Obama Hits McCain With Keating Five Video as Exchanges Heat Up
By Julianna Goldman and Hans Nichols
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Democrat Barack Obama, after attacks on his character and past associations from John McCain's campaign, is hitting back by highlighting the Republican candidate's ties to the ``Keating Five'' savings-and-loan scandal in the 1980s.
The two campaigns exchanged increasingly personal attacks leading up to tomorrow's night's debate. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin hit Obama for his association with a former member of the Weather Underground radical group, and McCain derided him as ``a Chicago politician.''
Obama accused McCain of trying to avoid talking about the U.S. economic crisis as his campaign launched a Web site highlighting the Arizona senator's link to former savings-and- loan executive Charles Keating in the 1980s savings-and-loan industry collapse.
``The McCain campaign has tried to avoid talking about the scandal, but with so many parallels to the current crisis, McCain's Keating history is relevant and voters deserve to know the facts -- and see for themselves the pattern of poor judgment by John McCain,'' David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, wrote in an e-mail to supporters last night.
With less than a month before Election Day and Obama's poll numbers rising amid the financial meltdown, both sides are seeking leverage in the political debate. The Democratic presidential candidate is trying to draw parallels between the current market turmoil and McCain's role in the savings-and-loan crisis. McCain's campaign, meanwhile, is focusing on raising questions about Obama's character.
Palin Attacks
Today and over the weekend, Palin repeatedly linked Obama with Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground, which carried out a series of bombings to protest the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Obama, who once served on a charity board with Ayers, has denounced the bombings.
Obama ``is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country,'' Palin, 44, told donors at a fundraiser Oct. 4 in Costa Mesa, California. ``This, ladies and gentleman, is not the kind of change that I think we should be believing in.''
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, today McCain said Obama ``will try to distract you from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate questions he has been asked.''
Obama Attacks
He said Obama hasn't led any effort since he was elected to the Senate in 2006 to tighten regulations on the mortgage market that might have prevented the current financial crisis.
``Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in,'' said McCain, 72.
``All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama?'' McCain said to cheers from his audience.
In response to Palin's attacks over the weekend, Obama's campaign directed supporters to a Web site set up by the campaign, keatingeconomics.com. It features a 13-minute documentary called ``Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis'' produced by the campaign.
Obama today refused to answer reporters' questions about the Web site.
``I cannot imagine anything more important to talk about than the economic crisis and the notion that we'd want to brush that aside and engage in the usual political shenanigans and scare tactics that have come to characterize too many political campaigns, I think is not what the American people are looking for,'' Obama, 47, said in Asheville, North Carolina.
Strategy
The strategy of invoking the Keating Five scandal may prove risky, as Obama's candidacy has been built around a message of hope with the promise of a different kind of politics.
The documentary begins with a discussion of the word ``fraud'' followed by images of McCain being sworn in during the hearings. It connects Keating to modern scandals such as those involving Enron Corp. and Freddie Mac.
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responded by saying, ``The difference here is clear: John McCain has been open and honest about the Keating matter, and even the Democratic special counsel in charge recommended that Senator McCain be completely exonerated.''
``By contrast, Barack Obama has been fundamentally dishonest about his friendship and work with the unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, whose radical group bombed the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.''
The so-called Keating Five scandal involved McCain, who was in his first term in the Senate representing Arizona, and four Democratic senators, none of whom are still in office. They faced accusations of improperly intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Keating, a former savings-and-loan executive, an Arizona businessman and campaign contributor.
The Senate Ethics Committee ultimately found that McCain had ``exercised poor judgment'' and cleared him of wrongdoing. |
