McCain, Obama camps trade barbs on negative ads

The Keating 5 is old news - McCain was cleared of any wrongdoing.  Ayers is a terrorist and still an associate of Obama.  Obama's friends and associates include the most liberal and some of the most questionable characters in the land...not to mention that he's willing to talk to terrorists w/out preconditions.

And Ayers is fresh news ? Did Obama conspire with Ayers to overthrow government ????!!!

Just because they worked on an anti-poverty program that was openly public and worked in the same university ? I wonder how a conspiracy theory could brew in a university !

Whats clear is that McCain and the dog Palin will say anything to try to change the race. The problem is, its NOT working. Obama is still leading.You cant fool the public all of the time.

Voters are THINKING this time. More mudslinging turns off voters. ITS NOT WORKING. McCain and the dog Palin are DEAD WRONG.

ilmor: His wife Cindy and her father made money off of Keating. And I wish there would be more discussion of Liddy.

McCain is a fool to open up this road.

Dragonwoman....agree.    what a fool of McCain when his backyard is full of dirt and Palin followed instructions as she is brain dead herself.Didnt they know it was gonna backfire on McCains controversial transactions in the past ? or perhaps we are thinking that they are capable of thinking. So far, hell NO !

Keating5 might have been "over" but it's sure not going to be "over' NOW.

I defended McCain and worked hard for him in 2000, pointing out many times that he was found guilty of "nothing but bad judgment" for his taking advantage of Keating's generosity, vacationing in his home in the Bahamas many times, and attending regulartor meetings at Keating's request.

Now that "Bad judgment" he showed in the late 1980s continued with his deregulation obsession as McCain supported even MORE policies that favor guys like Keating.

Thanks for taking off the heels, Sarah Palin. That meas WE can take out the jack boots.

'McCain on the other hand sat on the board of the U.S Council for World Freedom in 1981. I want to make sure you understand the gravity of this information......McCain sat on the board of an ultra right wing group founded by an Iran Contra figure Maj. General John K. Singlaub. " - reported by NBC/via msnbc/via newsvine

[this really bothers me and i am checking on the veracity of this news item]

For what it's worth, so far as I know, Obama *does not* still have a relationship of any kind with Ayers, short of living somewhere near-ish to him.

Now, gosh darn it, Brian, there ya go, gettin' in the way of a proven innuendo that proves that  the proof  that Obama that he's palsy-walsy with a real-live terr'rist cuz they bein' next door neighbors and all and might have even carpooled what we need is maverick.

phew.

A. Renee,

I was wondering when someone would finally bring that up.

I wondered about that for a while to, but I eventually came to the conclusion that they really are trying to run a campaign as clean of the usual mudslinging as possible. I mean, all of the "negative" stuff coming from Obama's side seems to be factual and issue based until and unless someone elsehas started the "guilt by association" game at which point, they respond, (in my opinion quite rightfully) with just more facts about the slinger in question.

Frankly? This makes the Keating Five not only a very fair and valid issue once again, but I have to admit that I'm pretty impressed with the way the Obama campaign has been conducting itself.

I'm not the first to mention this, but I hope I won't be the last, either: the Keating 5 scandal is EXTREMELY relevant to the current economic melt-down. Once again, a financial institution that didn't have the cash reserves to cover its liabilities tried to use "creative" accounting to hide that fact, and lobbied hard for less regulation. The S&L's collapsed during the Bush 41 administration precisely because of that lack of regulation, which allowed too much "creative" accounting. History is repeating itself under Bush 43, and not as farce. John McCain has been in the thick of the deregulation that caused both disasters. The Obama campaign will have a 13 minute video at noon today, to be posted at www.keatingeconomics.com. You can see the trailer on YouTube.

The Keating 5 is old news

If Keating 5 is old news (and therefor irrelivent), then I guess that means McCain's military and PoW experience is irrelivent too.  Tough luck there, chum.

For all who talk about McCain being questioned in the Keating 5 scandal. He was deeply intrenched, and millions don't know about the scandal, so it's good to bring up.

SHOUT OUT TO SARAH PALIN:

SMOE SIX-PACK, GO HOME AND PLEASE TAKE GRUMPY GRANDPA WITH YOU.

Now, gosh darn it, Brian, there ya go, gettin' in the way of a proven innuendo that proves that  the proof  that Obama that he's palsy-walsy with a real-live terr'rist cuz they bein' next door neighbors and all and might have even carpooled what we need is maverick.

Does this mean that Gov Palin is a communist since she lives close to Russia and can see it from her state? ;)

Palin's husband was part of the Alaskan Independence Party, does that mean she thinks that Alaska should secede from the US? I mean, Obama had passing acquaintances with Ayers. Palin on the other hand, lived, ate, slept, and had children with a secessionist. Did they keep their politics and beliefs separate?

I know that we are not supposed to bring family into the debate but she opened the door on ties to terrorists. Now the AIP isn't a terrorist organization but is a person with ties to secessionists someone we want in a major office? Gov Palin has already made the comment about making things better for Alaska which will then transfer to the lower 48. I thought the President and VP were supposed to be America first, not my home state first, all others as a byproduct.

"The heels are on, the gloves are off," Palin said of her campaign strategy.

You got to admit... Palin is a great picture to watch!

She looks great, she talks real campaign stuff... Obama camp never expected to meet a kitten who can scratch...

It is great fun to watch her...she is just great...one day she will be president that is in the cards.

 Eli ----

she is just great...one day she will be president that is in the cards.

We want to see her report cards too.  So far , it says SHE SHOULD NEVER BE OUR PRESIDENT.

Get over it.

GrabanIdiot....

Honestly, so far she hasn't said anything....well, you know, anything that anyone with an IQ higher than that of a radish could understand.  Just a mouthpiece for Johnny Mac...saying all the things he knows are lies.

I'm really tired of people going around calling Obama a  "secret terrorists" Obama  was 8 when all this stuff was going on with Ayers. When your 8 your not worried about whats going  in the world. so some people just need to get over it! and stop ranting about nonsense.

And for all the laudatory talk of his being a vet's vet, he's done little to nothing to help vets. Check out his record. It's terrible. People forget that his view of the military, as was his admiral father, and father's father, is from the top down. He has only his prisoner of war narrative to play over and over ad nauseum. And except for a couple of erratic flips, he has never been much of a maverick. He likes to tack toward the center without saying much--look at his earlier strategy of trying to pick a pro-choice VP (shot down by his handlers) when in fact McCain's record on the matter is extremely anti-pro choice. He's a slippery one, but he's going down...again.

Per Wikipedia, "In the end, McCain was cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee of acting improperly or violating any law or Senate rule" in the Keating 5 issue.

7 1/2 YEARS OF GEORGE BUSH

George Bush has been in office for 7 1/2 years. The first six the economy was fine.

A little over one year ago:

1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;

2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;

3) the unemployment rate was 4.5%.

4) the DOW JONES hit a record high--14,000 +

5) American's were buying new cars,taking cruises, vacations overseas, living large!...

But American's wanted 'CHANGE'! So, in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress and yes--we got 'CHANGE' all right. In the PAST YEAR:

1) Consumer confidence has plummeted;

2) Gasoline is now over $4 a gallon & climbing!;

3) Unemployment is up to 5.5% (a 10% increase);

4) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 TRILLION DOLLARS and p rices still dropping;

5) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.

6) as I write, THE DOW is probing another low~~

$2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS HAS EVAPORATED FROM THEIR STOCKS, BONDS & MUTUAL FUNDS INVESTMENT PORTFOLIOS!

YES, IN 2006 AMERICA VOTED FOR CHANGE...AND WE SURE GOT IT REMEMBER THE PRESIDENT HAS NO CONTROL OVER ANY OF THESE ISSUES, ONLY CONGRESS.

AND WHAT HAS CONGRESS DONE IN THE LAST TWO YEARS, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

NOW THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT CLAIMS HE IS GOING TO REALLY GIVE US CHANGE ALONG WITH A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS!!!!

JUST HOW MUCH MORE 'CHANGE' DO YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND?

_{PLEASE REMEMBER THAT OBAMA MADE THAT STATEMENT ABOUT THE 57 STATES AND ADDING ONE MORE AFTER HE HAD TO DENOUNCE HAMAS SO HE WAS TELLING THAT HE WAS STILL ON THE SIDE OF THE ISLAMIC UNION - THAT IS EXACTALLY WHAT HE WAS DOING - THE ONLY CONGLOMERATE IN THE WORLD THAT HAS 57 STATES IS THE ISLAMIC UNION - WE HAVE 50 STATES AND 16 TERRITORIES.}

COULD WE PUT THIS CANARD TO REST, OR DO YOU TRULY THINK WE ALL TOOK OUR STUPID PILLS!!??_{sorry 'bout the shouting, but my BS indicator just went TILT.}

There was a total 57 primaries and caucuses, counting Texas twice for having both: The other six were: DC, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, and Northern Marianas.

But - whatever - prattle on.

note: #3.4 was meant as a reply to #2

ilmor: Is that the same Senate that had no problem with Justic Thomas?

What a joke!

Again ilmor, his wife and father-in-law made money off of the S&L deal.

And what about G Liddey??????

Sandy, I don't know who taught you economics, but there are some problems with your arguments.  do you honestly think that just 1 1/2 years with a democratic congress is responsible for the housing market collapse and unemployment sky-rocketing?  These things take years develop.  And, by the way, one of your positive points of "5) American's were buying new cars,taking cruises, vacations overseas, living large!..." is actually one of the causes of the current financial crisis.  People were spending well beyond their means, buying houses they couldn't afford on bad loans, etc.  Come on back after you've had Econ 101.

ilmor

Per Wikipedia, "In the end, McCain was cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee of acting improperly or violating any law or Senate rule" in the Keating 5 issue.

Ilmor,

Using your chosen source - Wikipedia (Jesus, help this man...),  Ayers is not mentioned as having any connection with Obama.  Tit for tat.

Keating also was an anti-porn neo-con.
In the late 1950s, Keating founded the Cincinnati-based, self-described anti-pornography organization Citizens for Decent Literature, later Citizens for Decency through Law. In 1960 he testified about pornography before Congress.
In 1964 – 1965, he produced the movie Perversion for Profit featuring announcer George Putnam. It was a survey of then-available pornography, and presented an assertion that linked pornography to an alleged decline of culture and to what it claimed was the depravity of youth.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed Keating to the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, which had been begun under his predecessor, Lyndon B. Johnson. Keating unsuccessfully attempted to stop publication of the commission's recommendations with a restraining order. Failing in that effort, he filed a dissenting report, stating "One can consult all the experts he chooses, can write reports, make studies, etc., but the fact that obscenity corrupts lies within the common sense, the reason, and the logic of every man."
In 1971, Keating tried to prevent the showing in Cincinnati of the film Vixen!, produced by film-maker Russ Meyer claiming that it was pornographic. Keating's assertion was rejected and his attempt to ban the film failed. Keating was also instrumental in the ineffective obscenity prosecution of pornographer Larry Flynt in 1976 in Cincinnati. In the 1996 Flynt biopic The People vs. Larry Flynt, he was portrayed by actor James Cromwell.
He also appears in the 2005 documentary Inside Deep Throat.
In 1972, Charles Keating began to work for American Financial Corporation, a company involved in insurance and banking. Four years later he moved to Phoenix, Arizona to run the real estate firm American Continental Corporation, a spin-off of American Financial Corp. In 1984, American Continental Corporation bought Lincoln Savings. Such savings and loan associations had been deregulated in the early 1980s, allowing them the opportunity to make highly risky investments with their depositors' money, an opportunity of which Keating took advantage.
Some regulators noted the danger posed by these deregulations and pushed for more oversight, but Congress refused. This may be due, in part, to the Keating Five, five Senators — Dennis DeConcini, Alan Cranston, John Glenn, Don Riegle and John McCain — who had received, for both themselves and for groups they supported (and one of whoms wife, Cindy McCain, was a business partner of Keating), well over $1 million from Keating in the 1980s as favors and political contributions.They later met twice with regulators who were investigating American Continental Corporation, in an attempt to end the investigation. (In 1991, they would be rebuked to various degrees by the Senate Ethics Committee.)
In 1985, Keating hired Alan Greenspan as an economic consultant, in an unsuccessful effort to convince an oversight agency to exempt Lincoln Savings from certain regulations. Greenspan delivered a favorable report, writing that Lincoln Savings was "a financially strong institution that presents no foreseeable risk to depositors or the government." (Greenspan produced similar favorable reports on numerous other banks that also failed soon after.)
In 1989, American Continental Corporation, the parent of Lincoln Savings, went bankrupt. More than 21,000 investors, most of them elderly, lost their life savings (in total about $285 million.) This occurred largely because they held securities backed by the parent company rather than deposits in the federally-insured institution — a distinction apparently lost on many if not most depositors until it was too late. The federal government covered almost $3 billion of Lincoln's losses when it seized the institution. Many creditors were made whole, and the government then attempted to liquidate the seized assets through its Resolution Trust Corporation, often at pennies on the dollar compared to what the property had allegedly been worth and the valuation at which loans against it had been made.
In 1989, Keating was subpoenaed to testify before the House Banking Committee, but refused to answer questions, invoking his right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Keating blamed government regulators for the failure of Lincoln Savings and filed suit in order to regain control over the bank. The suit was dismissed in August 1990, with the judge calling the seizure fully justified because of the looting of the institution by Keating and his associates.

Agreed - I understood the 'erratic' thing to be a reference to McCain "suspending" his campaign to go to Washington??

Good point. You can be erratic at any age. McCain just happens to be behaving in an erratic manner, AND he's old.

"Some see. . ."  and who might those seeing somebodies be?  Hah, more manufactured outrage.

McCain has been "erratic" since his pre-POW days. Three crashes, all due to careless or reckless behavior, including one when he was "hot-dogging" in southern Spain and cut some power cables. It's a miracle he didn't kill innocent people with that one. PTSD probably didn't improve his stability any.

Just trying to close a rogue bold tag.

Guess it won't work. Oh well, I tried.

Our financial Markets are TANKING,americans are Scared and what does McCain choose to do? He and his inept running mate decide to spit and claw at Obama,attack him personally and cause more fear among americans. He appears scattered and weak… He appears more concerned with winning the election than LEADING the country.His choice of Palin has proved disasterous and her contribution to his campaign will seal his fate and tarnish his image far beyond this election.
Obama and Biden appear calm and reassuring and seem better able to lead us out of this horror we find ourselves in.
As our panic grows,this silly mudslinging ,seems grossly out of place and so does John McCain.

IMHO, political candidates have been conditioned to behave this way by voters who, as a rule, are usually too lazy and disinterested to participate in their government. We find it tedious and boring to pay attention to the real issues, and have no true concept of how extensively these issues affect us...until it's too late. 

We don't like the time-consuming prospect of researching issues and examining a candidate's background and history, so we depend on the media to do it for us - in sound bytes that are short and easy to digest.

Too many of us assume the issues at hand don't really affect us personally, so we abandon our duty as citizens and don't even bother to vote.

We have depended on the politicians to do the right things, and on the media to keep us informed of the results. In simpler terms, we have allowed these two groups to do our thinking for us...which they have been happy to do. It's been a goldmine for them.

As a result, a major shift has occurred while we were busy with more interesting things. Corporate interests have assumed our (citizens') role in government, influencing politicians' favor and attention with money rather than votes to ensure re-election.

The media is also corporately owned. Since they're our source for information about how to vote, they work diligently to encourage the mud-slinging that keeps our attention diverted from any real issues that might surface - like the economic crisis, for example.

Now, if you give this some serious thought and conclude, as I have, that average American voters need to step up and use their voices (votes) to begin taking back our government, here's a novel idea: Ignore the mudslinging. Do some independent research with the tools that are so abundantly available, think for yourself and use some common sense. Look long and hard at each party's record, critically examine each candidates' plan for the next four years and decide for yourself which is likely to have a greater impact on true reform of the status quo. Then vote. Encourage others to vote and be prepared to explain your choice (based on issues) when doing so.

Most importantly, don't breathe a sigh of relief and go back to business as usual when the election's over. Communicate with your congressional reps regularly (call/write their offices at least on a monthly basis to discuss - in a rational, informed way - issues important to you) and make sure they know you are paying attention. That's where real change will be accomplished, but only to the point that we're willing to work for it and learn to think for ourselves again.

That's my opinion, and I'm stickin' to it.

Everything you say is true except the "debate camp" reference... please, my son was a national winner of Lincoln-Douglas debates... he ran debate camps.  You should have said  The GOP/PALIN DEBATE CAMP!  No educationally sound debate camp would teach young people to lie and smear.  Atwater and Rove debate camps do that.

Let's not forget about the photo of McCain and Steve Davis aboard the recently convicted Italian gangster Rafaello Follieri's yacht celebrating McCains 70th birthday, Follieri has very close ties to Putin and the Kremlin or the video of Sarah Pailin opening the Alaska Independence Parties convention and the chairman of the AIP in his speech saying Gov. Pailin was a member and a friend of the AIP.  I think the right just opened up a super sized can of worms that will become their worst nightmare and secure their failure.

It's become clear this weekend. Palin actually WANTS to hurt McCain by giving Obama's camp the perfect opportunity to revisit the once again relevant topic of sucking up to big lenders and McCain's de-regulation obsession.

I can see the cartoon thought bubble above her scheming little head: "I can look like a fighter, smile, wink, work the crowds and destroy this old fart and be the GOP frontrunner for 2012! They LOVE me. I'm the ENERGY!"

Racist people are as dumb as their philosphies (spelling)

Yeah, that is weird, 'cause I am not using it and yet I am seeing it.

Interesting! I was wondering how he has been maintaining.

I hope if true, she gets help. I don't wish that on any woman.

You betcha! ;)