I think McCain is going ot use some dirty tricks and do his fair share of mudslinging since he is behind in the polls, and if he does, which im sure he will, it will be a testament to his true character.

Im off for a few days of rest and relaxtion….. Enjoy the debate peeps

(CNN) – Sen. Barack Obama is “prepared for a very aggressive debate” with Sen. John McCain, Obama’s spokesman said Tuesday.

 

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama will meet again Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee.

McCain “has signaled to his supporters that he is going to be very aggressive in this debate,” Obama campaign spokesman David Axelrod said en route from Asheville, North Carolina, to Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday.

“He is going to take the gloves off. So I hope in the course of it, he has time to speak to the state of our economy, which is in deep trouble right now.”

McCain aides, however, say he is not planning to go on the attack. McCain’s final hours of debate preparations focused on highlighting sharp policy differences with Obama on taxes, health care and other pocketbook issues, the aides said. Watch tonight’s debate on CNN.com/Live

At a campaign event last week, however, a voter asked McCain when he was going to “let the gloves come off and go after” Obama.

Presidential Debate

Nashville is the battleground as the candidates face off in their second debate. Don’t miss a minute of the action! 
Tonight, 9 p.m. ET

see full schedule »

McCain’s response: “How about Tuesday night?”

Nicole Wallace, a senior adviser to McCain, said Tuesday that McCain has just been responding to attacks from Obama.

“Barack Obama has spent a record number of dollars attacking John McCain with ads that are usually not even truthful,” Wallace said on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”

“We’re going to respond, we’re going to set the record straight and unfortunately it’s something we have to do more and more often.”iReport.com: What do you want to hear tonight?

Tuesday’s face-off, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, follows several days of intense sparring from both nominees’ camps.

Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, accused Obama of “palling around with terrorists who would target their own country,” and Obama’s campaign released an ad quoting editorials that called McCain “erratic” and “out of touch.”

On Monday, the Obama campaign released an online documentary criticizing McCain over his involvement in the Keating Five scandal of the 1980s. Fact check: Did McCain intervene on behalf of Charles Keating?

The back-and-forth could set the stage for a more heated event than the first presidential debate, one that had few sharp exchanges as both candidates largely stuck to their talking points.

Tuesday’s debate is the second in the series of three presidential debates, but the format is different from the other two events.  Watch a preview of the debate »

The second debate will be set up like a town hall meeting, and the audience will be made up of uncommitted voters.

“These debates, town hall debates, are often very telling. They often provide the most dramatic moments in a campaign,” said Bill Schneider, CNN’s senior political analyst.

“If either of the candidates tries to go negative when you’re with an audience of ordinary voters, they don’t like it. We’ve heard them sometimes get very upset when the candidates start attacking each other, so that’s going to be hard to do in a town hall format,” he said.

Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said Tuesday that McCain needs to avoid going on the attack.

“I don’t think an attack strategy is what McCain needs right now. What he needs is a comeback strategy,” he said.

Democratic strategist Paul Begala said Obama needs to “show empathy” in the debate.

“I want to see tonight the same guy who used to go into church basements and work one-on-one with factory workers in Chicago who lost their job through no fault of their own. That’s who he’s going to be talking to tonight,” he said.

The candidates will not only take questions from moderator Tom Brokaw of NBC News on Tuesday; they’ll also answer questions from the audience and from Internet participants.

The first and third debates are divided into approximately eight 10-minute segments. The moderator introduces each segment with an issue and gives each candidate two minutes to respond. Then there is a five-minute discussion period, when direct exchanges between the candidates occur.

Obama’s campaign has been playing up the idea that Tuesday’s town hall setting will benefit McCain.

Going into to debates, campaigns try to build up expectations for their opponent while lowering the bar for their candidate.

“When it comes to sheer format, we enter today’s debate the decided underdog,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton in a memo sent to reporters.

“John McCain does extremely well in town hall settings. It’s been his favorite format throughout his career and we think that he will of course do very well.”

Today is the last day to vote in many states check here and make sure you register

www.voteforchange.com

WASHINGTON - Republican Sarah Palin criticized a version of a Barack Obama health care plan that doesn’t exist and Democrat Joe Biden clung to a misleading charge about Republicans and big oil when the two clashed in the vice presidential debate Thursday.

Some examples of facts cast adrift in the debate:

PALIN: Said of Democratic presidential candidate Obama: “94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction.”

THE FACTS: The dubious count includes repetitive votes as well as votes to cut taxes for the middle class while raising them on the rich. An analysis by factcheck.org found that 23 of the votes were for measures that would have produced no tax increase at all, seven were in favor of measures that would have lowered taxes for many, 11 would have increased taxes on only those making more than $1 million a year.

___

BIDEN: Complained about “economic policies of the last eight years” that led to “excessive deregulation.”

THE FACTS: Biden voted for 1999 deregulation that liberal groups are blaming for part of the financial crisis today. The law allowed Wall Street investment banks to create the kind of mortgage-related securities at the core of the problem now. The law was widely backed by Republicans as well as by Democratic President Clinton, who argues it has stopped the crisis today from being worse.

___

PALIN: Criticized Obama’s “plan to mandate health care coverage and have universal government run program” for health care, and added: “I don’t think it’s going to be real pleasing for Americans to consider health care being taken over by the Feds.”

THE FACTS: Wrong on several counts. Obama’s plan does not provide for universal coverage, only mandates insurance for children and doesn’t turn the system over to the government. Most people would still get private insurance through their work. Obama proposes that the government subsidize the cost of health coverage for millions who have trouble affording it and he’d set up an exchange to negotiate prices and benefits with private insurers — with one option being a government-run plan.

___

BIDEN: Warned that Republican presidential candidate John McCain‘s $5,000 tax credit to help families buy health coverage “will go straight to the insurance company.”

THE FACTS: That’s not surprising — the money is meant to pay for health insurance. The Obama campaign tried to capitalize on the candidates’ health care exchange by issuing an ad Friday contending that the Republicans can’t explain “the McCain health tax.”

___

PALIN: “Two years ago, remember, it was John McCain who pushed so hard with theFannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures. He sounded that warning bell.”

THE FACTS: Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska led an effort in 2005 to tighten regulation on the mortgage underwriters — McCain joined as a co-sponsor a year later. The legislation was never taken up by the full Senate, then under Republican control.

___

BIDEN: Said McCain supports tax breaks for oil companies, and “wants to give them another $4 billion tax cut.”

THE FACTS: Biden is repeating a favorite saw of the Obama campaign, and it’s misleading. McCain supports a cut in income taxes for all corporations, and doesn’t single out any one industry for that benefit.

___

PALIN: Said the United States has reduced its troop level in Iraq to a number below where it was when the troop increase began in early 2007.

THE FACTS: Not correct. The Pentagon says there are currently 152,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, about 17,000 more than there were before the 2007 military buildup began.

___

BIDEN: “As a matter of fact, John recently wrote an article in a major magazine saying that he wants to do for the health care industry — deregulate it and let the free market move — like he did for the banking industry.”

THE FACTS: Biden and Obama have been perpetuating this distortion of what McCain wrote in an article for the American Academy of Actuaries. McCain, laying out his health plan, only referred to deregulation when saying people should be allowed to buy health insurance across state lines. In that context, he wrote: “Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.”

___

PALIN: Said Alaska is “building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America’s largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets.”

THE FACTS: Not quite. Construction is at least six years away. So far the state has only awarded a license to Trans Canada Corp., that comes with $500 million in seed moneyin exchange for commitments toward a lengthy and costly process to getting a federal certificate. At an August news conference after the state Legislature approved the license, Palin said, “It’s not a done deal.”

___

PALIN: “Barack Obama even supported increasing taxes as late as last year for those families making only $42,000 a year.”

BIDEN: “The charge is absolutely not true. Barack Obama did not vote to raise taxes.”

THE FACTS: The vote was on a nonbinding budget resolution that assumed that President Bush’s tax cuts would expire, as scheduled, in 2011. If that actually happened, it could mean higher taxes for people making as little as about $42,000. But Obama is proposing tax increases only on the wealthy, and would cut taxes for most others.

___

PALIN: Said a McCain-Palin administration “will support Israel,” including “building our embassy … in Jerusalem.”

THE FACTS: Moving the U.S. Embassy from its present location in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a perennial promise of presidential candidates courting the Jewish-American vote. In fact, moving the embassy is actually required by U.S. law. But successive administrations of both parties, including George W. Bush‘s, have made the same pledge only to find that the realities of Middle East peacemaking have forced them to invoke a waiver to delay it. Jerusalem is claimed as a capital by both Israel and the Palestinians and Israel’s occupation of east Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. The city’s status is one of the key issues of disagreement in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

___

Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Steve Quinn, Jim Kuhnhenn, Lolita Baldor and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

                                                        JESUS.TAKE.THE.WHEEL

Ok im done

*Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert did not appreciate the nonverbal behavior of Sen. John McCain during Friday’s first presidential debate with Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

      The longtime movie reviewer took personal offense at McCain’s body language, particularly the GOP senator’s failure to even look at Obama.     

      The following is Ebert’s blog in its entirety:

Guess who’s not coming to dinner – by Roger Ebert

I do not like you, John McCain. My feeling has nothing to do with issues. It has to do with common courtesy. During the debate, you refused to look Barack Obama in the eye. Indeed, you refused to look at him at all. Even when the two of you shook hands at the start, you used your eyes only to locate his hand, and then gazed past him as you shook it.

Obama is my guy. If you are rude to him, you are rude to me. If you came to dinner at my house and refused to look at or speak with one of my guests, that would be bad manners and I would be offended. Same thing if I went to your house. During the debate, you were America’s guest.

What was your problem? Do you hold this man in such contempt that you cannot bear to gaze upon him? Will you not even speak to him directly?

Do you think he doesn’t have the right to be running for President?

Were you angry because after you said you wouldn’t attend the debate, he said a President should be able to concern himself with two things at the same time? He was right. The proof is, you were there. Were you angry with him because he called your bluff?

During the debate, Jim Lehrer repeatedly called upon both candidates to speak directly to each other. Obama looked at you. He addressed you as “John,” which as a fellow senator is his privilege. His body language was open. You stared straight ahead, or at Lehrer, or into space. Your jaw was clinched. You had a tight little smile, or a grimace, or a little shake of your head.

I had to do two things at once while watching the debate. I had to listen to what was being said. And I had to process your rigid and contemptuous behavior. If you were at a wedding and the father of the groom refused to look at or speak to the bride, how would that make you feel? Especially if you were the father of the bride?

You made a TV commercial showing the moments Obama agreed with you.

Everybody knows he did. Did his agreement show honesty, or weakness?

It is significant that you said it proved he was not ready to lead.

What is the better leadership quality: (1) Willingness to listen to your opponent, and keep an open mind? (2) Rigidly ignoring him? Which of the two of you better demonstrated the bipartisan spirit you say you represent? Was there anything he said that you agreed with? Could you have brought yourself to say so?

I’m not the only one who noticed your odd, hostile behavior. Just about everybody did. I’m sure many of your supporters must have sensed the tension. Before the debate, pundits were wondering if you might explode in a display of your famous temper. I think we saw that happen, all right, but it was an implosion. I have instructed my wife to exclude you from any future dinner parties.