McCain turns up the heat as campaign lags in key states

Economic woes give Obama boost before debate as rival steps up pitch and pace of attacks.

A worker hangs an eagle sign at the site for the presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama at Belmont University in Tennessee.

WASHINGTON // Barack Obama and John McCain meet tonight for their second debate against the backdrop of an electoral map that has tilted towards the Illinois Democrat and a new effort by Republicans to step up the pitch and pace of their attacks. With just four weeks remaining before election day and polls showing Mr Obama now leading in several critical battleground states, Mr McCain is under pressure to close the gap that has opened in the face of the country's economic turmoil, an issue that seems to have bolstered the standing of his opponent.

And the McCain camp has indeed turned up the heat: just days after an accusation by Sarah Palin, Mr McCain's running mate, that Mr Obama has been "palling around with terrorists", the Arizona Republican yesterday launched a new TV ad called "Dangerous" that accuses his rival of being just that. "Who is Barack Obama?" a female voice asks in a menacing tone. "He says our troops in Afghanistan are 'just air-raiding villages and killing civilians'. How dishonourable. Congressional liberals voted repeatedly to cut off funding to our active troops, increasing the risk on their lives. How dangerous. Obama and congressional liberals: too risky for America."

No doubt seeking to shift at least some of the attention off the economy, McCain aides have indicated an intention to highlight just what Mrs Palin did at a Colorado campaign stop on Saturday: Mr Obama's association with William C Ayers, a former member of the radical group the Weathermen, which once plotted to bomb the US Capitol. The two men served on a charity board together in Chicago and Mr Ayers hosted a campaign event at his home for the Democrat during his first run for office, though Mr Obama has downplayed their ties. The McCain camp says it will also raise Mr Obama's relationship with another figure they are hoping will taint him by association: Antoin "Tony" Rezko, the Chicago real estate developer and a one-time friend and political fundraiser for Mr Obama who has been convicted of federal fraud and money laundering charges. Mr Obama, who claims to offer a "new kind of politics" that transcends partisanship and rejects traditional political attacks, has been criticised at times by his own supporters for not responding to accusations quickly or forcefully enough. But this time he is hitting back, and hard. His campaign launched a new website, keatingeconomics.com, that highlights, in a 13-minute documentary that went live yesterday, Mr McCain's involvement in the so-called Keating Five scandal. Mr McCain was among five US senators who received generous campaign contributions, gifts and perks from Charles Keating, owner of the Lincoln Savings and Loan, and then tried to protect it from federal regulators when it was being investigated for defrauding investors. The savings and loan crisis eventually cost American taxpayers billions of dollars, just as the treasury department's financial rescue package is now. "The current economic crisis demands that we understand John McCain's attitudes about economic oversight and corporate influence in federal regulation," the website says. "Nothing illustrates the danger of his approach more clearly than his central role in the savings and loan scandal of the late '80s and early '90s." "The Keating scandal is eerily similar to today's credit crisis, where a lack of regulation and cosy relationships between the financial industry and Congress has allowed banks to make risky loans and profit by bending the rules," it goes on. "And in both cases, John McCain's judgment and values have placed him on the wrong side of history." While the Senate ethics committee reprimanded Mr McCain for "poor judgment" at the time, it cleared him of wrongdoing, and Mr McCain later emerged as a crusader on Capitol Hill against the influence of money in politics. Tonight's presidential debate, held at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and moderated by Tom Brokaw, the longtime NBC News anchor, will be the second of three. The town hall-style format - in which voters will pose questions directly to the candidates - is expected to play to Mr McCain's strengths. And, in fact, the Obama campaign has been heightening expectations on the Republican so that a performance that falls anywhere short of them might be viewed as disappointing. But Mr Obama goes in to the debate stronger than even two weeks ago. State polls show him opening up leads in Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Mr McCain even pulled his staff and resources out of Michigan, which his campaign once thought offered a good shot at picking off a state Democrats won in 2004. The fact that Mr McCain has lost some ground of late may prompt him to dig in harder tonight. William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine, wrote in his New York Times column yesterday of the advice Mrs Palin said she would offer her running mate as he prepared for the debate. It was the same advice Mr McCain gave her before last week's vice presidential debate: have fun and be yourself. "Only maybe I'd add just a couple more words," Mrs Palin told Mr Kristol, "and that would be: 'Take the gloves off'." [e-mail]