John McCain and the Keating Five

So the pitbull with lipstick's gone on the attack against Obama. Silly girl.

Seems as though the Obama campaign has been waiting for the game to get really dirty in the final month before the election. And seeing as the McCain campaign has nothing positive to say, and no decent policies to endorse, I guess it's inevitable that they would eventually head right on down into the gutter.

During the first debate, McCain said that Obama didn't understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy. I think it's McCain who doesn't get it. I think Obama's strategy has been to keep to the high road for as long as possible, but to make all the preparations necessary to fight back, should the need arise.

It's pretty obvious that The Grumpy Old Man and Caribou Barbie would bring Bill Ayers up again at some point. I guess they think that trying to make a connection between Ayers and Obama might be a winning move. Never mind that Barack Obama was eight years old when Bill Ayers was a radical.

I'm guessing that the Obama team has been working on their fight-back for some time now, considering the quality of what they've come up with. A thirteen-minute documentary on McCain and the Keating Five, together with a comprehensive website - Keating Economics: The Making of a Financial Crisis.



The old saying "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" would seem to be appropriate when considering Palin's attacks on Obama over the past few days. John McCain and Sarah Palin are hardly innocents, after all. McCain has the Keating Five, and Sarah has Troopergate. Wonder what's going to come out of that? Oh, and we mustn't forget Sarah and Todd Palin's membership of the Alaskan Independence Party. How unAmerican!



I feel sad for the people of America that the McCain campaign is so determined to dish the dirt, and so determined not to discuss issues of real importance to real people's lives. I feel sad that Obama has been forced to go negative in response. I'm sure he would much rather not have had to do so. He's done a great job on sticking to the issues thus far, and I think he'll continue to do so to a large extent.

The Obama campaign understands the internet, they understand about viral videos on YouTube, they understand the power of the blogosphere to spread the word. I'm hoping that they will not have to focus too much on the Ayers thing vs the Keating Five/AIP thing, but just let the documentary and the website do their talking for them, while they carry on talking about the real issues facing America.

I think it's enormously significant that, up until now, Obama has not mentioned the Keating Five at all. And there have been plenty of opportunities. I figure he must have accepted that he might have to bring it up, but planned to do so only if he was subjected to extreme provocation - such as the McCain campaign dragging up Ayers again.

A desperate tactic such as letting Palin play attack dog may score a few points in the short term, but I think Obama's longer-term strategy of sticking to the issues and only fighting back if you really have to is a much better way to do business. After the Swift-boating of John Kerry by Rove et al in 2004 I think it was clear to the Obama campaign that they might have to get the gloves off at some point, and I'm glad they're doing so, but I just hope they don't have to get too mired in it.

Oh - and Sarah? I wouldn't recommend you try bringing up Reverend Wright either - I guarantee they'll hit you with your own crazy witchcraft-fighting, anti-Semitic pastor. You gotta believe they have something already prepared on him.

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