Why would the Obama campaign not want to mention the "Keating Five"?

[Gregorian]

Richard Wolf on Olbermann mentioned that they probably wouldn't bring it up more than in a tangential way.

It seems crucial to me. But I'm not a campaign staff.

Does anyone have ideas on this?

[C_U_L8R]

1. better to hold it over their heads

and make em squirm like the rats they are

[Gregorian]

6. I suppose beating the public over the head with it isn't the right way to do it?

I mean, most people probably don't even recall the Keating Five.

It seems like now is the time to come out swinging. But I don't know boxing.

[blondeatlast]

10. Yep. Puts McCain completely on the defensive--and if the media goes with it, well,

what do we kmow about Andrew McCain and his ties to a failed S&L?

It was a brilliant move by the Obma camp.

[tblue]

2. I was just WAITING for Barack to bring it up in his speech today. It would be so easy.

The Repugs would've done it, if the shoe were on the other foot. That's for damn sure.

[RoccoR5955]

3. They don't want the geezer to blow a gasket...

One mention of the Keating five scandal, and he would blow his top. This has historically been the case with this issue and grandpa.

[anonymous171]

4. When McCain aired that stupid Ayers ad, Obama said that McCain was too busy living in the past

McCain would use that and attack Obama for having a double standard.

[Gregorian]

11. Oh. There's a thought.

This is the deepest I've gotten involved in a presidential contest. It's really intricate.

[Wetzelbill]

5. I think they are afraid it would look negative on Obama

to go that route. Then McCain would bring on some bullshit Ayers and Rezko stuff, but he has tried that to little effect so far.

I would expect some 527s to take care of it though. It allows a campaign to at least feign the high road.

[Gregorian]

13. Oh. The 527's. Good thinking.

And now I have to go figure out what Ayers and Rezko mean. I've seen the naames, but don't know.

[Wetzelbill]

25. Well that's why I get paid the big bucks... no I don't

Bill Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground, they blew up buildings and committed some radical activist acts in the 1960s etc. He is a professor at the University of Chicago now and served on a few nonprofit boards with Obama. They live in the same neighborhood and Ayers hosted an event for Obama once. That's about the extent of it, but since the Right freaks out over guilt by association they are trying to link Obama to Ayers as a way of radicalizing Obama. Typical stuff.

Tony Rezko is a real estate developer and has raised money for Obama in the past. He was indicted and convicted of getting kickbacks or something like that from businesses that wanted to do business in Illinois. He did once offer Obama a job, something like 18 years ago, but Obama turned it down. Anyway, Obama bought a house on the same day that Rezko's wife bought an adjoining lot to his property. Obama did get the house at a 300,000 dollar discount because it was the best offer that the agent received after several months. This again, was not attributed to Rezko, although RWers goofily try to make it sound like it was. Truth is, 300 grand on a 2 million dollar house (Obama payed a little over 1.6) isn't an overly huge discount and if it was the best offer, well that is that. Nothing there. Well later on, Obama wanted to make his yard bigger so he bought a strip of the Rezko property, paying more than what it was worth, to do so. That's about it. But Republican's being Republicans always try to make something out of nothing, like Whitewater, you know? Rezko was indicted at the time, but really what does that have to do with a guy trying to widen his yard? It's stupid.

[Gregorian]

28. Thank you for that.

No wonder I wasn't paying attention. I try to not waste my time on bs. But I continue to see how if we don't, we get pummeled by the opponent.

What a group. The authoritarians. And their followers.

[Wetzelbill]

30. no problem

You're welcome.

I try not to pay attention to that stuff, but I kept hearing about it so I decided to check it out and really there is nothing there. Republicans like to do that stuff, but then they don't want to hear anything about Charles Keating and how McCain flew on his jet and stayed in his mansions etc and how he helped finance McCain's rise to power. There is a lot to that one, that's for sure.

[Gregorian]

31. Rachel Maddow is discussing the Keating Five right now.

I think they've got McCain pegged as a Reagan economist. That's probably worse than even the Keating tag.

This is like a slow motion roller coaster ride.

[liberalmuse]

7. He has hinted at it...

with his comments on flying on lobbyists personal jets, etc.

[treestar]

8. It's complex and so the average voter might not get it

People shut down these days at anything that takes a lot of figuring out to understand.

[ContinentalOp]

9. They have to leave you SOMETHING to complain about.

:P

[blondeatlast]

12. ...

:spray:

It was a DAMN good day, judging by the deep concern on the boards! :rofl:

[Gregorian]

19. I'll be damned if I'm going to hear "nukular" for another presidential term.

I'm actually acquiring a crescendoing hatred for McCain that I didn't have before the last few days.

Just listening to Obama makes me anxious to do everything possible to ensure he's our next prez. It's truly inspiring.

[geekgrrl]

14. I was wondering the same thing-- I thought that McCain was cleared of wrong doing?

Not that he isn't guilty AS ALL HELL, but maybe that is why the campaign wouldn't want to bring it up?

But still... they could say something about him being associated with the Keating Five and that would work.

[geekgrrl]

16. from wikipedia: "McCain: cleared of impropriety but criticized for poor judgment"

Still sounds bad for him-- poor judgment goes to the character argument.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five#Glenn_and_McCain:_cleared_of_impropriety_but_criticized_for_poor_judgment

[Gregorian]

21. I'm lazy. I should have gone to Wiki first.

Thanks.

[geekgrrl]

17. dupe deleted nt

[maxsolomon]

15. saving it for the debates?

also, american people have a hard time remember that bush sucks, let alone what the keating 5 scandal was.

all they remember is: keating 5 gots electrolytes!

[BlueIdaho]

18. Can he say it without "saying it?"

John McCain's unfortunate knowledge of the savings and loan disaster in the 1980's...

Let others connect the dots?

[Gregorian]

22. I see. And maybe they have something even more damning waiting for him.

It would be very cool to get a week in the campaign headquarters. I'll bet it's like the Daily Show times ten.

[The Traveler]

20. As I recall, the other four were Democrats.

Alas, the Rethuglicans have no monopoly on corruption and malfeasance. We've had our assholes, too. We just get rid of them easier.

Trav

[Gregorian]

23. Uh oh. Good one. I think you have the winning answer there.

That's what Wolf was implying. I knew it was something.

They bring this up, and McCain slams them with Oh-it-was-80%-Dems-that-were-guilty. Death sentence.

So implication would be about as far as they can go with it.

Thanks!

[LooseWilly]

24. I think there's also the possibility that it gives McCain the chance explain

that he's now "reformed". It might allow McCain to re-start his whole Ethics Reborn story.

And what the hell?, anyone capable of following the story will hear about and learn about it. I would hope.

[Gregorian]

26. Oh. I follow that.

This is pretty interesting thinking.

I'm afraid I'm turning into a geek. No. Someone told me once that I think too much. From what I see, most people don't think enough.

Right on. Thanks.

[Dbdmjs1022]

27. It's simple. Maximum Impact. Hit it with McCain 2 weeks before the election, instead of 2 months.

[Gregorian]

29. Thereby not giving him enough time to recover, I presume.

Man, I'm glad I asked. This is really interesting stuff. Just a silly question. I want to be in those campaign headquarters for a week. That would be cool.

[Cha]

32. Joe Klein mentioned it in an article the other

day on DU..it was great!

grantcart (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-15-08 06:50 PM
Original message

Joe Klein: McCain knows as much about the economy as Palin knows about the Bush doctrine
In a extremely hard hitting editorial Joe Klein came with both guns blazing in one of the hardest hitting editorials in the MSM


http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/09/their_brand_...

September 15, 2008 10:36

Their Brand is Collapse

Posted by Joe Klein |

clip

This has been the long-standing Republican bait and switch--scaring small businesses with the threat of new regulations if the Democrats win, commiserating with larger businesses about the evils of environmental and plant safety rules, while lifting as many regulations as possible governing the financial titans whose credit should be at the heart of new economic development. But that hasn't been happening: the financial titans have been going for the quick buck rather than the sound one. Money and creativity have been redirected during the Reagan-Bush era away from substantive loans to real businesses into a Ponzi scheme of borrowing by investment bankers, so they could engage in the most irresponsible, if lucrative (for them) speculative lending imaginable...In this sense, the mortgage crisis was a perfect metaphor for Republican financial governance: Investment banks like Lehman--R.I.P.--took loans to invest money in...bad loans. In this case, the loans were bad mortgages. This is called throwing good money after bad.

Actually, John McCain has excellent experience--a ringside seat--in the vagaries of this experiment in greed and anarchy. He was a member of the Keating Five. This was the signature scandal of the Savings and Loan crisis, twenty years ago. It concerned the insider help that five Senators gave Charles Keating and his Lincoln Savings and Loan, in return for contributions and gifts. The deregulation of S&Ls--community banks dedicated to local mortgages (like George Bailey's bank in "It's A Wonderful Life")--enabled slick operators like Keating to make reckless loans in new areas where they had no expertise. The final tab to the taxpayers was $165 billion.

McCain wasn't the worst offender in the scandal. He was included in the Five to make it bipartisan (the other four were Democrats). But he knew Keating, partied with him, made inquiries on his behalf. He once told me that his role in the scandal was harder on him, in some ways, than being a prisoner of war "Because my honor was called into question."

After an experience like that, you might think Senator Honorable would have devoted himself to preventing other such crises--to making sure the Big Wall Street Casino was operating according to rules that wouldn't screw the small investors and, more to the point, the taxpayers. But he walked the anti-regulatory party line, with only occasional exceptions...and tried to lay down a smokescreen of righteousness by campaigning against small potatos like legislative earmarks--money to study the mating habits of, uh, crabs, in, uh, Alaska (proposed by Governor Honorable).

clip

John McCain, after his political near-death experience, could have made the responsible regulation of markets one of his great causes. He didn't. And today he said, once again, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." I hope he's right, but it's entirely possible that he knows as much about our economy as Sarah Palin knows about The Bush Doctrine.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7078579

[Gregorian]

33. McCain continues down the same failed path.

I love that last quote. I heard it on Rachel's show just as I was reading it on this post.

Good. I think there is enough peripheral discussion, that Obama won't even have to open his mouth on the subject. Yet.

I think the thing to hammer on is that McCain just keeps failing. Again and again.

Thanks for that!

[Cha]

35. You're Welcome and who's to

say ObamaBiden won't have to come out with it at some point?

It's only freakin' September!

[Gregorian]

36. Is political addiction a neurosis? Hmmmmmmmmmm.

I feel so guilty.

:)

[Cha]

38. This is Quick! Check this out by ProSense..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7091200

[budkin]

34. Because McCain was exonerated

It would just look bad probably, even though I think he should.

[Cha]

37. How was he exonerated?

Do you have a link, please?