In a piece of anticipatory political jujitsu you usually don’t see play out in such an obvious manner, Barack Obama has swung the debate back to the economy from the “guilt by shady association” game the McCain campaign would rather play until the clock runs out.

The last thing McCain wants to talk about in the next four weeks, especially as early voting gets revved up, is the economy; or anything else of substance for that matter.  The last few weeks of Wall Street turmoil have been devastating to the GOP hopeful’s poll numbers. 

Before the smears even get started on McCain’s attempt to “turn the page” on the economy, Obama counters with Keating.  That dovetails nicely with the McCain supported deregulation madness leading directly to our current financial dilemma.  Reckless greed was unleashed on the housing industry and financial markets of today much the same way a deregulatory push by McCain and his allies led to the collapse of the Savings and Loan industry in the late 80s.  Seven glass houses indeed.

And we’ve got more up our sleeve as bloggers dig up a close associate of McCain who plotted some of his own domestic terrorism — G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate fame; a convicted felon who planned bombing the Brookings institute, plotting to kidnap or murder Nixon’s political enemies and led the Watergate break in and randsacking of Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office.  He got publicly rehabilitated somehow.  It seems like Ayers has cleaned up his act as well.

“There are a lot of reasons that Americans are angry about Washington politics. And one more example is the way Senator Obama’s opponents are playing guilt-by-association, tarring him because he happens to know Bill Ayers.

“I also know Bill Ayers. He worked with me in shaping our now nationally-renowned school reform program. He is a nationally-recognized distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois/Chicago and a valued member of the Chicago community”.
~Mayor Richard M. Daley

And by the way, has Ann “My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building” Coulter been sequestered in an undisclosed location lately?  Come on Ann.  This is the kind of trash-talking gutter politics you were made for.

I mean, honestly, do they really want to play the Kevin Bacon game?  Bring it on, really.  Where do they go then with these debunked and rehashed smears?  Especially when McCain has so many despicable associates, and is literally in bed with so many lobbyists. 

Almost every shady friend of McCain can be linked right back to the economy or political corruption of some kind.  McCain’s sad attempt to paint Obama with the sins of his acquaintances go where?  Certainly not where people care about when they’re worried about losing their jobs, homes and life savings.

Oh, and McCain was a lousy pilot too, and has always hated Spain.

Los Angeles Times reports
that McCain’s record as a Naval Aviator was marked by recklessness and
avoidable accidents — most notably the time he flew into power lines
and caused a blackout in Southern Spain. “In today’s military, a lapse
in judgment that causes a crash can end a pilot’s career,” the paper
says. “Though standards were looser and crashes more frequent in the
1960s, McCain’s record stands out.”

Charles Keating and the buying and selling of Congress by corrupt lobbyists is so much more relevant to the realities we face than some reformed radical who sits on a charity board with Obama.  Seriously, let’s get serious.

John McCain turned the page on honor and dignity months ago.  The McCain folks can’t possibly think this will work, or that they can keep this up through November.  They better find another page to turn.  Unfortunately for them, it looks like they’ve reached the end of their book.