Obama camp: McCain needs ‘game-changer’ at debate

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign said Wednesday that GOP rival John McCain needs a “game-changer” at tonight’s final debate. 

In a memo from campaign spokesman Bill Burton, the Obama campaign described the debate -- the last of three -- as Sen. McCain’s (Ariz.) “last chance to somehow convince the American people that his erratic response to this economic crisis doesn’t disqualify him from being president.”

The memo, which Burton entitled “John McCain’s plan to ‘whip’ ‘That One’s’ ‘you-know-what’,” says that Sen. Obama (Ill.) will continue to focus on the faltering economy while McCain will focus on character attacks.

“That’s the kind of steady leadership and real change Americans are looking for – not John McCain’s erratic handling of the crisis, his constant character attacks and the same Bush policies that have failed us for eight years,” Burton wrote.

“And while McCain has promised to attack Obama in the debate, every minute that he ignores the economy and the middle class is not just a minute wasted but time spent on attacks that even some of those closest to him have said don’t work,” Burton added.

The Obama camp anticipates attacks from McCain on the Illinois senator’s relationship with a 1960s radical.

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