John McCain is an angry old man. And with each passing day of this presidential campaign his anger and lack of truthfulness becomes more evident. As we close in on Election Day Senator McCain is becoming desperate by the hour to salvage a campaign that is sinking fast. We witnessed it last night during the final presidential debate at Long Island’s Hofstra University.

On the same day the Dow Jones Industrial average fell a whopping 700 points, sending shivers through the market and increasing anxiety among Americans, the best John McCain could do is resuscitate baseless attacks that have already been thoroughly discounted. Senator McCain came off bitter, angry and combative; hardly presidential. A CNN/Opinion Research poll of debate watchers showed 58 percent believed Senator Obama won the debate. The poll also indicated that favorable opinion of Senator Obama rose during the debate and dropped for Senator McCain. According to the poll numbers women overwhelmingly thought Obama won the debate.

It is becoming quite evident that Senator McCain will say and do anything to try to win this election. In fact, some of his responses during the debate crossed from inaccurate to outright lies. His claim that he has repudiated all of the negative comments emanating from his campaign is a lie. Just this past week the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party implied that Senator Obama associated with terrorists and we heard nothing from Senator McCain. Nor did he confront supporters who shouted “kill him” and “off with his head” in reference to Senator Obama or publicly condemn an attack upon a Black journalist at one of his campaign’s events. In fact, it was the height of arrogance for McCain to defend his supporters in the manner he did; once again hiding behind the American flag and the symbolism of the nation’s armed forces.

His many attempts to feign outrage were disingenuous. Some were just offensive. His constant reference to Governor Palin’s child was pathetic, particularly since he consistently attributed the wrong disability to the little girl. His claim of being hurt by Rep. John Lewis’ comments was laughable. So you present yourself as a war hero but you can’t withstand the legitimate criticism of a man who is a survivor of a domestic war and a national hero at that?

Rather than take the high road and debate the real issues, John McCain chose to take “Gutter Avenue” and insult the nation’s intelligence by thinking we are dumb enough to be distracted by nonsense. He should be ashamed but we know he’s not. He and Sarah Palin are banking on the electorate buying into one of the lies they toss into the air, and creating enough noise to cast doubt about Senator Obama. Initial indications are that the strategy has backfired. Luckily people of common sense and goodwill are dismissing the tactics of the McCain campaign.

One bit of advice to Senator McCain – grow up. You’re too old to act this foolish.