A report this morning indicates that Barack Obama will join John McCain in a final month of below-the-belt campaigning.
Politico's Mike Allen is reporting that the Obama campaign will launch a multimedia campaign reminding voters of McCain's role in the Keating Five savings and loan scandal of 1989-91, in which McCain lobbied the government on behalf of friend and S&L kingpin Charles Keating.
The Obama campaign will attempt to justify the attack by linking Keating to the current economic crisis, even trotting out a former bank regulator to say that the Keating scandal involved all the elements that led to recent Wall Street events. It's a tenuous connection at best.
The Obama camp is swinging back at McCain for a weekend of smears, including Sarah Palin accusing Obama of "palling around" with 1960s radical William Ayers, who helped found Weathermen, a group responsible for domestic bombings.
The only Ayers/Obama connection any mainstream organization - including Fox News - has found is that Ayers once hosted a coffee for a young Obama's new state legislative campaign, and that the two served for three years on the same charitable board. Far, certainly, from palling around.
Make no mistake - the Obama campaign has been very willing to stretch the truth in its own harsh advertising, including this weekend, when it answered the Ayers attack by calling McCain erratic in crisis. "Erratic," a nod to McCain's political response to the bailout legislation, is as fabricated a narrative as Obama-Ayers, woven from threads of fear and unsubstantiated supposition.
Now, it appears, more is on the way from both campaigns. Can Obama convince voters that the Keating attacks are about the economy he says McCain is ignoring? Or is he moving the conversation to a place he has no political advantage?
Tell us your thoughts here or in the forum of our Politics page.
Your morning buzz:
Sarah Palin tells conservative New York Times columnist William Kristol that her boss should "take the gloves off."
As voter registration ends in many states, Obama seems ready to benefit most from a wave of newcomers, the Washington Post reports.
The GOP is asking for an audit of Obama campaign funds, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Former Clinton campaign honcho Howard Wolfson says Ayers can't save McCain - the campaign is over.
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32 comments:
The economy is making October an ugly moth anyway. I'm glad Sen. Obama is focusing attention on the economy and highlighting that this is not Sen. McCain's area of expertise. I trust Sen. Obama to make the right decisions on the economy.
7 years of CAC, featured lecturer at seminar organized by Michelle Obama along with Barack Obama. Hardly what you portray it as, and probably much deeper hence the obstruction.
McCain's very shady involvement in Keating 5 is SO relevant right now. Essentially same story, different day, and McCain clearly learned nothing from that crisis/scandal if just a few months ago he was pushing for more deregulation of the banking industry and said the economy is fine.
The fact that McCain has NO clue and is out of touch should scare the pants off every voter.
Obama is assembling the same economic advisors Clinton used to shore up the US economy in the early 90s. We can expect REAL work on our economy...and hopefully a recovery. McCain's entire answer to this crisis is more tax cuts for the wealthy...which have done NOTHING for us.
So let me get this straight. I don't have to do ANYTHING while the economy crumbles? No plan? No action? I don't even have to encourage anyone? SWEET, I am going to go take a nap while the country crumbles and my numbers keep going up.
Don't look to me for leadership since I'm the Messiah!!! Michelle and I can finally be proud of this wonderful country.
The candidates' histories are important, buy it's hard for them to speak half-truths without looking like liars and mudslingers.
I am sick to death already of the smears. McCain's attempt to paint Obama as a "terrorist" is beyond absurd... does any impartial person actually believe that a presidential candidate is working for the downfall of the country he is supposed to lead? Now Obama's starting the counterattack... I thought these candidates promised to change the tone of our political process?
Meanwhile the Dow drops below 10,000 and you have to wait 20 minutes to get a tank of gas, yet the news networks have nonstop coverage of mudslinging. Great.
Funny how shining light on Obama's ties with terrorist Ayers is "below the belt." Perhaps the reason the McCain/Palin campaign has to do the job of exposing Obama's record is because the media has failed to do its job.
"I think that when people support you it doesn't mean that you support everything they say. Obviously those words and those statements are statements that none of us would associate ourselves with, and I don't believe that Sen. Obama would support any of those." -John McCain, before he fell behind in the polls.
Politics is a dirty business for filthy dirty pigs only. Who else would get into politics except for the filthiest of pigs anyway? Politics is the most dirty business on the planet and you are talking the top slot most powerful job on earth. Nothing else comes close except for Wall St.
Airing dirty laundry is a must. There must be no stone unturned and no scab unremoved. Forget the nicities fluff glossings over or putting the lipstick on the pig. The pig has to be examined with a microscope and roasted.
The feint of heart need not apply. Only the scumiest of scumbags must venture into the snake pit to be with their fellow snakes.
Washington DC is truely the worlds #1 snakepit for the scumbag lying dirty dealing politicans and their lobbiests or other cronie slime. Trillions are at stake and every elite filthy fat rat in America is feeding to his or her fill.
We need to hear more about Obamas Sinclair affair involving drugs and homosexuality. We need to harp again on Rev "god damn America" Wright and his Sunday AM Chicago terrorist training camp. We need to hear more about his association with Rev Farakhan and the Muslim crowd since Chicago is the bastion and birthplace of the radical Black Muslims and with red clay born Georgian Wallace Poole aka Elijah Muhammed since 1934 when he founded them and was referred to as the messiah.
What association did Obama have with the Black Muslims and its current leader Farakhan and what about the black separatist Trinity Church he attended for 20 yrs?
Many questions needs answering before Obama gets control of the worlds most powerful military and 500 trillion assets of America.
What are Obamas thoughts in reparations as if trillions havent already been paid since 1865 including the latest subprime caper?
We also need to hear more about McCains association with Bush and the neocons and how he spilled the beans in Nam that was partly the reason for America losing. Allegedly he was tortured or was he? Why are there so many different accounts of his capture and time the Hanoi Hilton where many accured him of being a sell out a traitor and treason? Why is he good friends even now with his red Cong captors? What is he hiding?
Maybe America has 2 dirty rats to vote for and neither is worthy all the while we have Goldman Sachs running the US Treasury with 700 billion tax dollars in his pocket.
Which filty animal can be trusted as the current rat eating snake exits Jan 20th 09?
So Obama lies and says he wouldnt have voted for Bushs ill concieved hasty Iraq war yet he immediately gave him another 700 billion without an hint of a fight?
Will both Obama and McCain both be a 3rd term for the war criminal liar peeping tom spyer all time spendthrift waster?
humm...
Dumb and Dumber?
Tweedle dee and tweedle dumb?
Demolican or Republicrat? or stay home?
Tough choice.
One has to wonder about your inference that only John McCain has been campaigning "below the belt."
The reason is clear: Obama hasn't had to-- the media's been doing his dirty work for him, quite voluntarily.
Look at the bright side, St. Onge: no one will ever be able to accuse the media of impartiality, will they?
Anon, 11:28: No inference at all that it's one-sided. See this paragraph:
"Make no mistake - the Obama campaign has been very willing to stretch the truth in its own harsh advertising, including this weekend, when it answered the Ayers attack by calling McCain erratic in crisis. "Erratic," a nod to McCain's political response to the bailout legislation, is as fabricated a narrative as Obama-Ayers, woven from threads of fear and unsubstantiated supposition."
St. Onge: 11:28, here.
Your opening paragraph:
"A report this morning indicates that Barack Obama will JOIN John McCain in a final month of below-the-belt campaigning."
The upper-case emphasis on "join" is my own-- and where, I believe, it infers your conclusions about McCain's campaign thus far at the very start of your blog entry.
I am an old man of 70 and will have to admit that this years election campaign has been the worse of my life. We really don't have a decent choice for President. Obama is not worthy of the office and McCain is but his age is a concern. The mud slinging is terrible but my concern is the hatred brewing among the voters. Many don't want to hear anything about the other side regardless of which side they are on and the sneers and hatred is becoming too much and to the point that folks are afraid to put a campaign sign in the yard or even mention they preference out loud. The hatred is really going to hurt us.
Understood. The "join" is in reference to the rest of the sentence - final month below-the-belt campaigning. I hope the entire post is clear that both campaigns are guilty.
'Tis now. Thanks for the clarification.
Good -- I hope Obama does swing back. John Kerry didn't swing back at the Swift Boaters -- whose accusations were completely unfounded and unsubstantiated -- and lost by a 2% margin. Taht means at least 2% of voters fall for this junk.
So, for every Bill Ayers, you get a Charles Keating. For every Jeremiah Wright, you get an African witch doctor. For every "don't forget he's black," you get a "don't forget he's old."
Tit-for-tat. If foolish voters hadn't fallen for it four years ago, maybe we wouldn't have to go through it now; but obviously it works, so off we go.
It's about time the Democrats fight back. The Republicans have played dirty in EVERY single election that I've been a witness of. Or have all of you forgotten these last 2 elections? The ONLY reason Bush won was by playing dirty.
I wish that both parties could just focus on issues and not bring up whatever happened in the past.........but if McCain is going to mudsling then Obama must hit back. Enough of the bullying by the Republicans.
John Kerry couldn't swing back at the Swiftboaters because they were right.
McCain has been slinging mud and telling already discredited lies over and over for months.
He has no grounds to cry foul when someone fights back.
I agree-- as long as whoever's fighting is fighting fair.
Which isn't the case with Obama-- because it's mainly the media doing his fighting for him.
A two-pronged attack isn't fair.
But the MSM and the ultra left-wingers want Obama in there at ALL costs-- it's the only path to their goal of a socialist government.
The biggest problem I see is that McCain has been in "Hail Mary" mode for months and has nothing to lose.
If he commits libel and loses, so what? He was going to lose anyway.
If he commits libel and wins, great for him... he steals an election he was supposed to lose.
Obama is in the opposite situation -- he's won so far by playing fair, but now McCain has sullied the waters. Obama either condescends to these antics, or risks throwing away the election like Kerry did.
This is why our country is in such a poor state... the talk-radio media, FOX News, Karl Rove, etc have made it impossible to run a clean campaign.
"I agree-- as long as whoever's fighting is fighting fair.
Which isn't the case with Obama-- because it's mainly the media doing his fighting for him."
Fox "News" coordinated an hour-long primetime special accusing Obama of being a terrorist, with Palin's accusations yesterday morning using the same talking points. There has been no Obama equivalent to this kind of direct collaboration with a major media outlet.
Anon 12:46? You're going to use the one media outlet who isn't buying into Obama's messianic complex as an example?
>>YAWN<<
Show me your other examples of what CNN, MSNBC or ABC, etc. have done to show Obama in "real" light-- as opposed to the rock-star glow.
"You're going to use the one media outlet who isn't buying into Obama's messianic complex as an example?"
Again... Fox "News" COORDINATED with the McCain campaign to release their primetime special on the same day Palin was trying to make tabloid headlines with the Ayers connection. That's COLLABORATION, not news reporting. Fox makes money (ratings), Palin tries to steal the Presidency. It's a sick perversion of the democratic process.
"Show me your other examples of what CNN, MSNBC or ABC, etc. have done to show Obama in "real" light-- as opposed to the rock-star glow."
How about YOU provide a single example of any other news outlet collaborating with Obama to release a smear-cumentary about McCain on the same day Obama makes an outrageous statement accusing McCain of being a terrorist sympathizer.
Don't try to spin this one -- it's clearer than ever that the Republicans have just as much control over the media as anyone.
If you seriously think that Republicans are getting fair shake by the media, you need to lay off the blue kool-aid. Seriously.
You remind me of that codePink woman who told me last year that Jane Fonda never even went to Vietnam, that it was all a staged right-wing media event.
She thought all the media was right wing, too.
Anybody heard a left-wing radio talk show lately?
Anybody seen a major network broadcasting a "documentary" accusing McCain of being a terrorist?
The myth of liberal-media bias is nothing more than a talking point. Conservative figures spend billions per year on lobbying and outright manipulation of media outlets.
Anon 4:08?
Methinks you're still bitter about the "Obsession" DVD.
That's no indication that there is conservative bias in the media. It's an indication that media is a business.
Get over it.
Everytime you see McCain or Palin on the news they are slamming Obama. Not one word about what they will do to help this country. If the Obama campaign brings up Keating it is only because they must strike back. John Kerry lost in 2004 because he let the Swift Boat politics kill his campaign.
Laura?
The "Swifties" were right, and John Kerry couldn't stand up to the scrutiny for a reason.
Something I've never understood about Kerry?
Why he chose to take a 8mm camera to Vietnam with him, and tape the things he did... it is beyond me-- it reeks of ulterior motive. Kerry lost in 2004 because he deserved to.
In this American's opinion, he's nothing more than an ineffectual, traitorous sell-out.
"what they would do to help this country." Keeping Obama out of the White House is a good start.
For those who continue to give Bill Clinton credit for the boom of the 90's, remember he presided over the economic boom, he didn't create it. The best move he made was to re-appoint a Reagan appointee, Alan Greenspan to Chair the Fed.
Sen. Obama's plan as he stated last night is to put taxes back to their previous levels for corporations and for people who make over 250k per year. Brilliant, put the squeeze on the very people who can actually create a job.
Who do you think will pay that higher tax bill for the people making over 250? Not anyone that earns it from selling goods - they will pass the cost back onto us in higher prices.
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