Debates over as candidates face final days of race...

Barack Obama and John McCain return to the road 19 days before the presidential election, with the Republican looking to hold onto traditionally GOP states as the Democrat edges into his turf. Fresh off his energetic debate performance, McCain planned to visit swing states but is also forced to go to Republican territory, as polls show Obama with the edge in such places as Virginia, Colorado and Florida.

Obama, who held his ground in the third and final debate, is headed to Virginia and Missouri later this week — states that often have been out of reach for Democrats in past elections but are up for grabs this year. Looking to shake up the race, McCain questioned Obama's character and his policies Wednesday night. He linked Obama to a 1960s radical, accused him of planning tax increases that would cripple the economy and said he was dishonest about a promise to accept public campaign financing. Obama ignored that charge and remained calm throughout the debate. He often turned the accusations back against McCain, calling them examples of the petty politics harming the country.

"The important point here is, though, the American people have become so cynical about our politics, because all they see is a tit-for-tat and back-and-forth," the Illinois senator said. "And what they want is the ability to just focus on some really big challenges that we face right now."

McCain went on offense from the opening moments of the debate, accusing Obama of waging class warfare by seeking tax increases that would "spread the wealth around." He also demanded to know the full extent of Obama's relationship with William Ayers, a 1960s-era terrorist, and the Democrat's ties with ACORN, a liberal group accused of violating federal law as it seeks to register voters. McCain said the group could be on the verge of "destroying the fabric of democracy." McCain sought to blunt one of Obama's sharpest lines of attack: the Republican's ties to the unpopular incumbent president. "I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago," McCain said. Obama returned each volley, and brushed aside McCain's claim to full political independence.

"If I've occasionally mistaken your policies for George Bush's policies, it's because on the core economic issues that matter to the American people — on tax policy, on energy policy, on spending priorities — you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush," he said.

He condemned Ayers' violent activities and denied any significant ties to ACORN, mocking McCain for bringing them up. The 90-minute encounter at Hofstra University marked the beginning of a sprint to Election Day. Obama leads in the national polls and in surveys in many battleground states, an advantage built in the weeks since the nation stumbled into the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. [End of report]

I watched the debate earlier this morning and overall, I have to say McCain did a better job. I know that Im an Obama supporter and therefore, I should be supporting him but I was a bit disappointed with him during today's debate for not being offensive enough as I wanted him to be. But then again, maybe he doesnt need to. McCain on the other hand was already attacking Obama at the start of the debate all the way until the end of it. What did Obama do? Well he just tried to keep cool and he managed to keep his composure all the way throughout the debate. McCain attacked Obama on a number of different issues and policies such as his economic plans, to his connection with Bill Ayers, a former 1960s radical who belonged to the Weather Underground and abortion rights among others. I noticed throughout the debate, including the previous 2, McCain likes to talk about Obama's judgment and character more than his policies unlike Obama who had to correct the facts and who was more interested to talk about the problems and the solutions to it. I think this just show how desperate the McCain campaign has become that they are more interested to talk about issues that are less important in my opinion to the people and they have every reason to be. I mean Obama is currently having the upper hand now, he is leading in most of the important states, and as you can read from the report, he is having the edge in places like Florida and Virginia, which is traditionally a Republican states.

Now back to the debate, I thought some of McCain's accusations are really funny. For example, he talk about why he is not pleased with Obama for not standing up and denounced negative comments made about McCain by bringing up the case of John Lewis for example. I think John McCain had forgotten during some of his rallies, there were some of his supporters that shouted words such as 'terrorist' and 'take his head off' when Obama's name was mentioned. To be fair to McCain, yes he did denounced all of it but he didnt do it like immediately, he waited for a few days before doing that. He then once again brought up the issue of Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers. McCain's campaign has charged that Obama's association with Ayers should cause voters to question his judgment. Obama then argued that Ayers had committed "despicable acts" 40 years ago, but pointed out that he himself had been 8 years old at the time. For me, I dont think that accusation from McCain is valid at all. I just think he is trying to find everything possible that he could use to link Obama with that would cause the voters to change their minds about Obama because he knows that that is probably the only way he could win the support as policies wise, I believe Obama has the edge over McCain.

I think that is why McCain is doing the attacking more than Obama because he knows that he will have to go on the offensive if he wants to have any chance of winning the election later and time is running out for him to do that. He have no other choice but to attack, attack and attack Obama. As for Obama, I think he should be feeling a little bit more comfortable now, which is probably why he wasnt as offensive as McCain during all the debates especially the last one. I know I have said earlier that I thought McCain did better during the debate, but I went to do some research and found out that most people think Obama won it. A CNN/Opinion Research poll of people who watched the debate found 58 percent said Obama did the best job while 31 percent said McCain did. A CBS poll meanwhile had Obama winning the exchange, 39-27 percent. I dont normally look at polls so those statistics doesnt mean much to me, but of course being an Obama supporter, I am pleased to hear that kind of result. At the end of the day, it really doesnt matter much whether it was Obama or McCain who won the debate because its the election in 3 weeks time that will decide everything. That will be the time that they will have to win. I cant wait for it. I cant believe that it will happen in 3 weeks time, so that is why I have decided to put the big countdown box on the top right hand side of my blog to remind me. Until then, lets just continue to hope and pray that Obama will win.

*The report was taken from Associated Press.