Political pundits
seem to generally agree John McCain went into last
night's debate aiming for the jugular -- and
Barack Obama did everything in his power not to take
the bait.
Obama made it
clear he wanted to get back to the issues during the final
presidential debate of the 2008 election season, held at
Hofstra University on New York's Long Island. And on
one issue in particular, McCain did further damage to
his already waning support among women.
When talks turned
to abortion rights, McCain took Obama to task for
failing to take a position on a late-term abortion ban when
he served in the Illinois Senate.
Obama countered,
saying he vetoed the measure because it did not include
an exception in case the mother's health is in
jeopardy.
McCain came back
swinging, raising his hands to the air to form quote
marks around the word "health" as he
countered, saying the explanation had been "stretched
by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost
anything."
A CNN ticker
showing the reactions of men and women to the debate
flatlined for McCain as he spoke of abortion rights, and
continued to hover in the basement as talk of health
care continued.
Earlier in the
night, McCain poked fun at a law protecting a woman's
right to sue for being paid less than a man.
In fact,
according to a CNN poll taken in real time during the
debate, the same support among independent women that
McCain hoped to rally with the addition of Sarah Palin
to the Republican ticket all but vanished last night.
Polls showed women in particular responded poorly to
McCain's attempts to smear Obama. The Republican
presidential hopeful spent much of last night
questioning Obama's character and connections.
A CNN telephone
poll taken Wednesday night said 62% of women who
watched the debate thought Obama won, while 28% thought
McCain did.
In 90 minutes,
McCain suggested Obama take a trip to Colombia so he could
better "understand" the free-trade
arrangement, chastised the Illinois senator for
refusing to participate in town hall-style meetings and
further attempted to connect Obama to '60s radical
Bill Ayers.
After laying his
past relationship with Ayres out on the table, Obama
concluded -- "The fact that this has become such an
important part of your campaign, Sen. McCain, says
more about your campaign than it says about
me." (Ross von Metzke, The Advocate)
