Politics | Election 2008 Race's Sharper Attacks Run Economic Risk Knife-fight tactics are out of place in crisis, strategists say By Jason Farago Posted Oct 7, 2008 6:21 AM CDT Copied John McCain participates in a rally in Albuquerque, NM, Monday, Oct. 6, 2008. McCain is scheduled to debate Democratic rival Barack Obama in the second of three presidential debates. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Barack Obama and John McCain continue to sharpen their verbal barrage on each other ahead of tonight's debate, with Sarah Palin even going so far yesterday as to denounce Obama as "not one of us." But in economic upheaval, both candidates risk sounding off-message or even irrelevant, writes Adam Nagourney in the New York Times. Obama himself has refrained from attacks—but his campaign surrogates hit back with a 13-minute film about McCain's involvement in the Keating Five S&L scandal. Strategists from both parties, however, speculated that 2008 might be an exceptional year; as one Democrat said, "You’re not going to change the subject from the economy." Read These Next A former NFL Pro Bowler has died at age 36. The massive AWS failure exposed a big problem with the internet. A man ended up dead after trying to steal from Spirit Halloween. Marco Rubio struck a controversial deal with El Salvador. Report an error