Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden ripped into recent comments by his Republican counterpart that suggested that some places in the U.S. are more "pro-America" than others.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told a fundraiser in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday night:

"We believe that the best of America is in the small towns that we get to visit, and in the wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation," she said.

"This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans," Palin added.

On Friday, Palin clarified her comments.

"It's all pro-America. I was just reinforcing the fact that there, where I was, there's good patriotic people there in these rallies, so excited about positive change and reform of government that's coming that they are so appreciative of hearing our message, hearing our plan. Not any one area of America is more pro-America patriotically than others," she said.

At a rally in Mesilla, New Mexico, on Friday, Biden responded to those comments in a vociferous tone.

"I hope it was just a slip on her part and she doesn't really mean it. But she said, it was reported she said, that she likes to visit, 'pro-American' parts of the country," he said to loud boos.

"It doesn't matter where you live, we all love this country, and I hope it gets through. We all love this country," he said. "We are one nation, under God, indivisible. We are all patriotic. We all love our country in every part of this nation! And I'm tired. I am tired, tired, tired, tired of the implications about patriotism."

Meanwhile, the presidential campaigns were on the offensive Friday, with Sen. Barack Obama criticizing Sen. John McCain's health care plan and Palin scrutinizing Obama's ties to a community activist group.

The candidates and their running mates were spread out across the country, with Palin traveling to Ohio and Indiana; McCain in Florida; and Biden in New Mexico and Nevada.

Obama was in Virginia, a traditional Republican state that has not backed a Democrat for president since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But according to a CNN/TIME/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted October 11-14, Obama has opened up a 10-point lead over McCain, 53 percent to 43 percent.

At a campaign rally in Roanoke, Obama compared McCain's health care proposals to drug advertising.

It's like those ads for prescription drugs. They start out and everybody's running in the fields and everybody's happy, then there's a little fine print that says, you know, the side effects they may include," Obama said to laughter from the crowd.

He also highlighted McCain's plan to tackle the Medicare system, which provides health benefits for senior citizens and others.

"It turns out, Sen. McCain would pay for part of his plan by making drastic cuts in Medicare -- $882 billion worth ... to pay for an ill-conceived, badly thought-through health care plan that won't provide more health care to people -- even though Medicare is already facing a looming shortfall," he said.

Shortly after Obama's speech, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement that unlike Obama's "risky plan," McCain's plans "do not punish struggling businesses with fines and taxes, and they certainly do not cut a single benefit for Medicare or Medicaid -- Obama is simply lying."

According to McCain's Web site, the Arizona senator wants to "reform the payment systems in Medicaid and Medicare to compensate providers for diagnosis, prevention and care coordination. Medicaid and Medicare should not pay for preventable medical errors or mismanagement."

McCain also returned to the campaign trail Friday, traveling to Florida -- a state the Republicans won in the last two presidential elections.

A CNN Poll of Polls calculated Friday shows Obama leading McCain by six points, 49 percent to 43 percent. Watch how Obama has opened up a lead in the polls »

A fired-up McCain told a crowd in Miami that while Americans are facing hard times and the nation's financial system is in crisis, "the next president won't have time to get used to the office."

"He won't have the luxury of studying up on the issues before he acts. He will have to act immediately. And to do that, he will need experience, courage, judgment and a bold plan of action to take this country in a new direction," McCain said, referring to Obama. Watch more of McCain's comments »

Over the weekend, McCain will head to North Carolina, another state that Republicans have counted on in recent elections but is now considered a tossup. Watch how North Carolina has become a battleground state »

Meanwhile, Palin, McCain's running mate, lashed out Friday at Obama's connection to the ACORN community activist group, which is under fire for alleged voter registration fraud.

The group -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- faces allegations of filing fraudulent voter registrations in Nevada and faces investigations in other states.

Palin, campaigning in the battleground state of Ohio, told a crowd in West Chester that Obama "won't tell you the full truth ... on his connections to ACORN ... under investigation for rampant voter fraud."

The FBI confirmed Tuesday that it is investigating ACORN's registration efforts. Palin accused the group of "rampant voter fraud," although technically it is being accused of voter registration fraud.

"In this election, especially here in Ohio, you're going to be asked to choose between a candidate who will not disavow a group committing voter fraud and a leader who will not tolerate it," Palin said.

Brian Mellor, an ACORN attorney in Boston, Massachusetts, said the group has its own quality control process and has fired workers in the past -- including workers in Gary, Indiana. But he said allegations that his organization committed fraud is a government attempt to keep people disenfranchised.

"We believe their purpose is to attack ACORN and suppress votes," he said.

Palin said her campaign is calling on Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, to release communications his campaign had with the group. Read more about Obama and ACORN

"[We] don't want to turn the Buckeye State into the ACORN state," she said to loud cheers.

Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor responded in a statement Friday, saying: "We have not worked with ACORN at all in the general election. Rather than make these false, desperate attacks, the McCain-Palin campaign should release an economic plan that actually helps the middle class instead of giving billions in tax cuts to big corporations."

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama meet at Hofstra University for the third and final presidential debate. (Reuters)

After weeks of economic upheaval and a day that brought another precipitous drop in the stock market, Sens. John McCain (R) and Barack Obama (D) tonight held a final presidential debate marked by a combative series of disputes on abortion, the economic crisis and which man has run the more negative campaign.

McCain entered the night trailing in the polls and needing a clear victory to reverse the direction of his campaign, which has been hurt by the continuing focus on the troubled economy. The GOP nominee has struggled to separate himself from the policies of the unpopular Bush administration, and tonight he repeatedly made clear that he was his own man and would go in a "new direction."

"Senator Obama, I am not President Bush," McCain said, after the Democrat pointed out that he had voted for Bush's budget proposals. "If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."

That forceful line did not deter Obama from his most frequent avenue of attack. "If I've occasionally mistaken your policies for George Bush's policies, it's because ... you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush," he said.

The tone of the debate was more aggressive than the previous two, as McCain came prepared to criticize Obama on seemingly every front and put a dent in the Democrat's growing lead. Twice, McCain sarcastically noted Obama's "eloquence" and suggested that he was fudging the issues. While Obama on several occasions was forced to rebut McCain's attacks, none seemed to visibilty throw the Democrat off stride or mark a campaign-changing moment.

McCain also raised for the first time in any of the debates Obama's relationship with Weather Underground founder William Ayers, and also referenced ACORN, a community organizing group that has been accused of fraudulent voter registrations.

Having been criticized in previous sessions for not discussing the middle class, McCain sought tonight to identify with the common man, specifically "Joe the Plumber," an Ohioan whom Obama met on the campaign trail this week and who asked whether the Democrats' plans meant his taxes would go up. McCain made repeated references to the plumber in taking potshots at Obama and his economic proposals.

There was considerable speculation in the run-up to the debate over whether McCain would raise the subject of Obama's relationship with Ayers, a subject of McCain campaign ads and campaign speeches by Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's vice presidential running mate.

Obama reiterated previous statements that he was only eight years old when Ayers engaged in domestic terrorist activities 40 years ago, that he only knew him casually, and rejected the suggestion that Ayers helped launch his political career in Illinois. (Both Obama and Ayers were members of the board of an anti-poverty group, the Woods Fund of Chicago, between 1999 and 2002. In addition, Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's re-election fund to the Illinois State Senate in April 2001. They lived within a few blocks of each other in the trendy Hyde Park section of Chicago, and moved in the same liberal-progressive circles.)

The subjects of Ayers and ACORN arose as moderator Bob Schieffer broached the issue of negative campaigning, reciting a litany of tough words each campaign had said about the other, asking whether the two men would say it to each other's face.

"It's been a tough campaign," McCain acknowledged. "If Senator Obama had responded to my urgent request" for frequent town hall meetings, "I think the tone of this campaign could have been very different."

McCain singled out Rep. John Lewis' (D-Ga.) statement associating McCain and Palin with former segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace, demanding that Obama repudiate that comment. (Lewis later tempered his initial comments).

"I do think that he inappropriately drew a comparison between what was happening there and what happened in the civil rights movement," Obama said of Lewis, after complaining about heated rhetoric at the GOP ticket's events.

As to the overall point, "I think that we expect presidential candidates to be tough," Obama said, pointing out that polls had shown Americans believe McCain has been far more negative. The two men then bickered over which had been more negative, with Obama alleging that more of McCain's ads had been negative while McCain pointed out that Obama had been spending record amounts of money on his spots. And after McCain spoke extensively about Ayers and ACORN, he concluded by saying that his campaign was really about "getting this economy back on track," prompting derisive laughter from Obama.

McCain and Obama also had their most substantive exchange of the campaign on abortion and the Supreme Court, as they were asked whether they would only appoint Justices who agreed with them on Roe v. Wade.

McCain, an abortion foe, said he "would never impose a litmus test on any nominee to the court," but that he thought Roe v. Wade "was a bad decision."

"I think it's true that we shouldn't support any litmus test," Obama agreed, though he added that he " believes that Roe v. Wade was rightly decided" and that "women are in the best position to make this decision" about abortion.

McCain argued that we must "change the culture of America. Those of us who are proudly pro-life understand that."

He then accused Obama of aligning himself with the "extreme pro-abortion" movement while in the state Senate for not supporting a bill that required the provision of life-saving treatment to infants. Obama called the charge "not true" and suggested McCain had distorted the details.

McCain sought to distance himself from the Bush administration and its policies on the first question, which asked each candidate to say why his economic proposal was better than the other's.

Americans "are angry, and they have every reason to be angry, and they want this country to go in a new direction," McCain said.

Describing his plan to have the government buy up home mortgages, McCain said, "I am convinced that ... we ought to put the homeowners first, and I'm disappointed that [Treasury] Secretary [Henry] Paulson and others have not made that their first priority."

Obama, as he did in previous debates, focused on the middle class, saying they need a "rescue package" of their own. Obama added that he agreed with McCain on the idea of buying up mortgages, but disagreed on how it should be done, saying the Republican's plan "could be a giveaway to banks."

McCain then took his first real shot at Obama, criticizing the Democrat for an incident in Ohio yesterday during which he told a plumber concerned about a tax increase that he needed to "spread the wealth around." McCain said he stood on the side of "Joe the Plumber." (The Associated Press reports that the now-famous man is Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohioan who is looking to buy a plumbing business.)

McCain strongly reiterated his separation from the Bush administration during discussion of the second question, on spending and the deficit.

McCain said he would "have an across the board spending freeze," an idea that Obama mocked as impractical. As for specific programs he would cut, McCain cited ethanol subsidies and wasteful defense spending. Obama suggested he would cut money for the Medicare Advantage program, which sends cash to private insurers.

Schieffer next brought up the two ticket-mates, asking McCain and Obama why their vice presidential candidates were best.

Obama called Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) "one of the best public servants in this country" who has "never forgotten where he came from" and whose "consistent pattern throughout his career is to fight for the little guy."

McCain then gave tribute to Palin, his running mate. "Americans have gotten to know Sarah Palin. They know that she's a role model to women and reformers everywhere," he said. "She's a reformer through and through, and it's time we had that breath of fresh air coming into the nation's capital."

Asked whether Palin was qualified to be president, Obama demurred, saying: "Obviously that's going to be up to the American people" and that she was a talented politician.

McCain said Biden is "qualified in many respects, but I think he's been wrong on many national security issues," criticizing the Delaware Senator's "cockamamie" idea for dividing Iraq into pieces.

McCain and Obama followed with a foray into trade policy, with the two men disagreeing over whether the Colombia free trade agreement should be ratified; McCain supports it, Obama doesn't.

"I don't think there's any doubting Senator Obama wants to restrict trade and raise taxes, and the last president who tried that was Herbert Hoover," McCain said.

On health care, Obama suggested his plan was both the best way to expand coverage and cut costs. McCain accused Obama of wanting to fine small businesses -- including the aforementioned "Joe the Plumber" -- that didn't provide health insurance, while Obama said that wasn't true and that small businesses were exempt.

Obama then criticized McCain's health care plan for imposing taxes on health care benefits people receive from their employers; Mccain retorted, after again referencing the famous "Joe," that "95 percent of people in America" would be better off financially under his plan.

The faceoff at Hofstra University may have represented McCain's last and best chance to reverse the course of a contest that has slipped away from him over the last month. As bad economic news has mounted -- with titans of Wall Street disappearing and Congress passing a massive rescue package -- the Republican nominee has seen his electoral standing slip while voters migrate to the Democratic party and Obama, the candidate they increasingly prefer to handle the financial crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 733 points today, the second-largest point-drop in the Dow's century in existence, amid continued fears of a prolonged recession. That backdrop was fueled an even more intense emphasis on economic policy at a debate that was already designed to focus on domestic concerns.

Both of the first two McCain-Obama debates included extensive discussions of foreign policy. Polls taken after the first two sessions -- one at the University of Mississippi on Sept. 26, and one at Belmont University on Oct. 7 -- suggested that viewers thought Obama had won both meetings.

Before the general election debates began, friends and foes alike said Obama's primary task was to convince voters that he was up to the job of being president. McCain's goal was to convince voters of the opposite, that the Democrat was too inexperienced and too naïve to hold the nation's top job in these serious times.

Whether due to their respective debate performances or the larger issue climate, recent poll numbers suggest Obama has been largely successful and McCain hasn't. In the most recent Washington Post/ABC News survey, more respondents actually rated Obama a "safe" choice for president than did so for McCain, a 26-year Senate veteran.

The poll showed Obama leading McCain by 10 points on a national level. A New York Times/CBS News survey released today put Obama's lead at 14 points, while several other surveys have pegged the Democrat's advantage in the single digits. Perhaps more importantly, a host of polls have shown Obama tied or leading McCain in up to a dozen states won by Bush in 2004, while McCain now trails in every state that voted Democratic in the last cycle.

Cindy McCain introduces her husband during a rally in Blue Bell, Pa., yesterday. (Matt Rourke/AP)

BY JAMES V. GRIMALDI
Washington Post Staff Writer

Early in 2007, just as her husband launched his presidential bid, Cindy McCain decided to resolve an old problem -- the lack of cellular telephone coverage on her remote 15-acre ranch near Sedona, nestled deep in a tree-lined canyon called Hidden Valley.

By the time Sen. John McCain's presidential bid was in full swing this summer, the ranch had wireless coverage from the two cellular companies most often used by campaign staff -- Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

Verizon delivered a portable tower know as a "cell site on wheels" -- free of charge -- to Cindy McCain's property in June in response to an online request from Cindy McCain's staff early last year. Such devices are usually reserved for restoring service when cell coverage is knocked out during emergencies, such as hurricanes.

GRAPHIC: After a request from Cindy McCain, Verizon Wireless proposed installing a cell tower close to the couple's home near Sedona, Ariz.

In July, AT&T followed suit, wheeling in a portable tower for free to match Verizon's offer. "This is an unusual situation," said AT&T spokeswoman Claudia B. Jones. "You can't have a presidential nominee in an area where there is not cell coverage."

Over the course of the past year, Cindy McCain had offered land for a permanent cell tower and Verizon embarked on an expensive process to meet her needs, hiring contractors and seeking county land-use permits even though few people other than the McCains would benefit from the tower.

Ethics lawyers said Cindy McCain's dealings with the wireless companies stand out because Sen. John McCain is a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the Federal Communications Commission and the telecommunications industry. He has been a leading advocate for industry-backed legislation, fighting regulations and taxes on telecommunications services.

McCain and his campaign have close ties to Verizon and AT&T. Five campaign officials, including campaign manager Rick Davis, have worked as lobbyists for Verizon. Former McCain staffer Robert Fisher is an in-house lobbyist for Verizon and is volunteering for the campaign. Fisher, Verizon chief executive Ivan Seidenberg and company lobbyists have raised more than $1.3 million for McCain's presidential campaign and Verizon employees are among the top 20 corporate donors over McCain's political career, giving more than $155,000 to his campaigns.

McCain's Senate chief of staff Mark Buse, senior strategist Charles R. Black Jr., and several other campaign staffers have registered as AT&T lobbyists in the past. AT&T Executive Vice President Timothy McKone and AT&T lobbyists have raised more than $2.3 million for McCain. AT&T employees have donated more than $325,000 to McCain campaigns, putting the company in the No. 3 spot for career donations to McCain, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

"It raises the aura of special consideration for somebody because he is a member of the Senate," said Stanley Brand, a former House counsel for Democrats and an ethics attorney who represents politicians of both parties. "Here is a guy who is campaigning as Mr. Maverick and Mr. Reformer and he keeps skirting the edge."

McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers said the senator is not a regulator and Cindy McCain received no favors from Verizon.

"Mrs. McCain's staff went through the Website as any member of the general public would -- no string pulling, no phone calls, no involvement of Senate staff," Rogers said. "Just because she is married to a senator doesn't mean she forfeits her right to ask for cell service as any other Verizon customer can."

Verizon navigated a lengthy county regulatory process that hit a snag on environmental concerns. The request ultimately prevailed when Verizon invoked the Secret Service after John McCain secured the Republican nomination.

The Secret Service told The Washington Post it did not formally request the tower. After checking with Verizon and the McCain campaign, Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said an e-mail sent in May by the service's technology manager could be perceived as a request for temporary coverage under the service's existing contract with Verizon.

"This was something that was being addressed before we were out there," Zahren said.
The service could have made do with existing cell coverage in the area, he said, because it uses multiple layers of communication, including a secure land radio network.

Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson declined to elaborate. "I am not going to talk about individual customers and their requests," Nelson said.

Located about 12 miles southwest of Sedona, the McCain property sits in a spectacular ravine on a horseshoe turn of Oak Creek. Documents obtained by The Post from Yavapai County, Ariz., under state public records law show how Verizon hired contractors to put a tower on the property at a time when many counted McCain out of the race and McCain was saying he did not need Secret Service protection.

On Sept. 18, 2007, a Mesa, Ariz., contractor working for Verizon surveyed the McCain property. Another contractor drafted blueprints (see document - note large file size) calling for moving a utility shed and installing a 40-foot tower with two antennas and a microwave dish, surrounded by a six-foot wooden fence.

Construction costs would be $22,000, records show. Industry specialists said the figure probably only covers the tower and fence because the antennas, the dish and power source would run the cost into the six figures. On Dec. 4, Cindy McCain signed a letter (see document) authorizing Verizon Wireless to act on her behalf to seek county land-use permits.

"Mrs. McCain, like many Americans in rural locations, was interested in receiving cell service, and there was none in the vicinity of their cabin," Rogers said.

Randy Downing, a contractor hired by Verizon to install the tower, told county officials (see letter) on Jan. 27 the project would "improve Verizon Wireless' network coverage for residents, businesses, and visitors." But coverage maps submitted by Verizon to the county show that the tower would fill gaps in unpopulated parts of Coconino National Forest and on about 20 parcels of land, including a handful of residences, and two small businesses open only by appointment. "We are not big cell phone users," said neighbor Linda Kappel, who runs a small gift shop.

"It is a fairly sparsely populated in that pocket along Oak Creek," said Kathy Houchin, the Yavapai County permitting manager.

Three telecommunications specialists consulted by The Post said the proposed site covers so few users that it is unlikely to generate enough traffic to justify the investment. Robb Alarcon, an industry specialist who helps plan tower placement, said the proposed location appeared to be a "strategic build," free-of-charge coverage to high-priority customers. A former Verizon executive vice president, who asked not to be named because he worked for the company, agreed with Alarcon, saying, "It was a VIP kind of thing."

Verizon spokesman Taylor declined to comment when asked if this had been considered to be a "strategic build."

At 3,600 feet in elevation, the valley location was more than 1,000 feet lower than surrounding hills, where a tower would provide more coverage, the specialists said. The site elevation was so low that it was in a flood plain, and the county told Verizon and the McCains on Feb. 1 that the tower should be moved (see document).

It was only a temporarily setback thanks to McCain's political comeback. On March 5, McCain secured the nomination.

Cindy McCain signed a contract with Verizon on May 6 (see document). She granted Verizon free use of her property from June 1 until May 1, 2009. In exchange, Cindy McCain "will receive the benefits of enhanced wireless communications arising from operation of the Facility."

Wireless companies often lease property for cell towers for as much as six-figure sums annually. Rogers noted the lack of compensation, saying in an e-mail that Cindy McCain "was offering to GIVE them the land for the tower for goodness sake. It's not as if they were going to pay her rent."

But the wireless specialists said the lack of compensation suggests the purpose of the tower was not income for Verizon but a 'strategic build" for the McCains.

Over Memorial Day, McCain hosted potential vice presidential running-mates at the ranch, but the area still lacked coverage. Richard Klenner, then the wirelss communications chief of the Secret Service, which had recently started providing protection for McCain, sent an e-mail to Verizon. "Is there any way of speeding up the process?" Klenner asked.

That day, Downing, Verizon's contractor, wrote to the county urging approval for either the permanent tower or a cell site on wheels, "to improve Verizon Coverage in the area (including at Senator McCain's ranch). It is imperative that the coverage is improved immediately so that Senator McCain's security personnel, including Secret Service, can communicate while in the area." (Zahren told The Post that Downing's citing of the Secret Service in correspondence with the county was unauthorized.)

A day later, the county issued a permit for the permanent tower, with environmental restrictions. A week later, the county approved Verizon's cell site on wheels.

Over the summer, AT&T's Jones said, the company contacted the McCains for permission to install a cell site on wheels. She said that ordinarily, given the few number of residents, AT&T would not have installed a facility, but McCain's standing as a candidate warranted it.

She said AT&T got a permit for the facility, but a county permitting official said one was not issued.

McCain and his top campaign staff spent much of the last week of August secluded at the ranch preparing for the Republican National Convention, selecting his vice presidential nominee and rehearsing his acceptance speech.

That month Verizon abandoned its effort to install a permanent tower. Nelson said the project would be "an inappropriate way" to build its network. "It doesn't make business sense for us to do that," he said.

updated 59 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Barack Obama is not a Muslim, and John McCain did not tell the television show "60 Minutes" he was a war criminal who intentionally bombed women and children in Vietnam.

Joe Biden is not planning to step aside in favor of Hillary Clinton as vice president, and Sarah Palin did not order books banned from the library when she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

But if you have spent any time browsing the Internet this year, you may have read rumors to the contrary.

All these stories -- and more -- are being e-mailed to friends and family and posted on blogs.

And they are all false.

Heard that Obama was really born in Kenya and thus not eligible to be president? Wrong.

Heard that Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence Party? Nope, she wasn't.

But these stories are potentially damaging to the presidential campaigns of Obama and McCain, Washington communications expert Ron Bonjean warned, so it is critical to rebut them as firmly as possible.

"Fighting rumors on the Internet takes hypervigilance and a lot of caffeine. Left unchecked, these rumors can get out of control, because perception is fact," he said.

Obama and Palin are the subject of the largest number of e-mails, said Rich Buhler, founder of the fact-checking Web site, truthorfiction.com.

"The last two election cycles, there have been rumors about each of the candidates, but there has been nothing like this election," said Buhler, who has been running his nonpartisan site for 10 years.

"The number of Obama e-rumors has been huge, the stuff claiming that he was a Muslim. There are probably 15 or 20 Obama e-rumors. They have circulated massively," he said.

Buhler attributes the popularity of Obama e-mails to the fact that he is a "phenomenon."

"He is new, he is a threat" to some people, Buhler said. "When McCain named Sarah Palin, she became a phenomenon, so there were immediately a number of rumors about her, and now it's the Obama-Palin hit parade."

That's why both campaigns make pushback a priority.

Obama's Web site has a section called "Fight the Smears," run by the campaign's rapid-response team.

"Here's the general philosophy: vigilance, force, speed, and use the network we have created to spread the truth via every avenue," said Hari Sevugan, a spokesman for Obama's rapid-response effort.

"The idea of having such a large network of supporters is that they can reach an even larger network of friends, family and colleagues, and get the truth out," he said.

"If you look at 'Fight the Smears,' it also has an action center. It's not just facts -- it's making sure those facts get out," he explained.

The campaign does not underestimate the damage unsubstantiated rumors can do, especially ones that come directly from friends or family.

"These things take root if you let them sit too long," Sevugan cautioned.

The Obama rumors have spurred action both for and against the Illinois senator -- including a suit filed in Pennsylvania arguing that he is not eligible to be president because he is not a "natural-born U.S. citizen," and a Web site at isobamamuslim.com that contains a single word: "No."

Philip J. Berg illustrates how hard it is to quash rumors once they spread.

The Philadelphia-area lawyer, who filed the suit against Obama's candidacy, is aware that the Web site FactCheck.org has examined Obama's Hawaii birth certificate and ruled it kosher.

But he doesn't believe it.

"FactCheck.org is owned by Annenberg of Chicago, where Obama sat on the board," the lawyer said, dismissing the Web site's verdict.

FactCheck.org describes itself as a "nonpartisan, nonprofit 'consumer advocate' for voters." It is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

And then there are the rumors that simply cannot be proven or disproved.

One e-mail suggests that McCain behaved obnoxiously at a resort in Fiji before his last run for the presidency in 2000. The University of California-Santa Cruz professor whose name is attached to some versions of the story denies writing it but says she did forward it after a friend sent it to her.

Truthorfiction.com describes it as "unproven," saying research has turned up no evidence to support it.

"So far, we haven't been able to find any substantive information about whether it ever happened and, if so, with whom. We've asked McCain's campaign whether he's ever been to Turtle Island, but they haven't responded," Buhler said.

"There are many e-rumors that are not able to be proven either because the e-rumor does not contain the kinds of facts that can be followed up -- such as name or location -- or because the information in it doesn't pan out," he added.

The McCain campaign does its best to push back against falsehoods about the Arizona Republican senator and his running mate, spokesman Michael Goldfarb said.

"We have set up a Web site, as Gov. Palin has been the victim of a lot of these smears," said Goldfarb, one of the main authors of the campaign's McCain Report blog.

But he said there was only so much a campaign could do to rebut false stories.

"We fight back, but there is a certain segment of the population that is never going to believe that Obama is a Christian, just as there is a certain segment of the population that is never going to believe that Trig Palin is Gov. Palin's son," he lamented.

But his frustration is not primarily with Internet rumors.

"Unfortunately, a lot of the smears against Gov. Palin have been echoed by mainstream media outlets," Goldbfarb said. He cited a September 2 New York Times article saying Palin had been a member of the Alaska Independence Party. The newspaper retracted the story the following day, blaming an AIP official's error.

"It's damaging when it appears on the front page of the New York Times," Goldfarb said.

But Washington public-relations expert Bonjean, for his part, recommended that campaigns try to use the media to help rebut smears.

"The best way to fight Internet rumors is to go straight to the news media and try to get a story published saying 'this is not true,'" he said. "For any site that is promoting this rumor, you want to counter-attack it with the facts."

If the rumor appears on a blog, he said, "flood it with comments from your team, or activate grassroots support. Ask your friends and campaign allies to do it."

Buhler of truthorfiction.com said there is no way to know where most Internet rumors originate.

"Most of these things, you'll never know how they started. They're brush fires," he said.

Bonjean, a former spokesman for House and Senate Republican leaders, said some rumors probably came from "random crazy folks out there who want to perpetuate rumors for the thrill of it."

But some, he suggested, did probably come from "rogue political operatives."

He doubted they were working hand-in-glove with the campaigns, though.

"I would find it highly unlikely they would be taking orders from the campaigns, because if it ever got traced back to headquarters, there would be a lot of trouble."

(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama has a sizable lead over Sen. John McCain, polls show, but those numbers could be deceiving if the "Bradley effect" comes into play.

The Bradley effect is named after former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, an African-American who ran for California governor in 1982.

Exit polls showed Bradley leading by a wide margin, and the Democrat thought it would be an early election night.

But Bradley and the polls were wrong. He lost to Republican George Deukmejian.

The theory was that polling was wrong because some voters, who did not want to appear bigoted, said they voted for Bradley even though they did not.

"People will usually tell you how they voted after the election, but we found in the Bradley campaign ... that people were actually not telling us who they voted for," said Charles Henry, who researched

Some analysts say the race could be much closer or even tied if the Bradley effect is factored in. iReport.com: iReporter pleads with voters to 'stop the racism'

"It leaves a question mark over this race, and we won't have the final answer until the votes are counted," said David Gergen, a senior political analyst for CNN.

But there could be an opposite effect, Wilder said.

"There's going to be a reverse Wilder or Bradley effect. ... There are some Republicans who are not going to say out front that they're going to be voting for Obama, but they're going to be, because the economy is what's driving people to consider what's in their best interest," he said.

Some analysts say the Bradley effect can account for 6 percentage points against an African-American candidate.

Michelle Obama told CNN's Larry King that a lot has changed since Bradley lost.

"That was several decades ago, and I think there's been growth and movement," she said. "I just believe that the issues are going to weigh in people's hearts more so as they go into the voting booths this time around."

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown said last week that he thinks the Bradley effect could cost Obama several battleground states -- and possibly the presidency.

Race "is still a problem in this country," Brown told CNN. "It goes away when there are other troubles that are more challenging, and right now, whether or not we survive in the economy is more challenging. But race could rear its ugly head. I just hope it doesn't before November 4."

In the past 15 years or so, there's been no indication in the polls that the Bradley effect has been a factor in statewide races.

Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst, said that if there is racism in this year's election, it's probably already showing up in the polls. And Keating Holland, CNN's polling director, pointed out another important caveat:

"We've never had a black presidential candidate as a major nominee, so the polls don't have any history at all when it comes to national elections," he said.

Barack Obama widened his lead considerably over John McCain in four key battleground states during the past three weeks, providing further evidence that the economic crisis has greatly enhanced the Democrat's advantage with just 21 days left before Election Day.

Obama holds double-digit margins over McCain in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin and carries a nine-point advantage over his Republican rival in Colorado, according to polling conducted by Quinnipiac University for washingtonpost.com and the Wall Street Journal.

Obama's ascendancy in these key states mirrors his growing lead in national polling. The latest Washington Post/ABC News survey put Obama at 53 percent to McCain's 43 percent, while the daily Gallup tracking poll showed Obama holding a similar lead of 51 percent to 41 percent on Monday.

The latest polling confirms that the financial crisis and stock market crash that has gripped Wall Street and Washington over the past month has increased the importance of economic matters to voters -- particularly in the industrial Midwest -- and accrued almost exclusively to Obama's benefit.

In Michigan, more than six in ten voters said the economy was the "single most important issue" in deciding their vote. Among likely voters, Obama increased his lead over McCain from a four-point edge in a late September Quinnipiac poll to a whopping 16-point lead in the most recent survey.

Obama's 54 percent to 38 percent lead in Michigan helps to explain why McCain decided to pull down his ads and pull out the majority of his campaign staff from the Wolverine State last week -- choosing to fight, instead, in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Maine.

The data was similar in Wisconsin and Minnesota where Obama gained 10 points and nine points, respectively, in his margin over McCain since the September Quinnipiac poll; the Illinois senator led McCain in Wisconsin 54 percent to 37 percent, and held a 51 percent to 40 percent edge in Minnesota.

In both states, 58 percent of the sample cited the economy as the leading issue affecting their vote -- nearly six times as many as named any other issue. The Wisconsin number represents a significant shift from the seven-point advantage the Quinnipiac poll showed for Obama in the Badger State in the third week of September. It also stands in contrast to other recent poll data, including a CNN/Time poll done earlier this month, that showed Obama leading 51 percent to 46 percent.

The surveys also indicate that Obama is significantly more trusted on economic issues than McCain. In Wisconsin, 53 percent said Obama "better understands the economy" while just 32 percent chose McCain. The numbers were not much better in Michigan (52 percent Obama/35 percent McCain), Minnesota (49/34) or Colorado (51/39).

A majority of voters in each state said McCain had not shown "effective leadership" in dealing with the financial meltdown. Throughout the past several weeks, McCain has condemned financial executives on Wall Street, offered a few proposed remedies for the crisis, and briefly suspended his campaign to return to Washington to take part in White House talks over a $700 billion rescue plan.

McCain also is being badly hamstrung by a national political environment tipped heavily against his party. Just one in four voters in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin approve of the job President Bush is doing -- a number reflected in the Post/ABC News national poll where just 23 percent of voters voiced approval for Bush's performance.

For all of the media focus on the presidential debates -- the third and last of which will be held tomorrow at Hofstra University in New York -- the encounters seem to have had little effect in persuading voters.

In each of the four states, between 71 percent and 75 percent of voters said they watched the second presidential debate in Nashville, Tenn., last Tuesday night. And yet, in each of the four states more than eight in ten voters said the debate did not change their vote.

Nearly half of the voters in each state thought Obama had done a better job in the Nashville debate while less than one in five voters said McCain had won the debate.

The Republican problems in these four battleground states weren't limited to the top of the ticket.

In Colorado's open seat Senate race, Democratic Rep. Mark Udall holds a commanding 54 percent to 40 percent lead over former Republican Rep. Bob Schaffer. In Minnesota, Sen. Norm Coleman (R) has slipped into a dead heat with his Democratic opponent Al Franken; Franken stands at 38 percent to 36 percent for Coleman and 18 percent for independent candidate Dean Barkley.

The polls were conducted from Oct. 8-12. The sample sizes were: 1,019 likely voters in Minnesota, 1,201 likely voters in Wisconsin, 1,088 likely voters in Colorado and 1,043 likely voters in Michigan. Each has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Obama: The $100 Million Man?

How much cash did Obama raise in September? Photo by Romeo Ranoco of Reuters

Barack Obama's massive spending on television -- $21 million for the first week of October alone -- coupled with his decision to buy 30 minutes of prime time television at the end of the month has stoked rumors that the Illinois senator may have shattered all fundraising records for the month of September.

Reports documenting Obama's fundraising aren't due at the Federal Election Commission until Oct. 20 and -- if past is prologue -- his campaign won't release the details of their donations or expenditures until that day.

But, the fact that the information likely won't be available for another week hasn't stopped the political world -- Democrats and Republicans -- from speculating about just how much Obama collected last month.

"With the unprecedented growth in their Internet list and their aggressive fundraising calendar, it is well within the realm of possibility that Obama may raise close to $100 million in one month," said one senior Democratic fundraiser. The source added that Obama could well grow his e-mail list to upwards of nine million people before election day and raise better than $30 million from major donors by that time.

"With the way the dynamics of this race is going -- Obama looking stronger and stronger, while McCain looks more out of touch -- I wouldn't be surprised if Obama easily surpasses $100 million and reaches $115 million plus in September," said another veteran Democratic fundraiser.

Never forget that donors -- big and small -- like to be with the winner. So, the more Obama looks like a winner, the more likely that undecided dollars will head in his direction over the final weeks of the contest.

Obama's best previous one-month fundraising total came in August -- typically a somewhat slow time for political cash collection -- when he raised an eye-popping $67 million and ended the month with $77 million in the bank. (Looking for Obama's monthly fundraising totals so far this year? It's after the jump.)

When contacted by The Fix, the Obama campaign offered no comment about their fundraising totals for the past month. And, it's worth noting, that past speculation about how much money the campaign raised in any given month has usually been wildly inaccurate as so few people even within Obama's inner circle are kept in the loop about his cash collection operation.

Still, it's hard based on the campaign's spending to not assume that Obama is almost certain to have broken his previous fundraising records last month.

According to a Fix calculation of spending in the week beginning Sept. 30 and ending Oct. 6, Obama outspent John McCain roughly three to one -- $21 million to $7 million. (Spending by the Republican National Committee's independent expenditure arm helped even the playing field slightly, although Obama still outspent the combined GOP forces by $8 million in that week alone.)

And, late last week, it was revealed that Obama is seeking to buy a roadblock (a coordinated block of time on every national broadcast network) for 8 pm on Oct. 29. He already has purchased a half-hour of TV time on CBS and NBC -- at a cost of roughly $1 million each -- and is seeking time on Fox and ABC as well.

The last candidate to make such a play on broadcast television was Ross Perot way back in 1992. He ran a series of political infomercials, the largest of which -- on Nov. 2, 1992 -- drew 26 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

Watch television (or listen to the radio) in any swing state -- The Fix spent a night in Scranton over the weekend -- and the dominance of Obama over McCain on television becomes readily apparent.

Obama's massive fundraising -- whether it winds up at $70, $80, $90 or $100 million in September (and October) -- justifies the political savvy of the Illinois senator's decision to go back on his previous pledge to accept public financing for the general election.

While McCain, who did accept public funds, is limited to roughly $84 million in the general election, Obama has been free to raise and spend what he likes -- leading to huge spending edges in emerging battlegrounds like Florida, North Carolina and Indiana.

Obama's unprecendented fundraising ability combined with the incredibly toxic political environment (more on that later today) makes the Illinois senator a decided favorite with 22 days remaining before the fall election.

Obama Month by Month Fundraising
January: $36.8 million
February: $56.7 million
March: $42.8 million
April: $31.9 million
May: $23.4 million
June: $54.2 million
July: $51.4 million
August: $67.5 million