Blasts From the Past

"Obama's campaign raised, for the first time, McCain's involvement in the Keating Five controversy, an influence-peddling scandal in Congress 20 years ago that remains a major blemish on the Arizona senator's political career. In an unusual 13-minute Internet documentary, a new website, and an e-mail to hundreds of thousands of supporters, Obama's team asserted that the Keating case raises serious questions about McCain's judgment and ability to manage the deeply troubled economy."

L.A. Times: "Both campaigns have long planned for this newly negative moment, but with the world embroiled in an economic meltdown, the script is taking unexpected turns -- and the old lines of attack could fall flat.

"Rather than command public attention, as the Wright controversy did, the debate over Obama's past is being overshadowed by the loss of thousands of jobs every day and a steep decline in the stock market. With voters overwhelmed by major news events, character attacks can easily be lost in the din."

USA Today: "As they prepared Monday for Tuesday night's presidential debate, John McCain attacked Barack Obama's credibility. But some of McCain's fellow Republicans say the aggressive tack may not offset the damage to his candidacy from the sinking economy."

New York Post: "John McCain went nuclear on Barack Obama yesterday, charging that the Illinois Democrat 'abetted' the mortgage meltdown."

Former McCain strategist Mike Murphy, now blogging at Time, sees his old friend making a mistake:

"McCain is in trouble in Michigan for the same reason he is in trouble in GOP leaning Florida and North Carolina; when it come to strategy Team Obama is throwing the McCain High Command around the room like stunt men in a Bruce Lee picture. The terrain of the election has shifted mightily to economic fear and Obama is moving his campaign to exploit that. Meanwhile the McCain campaign retains its lamentable focus on press tactics at the expense of a real strategy . . .

"Over the top negative attacks and a campaign message that too often seems to be little more than sarcasm and suppressed anger has damaged McCain's priceless and hard earned 'brand' as a different kind of Republican. McCain's best option now is to ditch the chainsaw and offer a scared and angry country what it badly wants; hope and leadership.

"Palin should drop the braying attacks on Obama's aging hippie bomber pals and start connecting to her cherished hockey moms on the one issue they are actually worried about; a quickly slowing economy. Chuck the hacky and ineffective negative ads and switch to man on the street spots with real people voicing their real doubts about Obama; too weak to stand up to Washington's mighty special interest cartel or the newly empowered Democratic bosses of the Congress and Senate, too liberal to know how to fix the economy, too inexperienced to handle a dangerous world."

National Review's Byron York wonders whether McCain should bother with the army of fact-checkers, some of whom jumped on Palin's charge "that Barack Obama 'is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.' That, of course, is a reference to William Ayers, the former Weather Underground radical who in the 1960s and 1970s took part in bombing the Capitol, the Pentagon, and several other targets with the goal of overthrowing the U.S. government. Obama has attempted to downplay his relationship with Ayers -- Obama once called Ayers a 'guy who lives in my neighborhood' -- but there is no doubt that the two knew each other, that Ayers supported Obama and Obama accepted Ayers' support, and that they worked on projects together as recently as a few years ago.

"Nevertheless, the factcheckers have been all over Palin's statement. 'Verdict: False,' wrote CNN's fact-checking unit. 'There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now 'palling around,' or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are.'

"It would be pretty easy for McCain and Palin to satisfy those objections. Barack Obama, they could say, 'is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he has worked with -- has even accepted the support of -- a radical who bombed the Capitol and the Pentagon, who wanted to overthrow the U.S. government, and who to this day has no regrets about it.' That would certainly satisfy the fact-checkers' objections and would still be a tough hit on Obama. Would that work? Would the fact-checkers withdraw their complaints if McCain and Palin satisfied the objections they have raised? Not likely."