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HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - John McCain and Barack Obama clashed sharply in their third and last presidential debate, as McCain tried to paint his rival as insensitive to "Joe the Plumber" and too willing to associate himself with unsavory influences, while Obama charged that McCain was waging an ugly, divisive campaign.

McCain, trailing well behind the Democratic nominee in most national polls, was the aggressor, insisting that Ohio plumber Joe Wurzelbacher would pay more taxes under a President Obama. And, McCain said, Obama was reluctant to repudiate an inflammatory statement by Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., or voter registration tactics of community group ACORN.

Obama fought back gently but firmly, insisting that his Republican rival was too often ignoring the nation's economic issues and running an ugly campaign.

"One hundred percent of your ads, John ... 100 percent of them have been negative," he said.

"That's not true," McCain replied.

"A hundred ... it absolutely is true," Obama insisted.

McCain's recent ads have been negative. Obama has offered a mix of positive and negative.

Obama also repeatedly charged that McCain would simply continue the "failed" economic policies of President Bush.

"Senator Obama, I am not President Bush," an annoyed McCain said. "If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago."

That comment early in the 90-minute debate at Hofstra University set the tone for the evening.

McCain recalled how Lewis, a veteran of the 1960s civil rights movement, compared the Republican campaign's tone to segregationist George Wallace, the former Alabama governor and presidential candidate.

Lewis last week said he was "deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign. What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Senator McCain and Governor (Sarah) Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse," Lewis said.

McCain was outraged at the comments. "That to me was so hurtful," he said.

"And Senator Obama, you didn't repudiate those remarks."

In fact, Obama's campaign did repudiate Lewis's comments shortly after they were made: "Senator Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies. But John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night," Obama's campaign said in a statement at the time.

In his initial response to McCain, Obama didn't repudiate Lewis, but rather recalled reports suggesting that people in campaign crowds were calling Obama a terrorist or threatening to kill him. After more prodding from McCain, Obama called Lewis' comments inappropriate, and fought back with a broader point: "The American people have become so cynical about our politics, because all they see is a tit for tat and back and forth."

McCain wouldn't let up.

"The point is that I have repudiated every time someone has been out of line, whether they've been part of my campaign or not," he said, "And I will continue to do that. But the fact is that we need to absolutely not stand for the kind of things that have been going on. I haven't."

McCain went on to other ways of trying to raise questions about Obama, citing ACORN, or Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The group, long a target of Republican ire, helps register lower income and minority voters. It's been criticized recently for submitting false voter-registration names and is under investigation in 11 states.

"We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama's relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy," McCain said.

Obama reiterated that ACORN is not advising his campaign. ACORN's efforts, he said, "had nothing to do with us. We were not involved."

Obama was ready for questions regarding William Ayers, the Vietnam war-era radical who's been the subject of McCain campaign criticism.

Obama explained that their relationship was slight and insisted: "Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign. He has never been involved in this campaign. And he will not advise me in the White House. So that's Mr. Ayers."

With the election in less than three weeks, the debate season is over, and there are no more high-profile opportunities that can guarantee McCain an audience of tens of millions of people.

Flush with cash, Obama has bought 30-minute blocks of prime-time advertising six days before the election. McCain may not be able to afford the same.

Over the next 20 days, both candidates will go after the voters who say they could still change their minds. There are a lot of them - about one-third of all voters - but McCain has to win many more than Obama. Not only is he behind in the polls, but the base of all-but-certain Republican voters is smaller than Obama's Democratic foundation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report