Final face-off

Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain meet Wednesday night for their third and final debate before Election Day.

The face-off, which will have the two candidates seated across from each other, will unfold at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., starting at 9 p.m. EST.

The questions, delivered by moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS News, will focus entirely on the economy and domestic policy. As the economy has gripped voters' minds, Republican candidate McCain has fallen behind Democrat Obama in national polls.

Both are targeting the Bush presidency in a time when voters, according to polls, are overwhelmingly unhappy with the country's direction.

In his stump speeches, Obama has emphasized that Americans can't afford another four years "like the last eight."

Now the Republican candidate has started saying the same thing.

"We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change," said McCain Tuesday in battleground state Pennsylvania. "As president I intend to act, quickly and decisively."

In the debate the two are likely to emphasize pocketbook issues, a burning concern as financial institutions wobble and voters feel the pinch of a faltering economy. Each released proposals this week for how to boost the economy.

On Tuesday, McCain announced a $52.5 billion economic plan that calls for halving the tax rate on capital gains and reducing the tax on withdrawals from retirement accounts, among other measures. A day earlier, Obama unveiled a $60 billion proposal that includes an extension of unemployment benefits, a 90-day freeze on home foreclosures, penalty-free withdrawals from retirement funds, and a $3,000 tax credit for each new job.

McCain, 72, has been in Congress and in the public eye since 1982, and Obama, 47, has been in the Senate since 2004. McCain's seniority has painted him as part of the "old guard" of the Republican Party, though he himself has claimed the title of a party "maverick." At the same time, many political analysts say Obama's task as the junior politician is to assure voters that he has a steady presidential demeanor, so they can be comfortable voting for a lesser-known candidate.

As the campaign enters its final weeks, Obama is making sure voters are familiar with him and his platform, outspending McCain on television ads by a three to one rate, according to a report by The Washington Post.

After recently launching personal attacks on his opponent in television ads, McCain took a different tack this week, positioning himself as a fighter for the American middle class.

The Arizona senator's campaign advisors are supposedly urging him now to attack Obama again on his connections with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who has made extreme statements from the pulpit. McCain has not made such attacks recently, but he has suggested that he may bring up Obama's connections to 1960s terrorist William Ayers during the debate.

Obama campaign aide Robert Gibbs said his candidate, meanwhile, will try to project an aura of calm leadership during the debate, since he said voters are not concerned about topics like the Ayers connection right now. The Associated Press contributed to this report.