Obama and McCain prepare to go face-to-face

The debate between Barack Obama and John McCain heated up today as the two US presidential candidates prepared for their first face-to-face clash later this week.

Both men aired television adverts criticising his opponent ahead of the first presidential debate of the 2008 campaign at the University of Mississippi on Friday night.

It is expected to focus on international affairs, an area where Mr McCain is perceived as being stronger than Mr Obama, and in a race which polls suggest is a virtual dead heat, the debate – the first of three between the two candidates before November 4 – could prove to be crucial.

Today, Mr Obama launched an advert which said his Republican rival offered Americans a “prescription for disaster”.

It shows Mr McCain with the unpopular President George Bush and quotes an article in which the 72-year-old argues for more deregulation of the health care industry just “as we have done over the last decade in banking”.

“Increasing costs and threatening coverage, a prescription for disaster,” the advert says over video of a sombre couple examining their bills.

A McCain campaign spokesman said Mr Obama was making an “absurd” argument because Mr McCain wanted to allow Americans the ability to buy health care across state lines in the spirit that allows Americans to do interstate banking - which was not the problem that caused the crisis on Wall Street.

In his own advert, Mr McCain linked Mr Obama to “the corrupt Chicago political machine”, but the Arizona senator again came under fire from US political pundits for being economical with the truth.

Mr Obama, 47, was not a machine candidate in the state Senate or in the US Senate primary – but he has been backed by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and other establishment Democrats since he got the Senate nomination in 2004, and has worked with them.

Away from the campaign trail, Obama campaign aides said the Illinois senator would spend three days in Tampa, Florida, honing his foreign policy expertise ahead of Friday’s debate.

He is expected to take part in mock debates with veteran lawyer Greg Craig – a foreign policy adviser to former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Mr Craig also acted as a stand-in for President George W Bush when John Kerry was preparing for the debates in 2004.

Senior Obama adviser Robert Gibbs aimed to raise expectations from Mr McCain while playing down his own candidate’s chances.

“This debate offers [Mr McCain] a major home-court advantage and anything short of a game-changing event will be a key missed opportunity for him,” Mr Gibbs said.