Obama, McCain each target the other's character
As Barack Obama prepares to release a Web video detailing John McCain's involvement with convicted securities fraud executive Charles Keating, the Republican links Obama to radical Bill Ayers.
WASHINGTON -- The Obama and McCain presidential campaigns traded charges about character today, with both sides targeting each other for unsavory associations in the past.
Democrat Barack Obama's campaign hit back at Republican efforts to link him to a 1960s radical by portraying Republican John McCain as a friend of the same kind of bankers whose subprime mortgage dealings is causing a crisis on Wall Street.
As the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 10,000 today for the first time in four years, the Obama campaign prepared to release a 13-minute Web "documentary" detailing McCain's involvement two decades ago with savings and loan executive Charles Keating, who was convicted of securities fraud.
Meanwhile, at a rally in Clearwater, Fla., Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin continued her attack against Obama for his ties to Bill Ayers, a founder of the Vietnam War-era radical group, the Weather Underground, who hosted a 1995 meet-the-candidate event early in Obama's career.
Obama has denounced Ayers' radical views and activities, including several bombings executed when Obama was a child.
But Palin, warning voters to "hang on to your hats . . . from now until election day it may get kind of rough," assailed Obama as someone "who sees America as 'imperfect enough' to work with a former domestic terrorist who targeted his own country."
And in a interview with New York Times columnist William Kristol published today, the Alaska governor also sought to refocus public attention on Obama's relationship with controversial pastor Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Obama has denounced his former pastor for anti-American comments made from the pulpit.
McCain has said he wants no part of the attack, but Palin told Kristol, "I don't know why that association isn't discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country."
Democrats, mindful that unanswered allegations hurt Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's presidential bid in 2004, are being proactive in rebutting the latest charges, which Obama communications director Robert Gibbs called "a despicable smear campaign" during an appearance today on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"If we are going to go down this road -- you know Barack Obama was 8 years old, somehow responsible for Bill Ayers," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) on CNN's "Late Edition" Sunday. "At 58, John McCain was associating with Charles Keating."
In the late 1980s, just after winning election to the Senate, McCain attended a meeting with banking regulators on Keating's behalf. Soon after, the Senate Ethics Committee investigated Keating's relationship with five senators and cleared McCain, though it cited the Arizona senator for "poor judgment."
One day before the two candidates' next meeting -- a town hall setting at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday -- Obama is spending the day preparing for the debate. McCain plans a rally in Albuquerque.
Meanwhile, rocker Bruce Springsteen, who has been performing free concerts in Ohio to urge voters to register, takes his show on the road to Michigan today. And Michelle Obama announced that she will make her first appearance on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Wednesday.
johanna.neuman@latimes.com
