McCain, Obama ratchet up attacks in final days

The candidates also sparred over a new Commerce Department report showing that the economy went backward in the third quarter of the year, as consumers cut back on their spending by the biggest amount in 28 years. It was the strongest signal yet the country has hurtled into recession. The gross domestic product shrank at a 0.3 percent annual rate in last quarter.

Obama called the setback "a direct result of the Bush administration's trickle down, Wall Street first, Main Street last policies that John McCain has embraced for the last eight years and plans to continue for the next four."

A senior McCain policy adviser, Doug Holtz-Eakin, said the Illinois senator would only accelerate the economy's decline with "ideologically-driven plans to redistribute income."

Obama holds leads in polls nationally and in most of the states still in competition. McCain has tried to erode Obama's advantage by raising doubts about his tax plan and his ability to protect the nation.

Palin said there is nothing wrong with calling out Obama on his past associations or other controversial elements of his record. Besides Obama's association with '60s-era radical Bill Ayers — Palin has accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists" — both McCain and Palin have now brought up Obama's friendship with a Palestinian-American professor, Rashid Khalidi, who has been critical of Israel.

In an interview aired Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Palin was asked if she was suggesting in any of her criticism that Obama is un-American. Palin relied: "No, not at all. Not calling him un-American." She added, "I am sure that Sen. Obama cares as much for this country as McCain does."

The two candidates will get one last chance to appeal to millions of football-loving Americans next week by doing interviews for ESPN's "Monday Night Football." ESPN says the presidential candidates will be interviewed via satellite by MNF's Chris Berman, and it will be shown at halftime of the Pittsburgh Steelers-Washington Redskins game. "Monday Night Football" has averaged 12.2 million viewers this season.

The Steelers-Redskins game will be the first NFL game played in the D.C. area on the Monday night before a presidential election in 24 years.

Obama's latest TV ads tied McCain to President Bush and contended that the Democrat was the candidate who could bring people together.

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