The Ayers issue has been polling terribly for McPsycho, and he seemed to be trying to avoid it tonight. He dodged it even when Schieffer asked him and Obama if they wanted to make the claims in their ads to their opponents face. McCain chose not to bring up Ayers and instead sniveled about John Lewis's remarks.
Here's the transcript with the question and McCain's original answer:
Schieffer: Sen. Obama, your campaign has used words like "erratic," "out of touch," "lie," "angry," "losing his bearings" to describe Sen. McCain.
Sen. McCain, your commercials have included words like "disrespectful," "dangerous," "dishonorable," "he lied." Your running mate said he "palled around with terrorists."
Are each of you tonight willing to sit at this table and say to each other's face what your campaigns and the people in your campaigns have said about each other?
And, Sen. McCain, you're first.
McCain: Well, this has been a tough campaign. It's been a very tough campaign. And I know from my experience in many campaigns that, if Sen. Obama had asked -- responded to my urgent request to sit down, and do town hall meetings, and come before the American people, we could have done at least 10 of them by now.
When Sen. Obama was first asked, he said, "Any place, any time," the way Barry Goldwater and Jack Kennedy agreed to do, before the intervention of the tragedy at Dallas. So I think the tone of this campaign could have been very different.
And the fact is, it's gotten pretty tough. And I regret some of the negative aspects of both campaigns. But the fact is that it has taken many turns which I think are unacceptable.
One of them happened just the other day, when a man I admire and respect -- I've written about him -- Congressman John Lewis, an American hero, made allegations that Sarah Palin and I were somehow associated with the worst chapter in American history, segregation, deaths of children in church bombings, George Wallace. That, to me, was so hurtful.
And, Sen. Obama, you didn't repudiate those remarks. Every time there's been an out-of-bounds remark made by a Republican, no matter where they are, I have repudiated them. I hope that Sen. Obama will repudiate those remarks that were made by Congressman John Lewis, very unfair and totally inappropriate.
So I want to tell you, we will run a truthful campaign. This is a tough campaign. And it's a matter of fact that Sen. Obama has spent more money on negative ads than any political campaign in history. And I can prove it.
And, Sen. Obama, when he said -- and he signed a piece of paper that said he would take public financing for his campaign if I did -- that was back when he was a long-shot candidate -- you didn't keep your word.
And when you looked into the camera in a debate with Sen. Clinton and said, "I will sit down and negotiate with John McCain about public financing before I make a decision," you didn't tell the American people the truth because you didn't.
And that's -- that's -- that's an unfortunate part. Now we have the highest spending by Sen. Obama's campaign than any time since Watergate.
Schieffer: Time's up. All right.
It wasn't until Schieffer was getting ready to move on to the next subject that McCain practically interrupted Obama to talk about Ayers.The conflicting tensions within this man were erupting to the surface in an ugly display. Against his better judgment, but goaded by Obama and pushed by his base, McPsycho brought up Ayers. His words were predictable, but his facial expressions lost him this debate and put the very last nail into his chances of winning the election. He spent the next half hour or more looking like a man trying desperately to keep himself from totally losing it. It was a frightening display, clearly showing that he is unfit to be president.
Transcript here:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/15/debate.transcript/index.html
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