Democrat Barack Obama counterattacked yesterday against a new Republican tactic by saying rival John McCain was more interested in a smear campaign than fixing the flagging US economy.
With Mr McCain losing ground in opinion polls, a campaign strategist was quoted as saying the Republican presidential candidate needed to "turn the page" on the economic issue and make the election about Mr Obama's experience and character.
That effort started on Saturday when Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin accused Mr Obama of "palling around with terrorists" in reference to his acquaintance with Bill Ayers, a former member of the Vietnam War-era militant Weather Underground.
Mr Obama responded at the Republicans at a rally attended by more than 20,000 people in Asheville, North Carolina, a swing state where the Democratic presidential candidate was preparing for his second debate with Mr McCain tomorrow.
"Senator McCain and his operatives are gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance," Mr Obama said. "They'd rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up."
"It's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas and running out of time," he said a month before the November 4th election.
Mr Obama's improvement in the polls was fueled by the public's perception that he can best handle the ailing economy. The Illinois senator tried to keep the focus on the economy and used the "turn the page" quote as a way of keeping the issue alive.
"We're facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and John McCain wants us to 'turn the page?'" he said in the Asheville remarks.
"Well, I know the policies he's supported these past eight years and wants to continue are pretty hard to defend. I can understand why Senator McCain would want to 'turn the page' and ignore this economy."
Then he poked fun at Ms Palin's folksy way of speaking by saying: "We're not going to let John McCain distract us. We're not going to let him hoodwink ya, and bamboozle ya, we're not going to let him run the okie doke on ya."
Then Obama campaign released a new ad hitting Mr McCain as erratic during the past two weeks of economic crisis, a reference that could be interpreted as subtle reminder of the Arizona senator's age. At 72, Mr McCain would be the oldest person elected president for the first time if he wins.
Mr McCain was cited by the Senate Ethics Committee in 1991 for "poor judgement" for taking part in the meetings with regulators but said his role was minimal. The committee ruled three senators improperly interfered with an investigation of Lincoln Savings and Loan, whose collapse cost taxpayers more than $2 billion. Its head Charles Keating was convicted of fraud.
But Mr McCain's supporters and his campaign did not back down. They pushed the issue of Mr Obama's character on television talk shows and defended linking him and Mr Ayers.
"The last four weeks of this election will be about whether the American people are willing to turn our economy and national security over to Barack Obama, a man with little record, questionable judgment, and ties to radical figures like unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said.
Mr Ayers was one of the leaders of the Weather Underground when it was involved in a series of bombings in the 1960s, when Obama was eight years old. Mr Obama met him in the 1990s when first starting his political career in Chicago and the two served on a board together.
Mr Obama has said he knows Mr Ayers, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, only slightly and has denounced his actions with the Weather Underground.