Obama says voters tired of 'slash-and-burn' politics

Barack Obama, seeking to rebound from what many commentators saw as an uneven debate performance, told supporters in North Carolina this afternoon that he is convinced that Americans are sick and tired of the kinds of issues that dominated the forum.

During the Wednesday night debate in Philadelphia, Obama was battered by questions about his ties to his former pastor, to a former leader of a violent 1970s radical group, his comments about bitter small-town voters who cling to God or guns, and why he doesn't wear a flag lapel pin.

At a town hall meeting in Raleigh, N.C., Obama argued that it was 45 minutes before any substantive issues came up in the debate. He said the voters he has met are "desperate to solve real problems," such as how to deal with home mortgages, college costs, jobs, and the Iraq war.

"Those are the questions the American people are asking," he said. "That's the debate the American people want."

Americans, he said, do not want "say anything, do anything, anything goes, slash-and-burn politics."

But this election, voters will not be confused by "bamboozling" or "hoodwinking," Obama said, as the crowd applauded.