Blasts From the Past

Just what America needs while the economy is crumbling: a campaign about William Ayers and Charles Keating.

The McCain team rather clumsily signaled that it was going to go after Obama's "associations," meaning his limited interaction with a onetime terrorist and, if Sarah Palin gets her way, a reprise of the greatest hits of Jeremiah Wright. The Obama camp, meanwhile, has clearly been sitting on McCain's role in the Keating Five scandal, waiting for the right moment to return fire.

What perfect timing, just as the country is sick to its collective stomach over the plunging Dow, despite the $700 billion bailout that was supposed to fix this mess.

I'm not going to whine about how these campaign fusillades are a distraction from the "real" issues. Voters are entitled to examine Obama's judgment in associating with a guy who's unrepentant about his anti-Vietnam War bombings, and McCain's judgment in intervening with regulators on behalf of an S&L kingpin whose thrift, along with plenty of others, later went belly-up.

But with two wars grinding on and an economic calamity at home, is this the best we can do?

Obama was in elementary school during the Weathermen bombings. He's denounced the bombings. Perhaps he should have had the good political sense to avoid even the rehabilitated-in-Chicago Bill Ayers. But Ayers is hardly one of his advisers or an influence on his thinking. (And McCain has a "Who is Barack Obama?" ad that I critique here.)

McCain's involvement with Keating was a huge blunder -- but one that occurred 19 years ago. I've seen McCain apologize for his conduct more than once, without prompting, and he threw himself into campaign finance reform with the fervor of a reformed sinner. I think voters have factored the scandal into their view of McCain.

Bill Clinton (who had his own baggage) used to say he'd make an election about the voters' future, not his past. That's not the case at this moment in Campaign '08.

"Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama entered their general election contest this summer denouncing American politics as trivial and negative, and vowing to run campaigns that would address the concerns of voters during a difficult time," says the New York Times.

That seems like a long time ago.

"But Mr. McCain made clear on Monday that he wanted to make the final month of the race a referendum on Mr. Obama's character, background and leadership -- a polite way of saying he intends to attack him on all fronts and create or reinforce doubts about him among as many voters as possible. And Mr. Obama's campaign signaled that it would respond in kind, setting up an end game dominated by an invocation of events and characters from the lives of both candidates."

Boston Globe: "Senator Barack Obama, facing a broad new assault on his character from rival John McCain and the Republican Party, punched back aggressively yesterday with a multi-pronged attack on McCain's ethics, marking a sharp, personal turn in the presidential race as the two candidates face off tonight in their second debate.