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The Keating Five

You kind of wonder why the McCain Palin gang waited so long to overtly go after Obama for being anti-American? In defending Palin’s recent comments about Obama “not being one of us”, McCain Palin surrogate Heather Wilson (R-NM) yesterday accused Obama of going to Germany to speak poorly about America. She claimed that

[Obama has] been critical not only of the president, but of American policy and hence of a–has kind of a negative view of America in the world. That’s not unusual, frankly, among liberals in kind of post-Vietnam America to say that America’s the problem. I think Sarah Palin believes that America is part of the solution. We are an exceptional country, we are a force for good.

Of course, these allegations are not only absurd, they could also be used against John McCain or Sarah Palin. McCain has very openly defamed the U.S. government as corrupt. Isn’t that “talking down America”? Didn’t Palin say in the debate, “Patriotic is saying, government, you know, you’re not always the solution”? Furthermore, any American who lives abroad witnesses on a daily basis how Obama is regaining the world’s confidence in our nation. Ironically, only in America could that be painted as unpatriotic.

The fact of the matter is that the McCain camp has feared retaliation. (Notice McCain hasn’t brought up Reverend Wright yet, most likely because McCain is on record earlier this year specifically denouncing the use of Wright against Obama). McCain and his boys have something they’re hoping the American people won’t remember.

So far the Obama campaign has ignored Todd Palin’s secessionist past or Palin having addressed the Alaskan separatist party’s convention, for the Palin’s are small fish to fry. It’s better to ignore them than acknowledge them. But now it appears that the Obama campaign is finally going to bring up McCain’s past ethics scandal, the Keating Five.  In 1989, John McCain together with four other Congressman were prosecuted for their alleged activities in relation to the Savings and Loans financial crisis. Although not convicted, McCain was formally reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee for his “poor judgment”.

Poor judgment and dubious friends in a financial crisis is not something McCain wants remembered. Too late, the Obama team are now fighting back with a documentary called “Keating Economics“. In a financial crisis, McCain — with his deregulation buddy Phil Gramm — is more likely to lose the guilt by association argument.

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Filed under Essays, Obama 08