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Joe the Plumber may be the most famous plumber since the Roto Rooter man. Republican Senator John McCain made him the centerpiece of his debate discussion Wednesday night and Obama knows Joe from Ohio too.
"I love Joe the Plumber," proclaimed one focus group member as part of a CNN panel. The story did not seem to resonate with most panelists however.
Sen. John McCain put Sen. Barack Obama on the spot at several points Wednesday, sparking sharp exchanges at the final presidential debate.
MSNBC.com pointed out that McCain did bring up Sen. Barack Obama's ties to a national organizing group that he said was perpetrating the "biggest fraud in American history" in its voter registration drives in predominantly urban and minority communities.
With polls showing the campaign moving decidedly in Obama's favor, McCain kept his promise to aggressively attack Obama's judgment and experience during the third and final presidential debate, held at Hofstra University.
Obama maintained that ACORN's efforts were independent of his campaign and accused McCain of trying to change the subject from Ayers because his campaign's attacks were not working.
"Mr. Ayers has become the centerpiece of Senator McCain's campaign in recent weeks," Obama complained, saying he had "roundly condemned" Ayers' advocacy of violent reform three decades ago, before Ayers became a college professor and advocate for education programs.
"The fact that this has become such an important part of your campaign, Senator McCain, says more about your campaign than it does about me," he said.
Analysts seemed to agree that McCain won the first half hour of the debate but may have come across with too angry a tone later on in the debate.
"I am not George W. Bush," McCain said at one point, directing his comment to Obama. "If you wanted to run against George Bush, you should have run four years ago."
Likewise, analysts tended to agree that Obama appeared flat throughout much of the debate.
Whether this final debate will have any affect on the outcome of the 2008 US Presidential elections remains to be seen. Immediately following the debate, McCain's numbers had dropped by more than 5 percent at prediction market intrade.com. The greater impact on prediction markets should be realized within the next 12 hours with the trend potentially turning around. At press time Wednesday night, Obama was given an 84.5 percent chance of winning the White House based on intrade betting action to date.
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
