McCain has gone after Obama on the Ayers issue in interviews and elliptically at events but did not discuss it in the second debate.
On Wednesday, after moderator Bob Schieffer brought up the nasty tenor of the race, the two candidates launched into a long discourse on the subject in which each blamed the other.
McCain tried to make the case that Obama should not be president because of his past connections to Ayers and the community organizing group ACORN, which Republicans have criticized for voter registration irregularities. But soon he seemed to decide that voters might not care.
"All of the details need to be known about Sen. Obama's relationship with them and with ACORN, and the American people will make a judgment," he said.
Then he quickly changed course:
"And my campaign is about getting this economy back on track, about creating jobs, about a brighter future for America. And that's what my campaign is about, and I'm not going to raise taxes the way Sen. Obama wants to raise taxes in a tough economy. And that's really what this campaign is going to be about."
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cathleen.decker@latimes.com
