I love the smell of freshly-napalmed Republican Presidential Candidate in the morning, the wafting aroma of Truth, seasoned with just a drizzle of high-octane blend and a few sprinkles of Styrofoam, should remind Herr McCain of his glory days, when he used to ruin people's lives by bomb-bomb-bombing them....

I think it's pretty clear that the Obama campaign has had this waiting in the wings for a while. So while many Dems and progressives wondered why he wasn't bringing this up, the Obama campaign was carefully crafting the attack and waiting for the moment to spring the trap.

Once again, the Obama camp shows they have a significant strategic advantage over McCain's erratic tactical maneuvers.

Or we could call it, "Guilt by gilt."

Ayers/Rezko/Wright is a knife.
Keating 5 is a gun.
And THAT'S the Chicago Way.

Do you get the feeling the Rovettes are out of their league?

So long as this remains a move to expose McCain's policy toward the "greed, corruption, and excess" of Wall Street, then it could work. If it becomes a smear, then I think it could backfire.

But Obama is smarter than that, I think. Hopefully he can use this to prove that John McCain did not learn from the past, and his current populist message about regulation is all hot air.

McCain's more recent involvement in the gaming industry and indian casinos is perhaps more damning. There is ample evidence that during attempts to regulate and control the spread of off reservation indian casinos, McCain made sure that in some cases the rules were modified and exemptions and loopholes created to help some of his long time friends.

McCain has a very checkered past when it comes to the application of principle and integrity. He wanted the image of riding on the high horse while he quietly and secretly kept a quick release cinch on the saddle and rode with very loose reins.

Anyone think it's a coincidence that camp Obama chose to spring this two days before one of the debates? I don't, even though it was McCain's intellectually challenged running mate who gave them the excuse they needed to do it. I'd be willing to bet it's part of a "McCain Meltdown" strategy...you just know he's gonna show up at this next debate ready to blow.

In the last post Hilzoy mentioned McCain's felon father-in-law, who financed his start in politics. Normally I would think something like that would be off-limits, since it's his wife's father...but certainly it isn't if McCain is going to continue running with the story that a terrorist gave Obama his start in politics. As scary as Ayers may be to old people who still care about the 1960s, he was never convicted of any crime - unlike McCain's political mentor who was a lot more involved in McCain's start in politics than just holding a "meet-n-greet" for him.

Hopefully before all is said and done we'll also hear about Caribou Barbie's tax evasion, where she didn't report or pay taxes on $17,000 in per diem payments. Normally those payments wouldn't be taxable because they would be used to cover business expenses, but in this case, everyone already knows they weren't used for that. Which makes them fully taxable "income supplements". I hope someone has already contacted the IRS tip line and asked them to look into this.

Given recent events, McCain's ethics scandal is entirely relevant on a purely substantive level. As Josh Marshall recently put it, "Let's face it. On major economy-imperiling financial scandals brought about by lax regulation and help from lobbyist-encrusted politicians, McCain really is the candidate of experience."

That should be the main point of this campaign. It's not just that John McCain's proposals are dangerous, it's that the entire Republican governing philosophy is dangerous and has now been proven to be bad for the country.

McCain and Palin are offering vague promises about ending "corruption and greed" on Wall Street and "excessive government spending". Until they offer some specific proposals, then it's all nothing buy hot air.

>McCain really is the candidate of experience

Yes, and beyond the sleaze here is the basic fact that he continues to believe in this lassize-fairy shit.

McCain's problem is he has had many and varied "experiences" throughout what is certainly a very intersting life, and he has apparently learned jack from any of them.

How many planes did he crash?

Yes - McCain is being out classed - AGAIN. Keating is completely relevant to the main issue of how the economy tanked and did McCain show bad judgment economically and did he continue to have bad judgment all the way to today. Oops! This is not tit for tat as the media might be playing it up. This is keeping the focus on McCain's economic judgment (or lack there of).

The debates should be informative as to how this is playing out - when people get to ask the questions (I think). It's going to be a lot easier for Obama to quickly explain Ayers - than McCain to explain his involvement in Keating.

This idea of not bringing up the Keating Five mess is just more of this "fair and balanced" idea that has become all the rage with journalists these days. McCain has a right, I suppose, to raise questions and eyebrows about Obama's "associations". So we have Obama on one hand, who was on some school board with an aging retired vandal, then we have McCain who was chastised by the US Senate and barely escaped criminal charges in an enormous financial scam that cost taxpayers millions. I'm willing to let the public weigh the charges.

If it becomes a smear, then I think it could backfire.

How could Keating 5 become a smear? It's the freaking truth!

Let's not overlook the fact that a verdict of "poor judgment" by a congressional ethics committee is the equivalent of a 5.0 diving score at a home meet.

There is nothing like the joy of watching a bully in full retreat after his nose has been really bloodied.

Obama didn't help Ayers blow up anything, but McCain helped Keating blow up our economy.

Obama was clearly willing to lay off the Keating 5 if McCain didn't resort to sleaze like this, but he did.
So you get what we've got here today, which is the way he wants it. Well, he's gets it.
That was my lame attempt at a Cool Hand Luke/Paul Newman tribute.

This guilt by association reminds me of a recent Simpson episode, where they had a campaign ad against a politician who had a story about him in the same issue of the NYT as one about an islamic terrorist.
"And you shall know them by the company they keep." LOL

You can play guilt by association forever. No one's buying McCain's attacks this time around.

Obama should use the Keating 5 story -- and is -- not because it is a 'returned mudball' but because it directly relevant to re-regulation and corruption. (I wish that Obama was including the other deregulation scandals, Penn Square Bank, Long Term Capital Management, and Enron as well -- admitting that the Democrats bear some responsibility for following the Reagan-Gramm-McCain Pied Piper.)

As for the 'father-in-law' story, that one shouldn't be brought out publicly, but reporters should be reminded of the name "Don Bolles" -- the reporter executed almost certainly on the orders of Jim "Role Model" Hensley's gangland partner, Kemper Marley, who set him up in the beer business -- though it only thrived under Cindy's management. Reporters are like cops, they really don't like one of their own murdered. (Not relevant at all, just interesting. Hensley was a 'role model' in another way. When he returned from the War (WWII) he divorced his wife, who'd been waiting for him, and married another woman).

Have to say I am apprehensive about this ad - and very amused by the conceit that McCain's attack ads are "smears" while Obama's attack ads are merely an opportunity for the press to show "balance." How selfless!

“I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell.” -- Harry S. Truman

Minor note: There's a javascript bug on the 'keatingeconomics.com' website which is causing Safari 4 to crash. Until that's fixed, the site doesn't exist for me.