bailout bill on its first attempt - despite the fact that it was die-hard Republicans that scuppered the deal.

Obama's campaign have launched their own attack, a 13-minute video reprising the connection between John McCain and the Keating Five savings and loan scandal during the 1980s. That's when McCain met banking regulators on behalf of friend and campaign contributor Charles Keating, who was later convicted of securities fraud.

So, then, it's a mudslinging backdrop to the debate in Tennessee, a town hall-style confrontation which is meant to be divided between the economy and foreign policy, but is likely to be completely dominated by the financial crisis.

Character attacks are unlikely to cut it with people desperately concerned about their homes, their pensions, their jobs.

Like the previous clashes, it's already generated massive popular interest. At least six million people have submitted questions via the internet. There's an audience of uncommitted voters, too, vying for their chance. Just a handful will actually get chosen to be asked. It's a format McCain prefers - and used to great effect in the New Hampshire primary.

Real people, real questions - it's proved a dangerous environment for candidates in the past. It's not moderator Tom Brokaw, but the voters who've got control of the agenda.

And it's John McCain who has the most to prove. Character attacks are unlikely to cut it with people desperately concerned about their homes, their pensions, their jobs. Equally, Obama can't afford to seem aloof. Town halls are all about sympathy, empathy - "I feel your pain".

Democratic strategist Chris Lehane thinks McCain can win tonight, but Obama would have to make a pretty big mistake for it to make any significant dent in his lead. And don't just take it from him. Even Karl Rove admits in his blog that just seven states are now considered toss-ups - Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida - all of which Bush won in 2004.

But the race is still close enough for tonight's debate to be critical. With 10 per cent of the electorate undecided and another 25 per cent who are wavering, both candidates will be hoping to score a decisive win. Last time the pair clashed, there were no gaffes, but no real passion either. This time the stakes are that much higher - and it could so easily turn ugly.

Back to Chris Lehane: "In the last five days it always comes down to a knife fight in a telephone booth." The question is, does Obama have the stomach for that kind of fight? And in a time of real economic meltdown, isn't it the very opposite of what America needs?