Candidates Keep Punching

Both presidential candidates are bucking tradition and remaining on the offensive in the last days of the election—a time when campaigns usually back off and focus on positive messages, the Washington Post reports. Barack Obama is spinning Dick Cheney’s endorsement of John McCain as a troubling indication of a possible Bush redux, and McCain’s newest robocalls feature Hillary Clinton’s primary season attacks on Obama.

Pennsylvania Republicans have also resurrected the controversial link between Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. A GOP strategist links the extended nastiness to a final-hour scramble for the dwindling population of swing voters, a group that has become especially valuable to McCain. “I think both sides are going to finish the campaign really going after them,” he said.
(More Election 2008 stories.)