Presidential campaign in the home stretch

The presidential campaign was nearly as erratic as the stock market last week, swinging from negative attacks in a highly-charged debate to biting TV comedy and back to smear tactics.

John McCain's campaign is reaching out to Middle America through humor while still attacking Barack Obama as unproven and untrustworthy.

The Obama campaign is also reaching to sway voters via prime time comedy shows while alleging in TV ads that McCain will gut Medicare.

Meanwhile, endorsements are starting to roll out from newspapers across the country as the candidates turn their attention to getting their avid supporters to the polls early.

Here is a look back at the week as the campaign enters its final two weeks.

Debate duel

McCain was his feistiest in the third and final presidential debate Wednesday night. He hit Obama for his connections to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers and the community organizing group ACORN, which is the target of voter fraud allegations in a number of battle ground states.

McCain also was clear in his attempt to portray Obama as a socialist who wants to "spread wealth around" as he reached out to "Joe the plumber" and declared that he isn't George Bush.

But in the end, most polls showed Obama as the clear winner, mostly for his ability to maintain composure under fire. Such polls, however, are often suspect partly because they tend to include more Democrats.

Comedy follow-up

The day after the heated debate, both candidates appeared at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner to "roast" each other.

Obama admitted to "palling around" with a no good bunch of "punks" - U.S. Senators.

McCain said he spotted supporters in the group - Hillary Clinton.

The charity appearance though was just one event that showed the candidates in a more personable light as the campaign rounds the bend on the remaining two weeks.

McCain made a makeup appearance on the David Letterman show after he drew fire from the late night chieftain for ditching on an appearance weeks earlier.

"I screwed up," McCain told Letterman about his bailing on the show to help pass the $700 billion economic bailout.

But Letterman didn't let up.

"I haven't had this much fun since my last interrogation," McCain, a former Vietnam POW, cracked at one point.

That same night, Joe Biden appeared on Jay Leno.

And last night Sarah Palin made a much anticipated appearance on Saturday Night Live, where Tina Fey has been portraying her as an airhead.

Appearances on non-news TV shows generally are seen as a good platform for candidates to reach voters who don't pay close attention to politics. But so close to the election such appearances can also amplify unwanted gaffes.

Ad war

Obama has upped the ante in his push to portray McCain as insensitive to the poor and middle class. The campaign has modified an earlier ad that attacked McCain's health care plan to include allegations he wants to gut Medicare.

McCain's campaign is calling the attack "malpractice."

The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, is running a new ad that hammers on McCain's point that Obama is too inexperienced. The ad focuses on an "executive" chair and warns, "This crisis would be Obama's first crisis."

McCain also is pushing the Ayers connection hard. His campaign, along with the Republican National Committee, is running hundreds of thousands of robo-calls across several battle ground states, including Indiana, North Carolina, Missouri, New Hampshire and Minnesota, that say Obama "worked closely with domestic terrorist" Ayers, whose group "killed Americans."

Meanwhile, Palin dropped the allegations about Ayers from her stump speech and substituted it with accusations Obama may be behind voter fraud orchestrated by get-out-the-vote group ACORN.

Newspapers weigh in

Obama swept a number of key newspaper endorsements last week, including the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. Some of those papers endorsing Obama had never before backed a Democrat for the White House. The Daily Herald also endorsed Obama today.

McCain won the support of the Boston Herald, New York Post and the Union-Leader in New Hampshire, to name a few.