Keating Economics

[bascule]

http://www.keatingeconomics.com/

 

The Obama campaign has released a documentary highlighting John McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal. This seems unprecedented to me... has another presidential campaign ever produced a documentary about their opponent?

[iNow]

It is fascinating. I think it reflects just how much more closely Obama's staff is connected to our modern culture and YouTube audience.

 

It was hard hitting, but pretty well done. You can tell somebody's been working on this for a while.

 

http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/keatingvideo

 

 

 

If nothing else, it shows the deep hypocrisy being espoused by the McCain campaign with their attacks.

[Mr Skeptic]

Ouch! That one has got to hurt.

 

What I approve most of is that this is focused on something important, not some silly thing like whether someone wears a flag pin or who their father was.

[ecoli]

It was probably released now b/c of Palin's remarks linking Obama to the Weather Underground.

 

I think Obama's point are probably more founded than Palin's considering that McCain wasn't a child at the time of the Keating 5 scandal, and Obama was a child (probably not even in the country) during the 60s.

 

McCain, however, let the other 4 guys take the fall for him and then supported bad campaign finance reform to "make up for it."

[Pangloss]

It was probably released now b/c of Palin's remarks linking Obama to the Weather Underground.

 

Yeah that seems likely to me as well, though as you say there's a huge difference between the two attacks. Pointing out McCain's Keating connections is just standard negative campaigning. Calling Obama a terrorist is beyond the pale.

[bascule]

It was probably released now b/c of Palin's remarks linking Obama to the Weather Underground.

 

It may just be a coincidence, but they did release it exactly 30 days before the election.

 

I'm guessing their decision to release it had more involved than Palin's offhand guilt by association slander. Things like: the documentary's production schedule, time until the election, the financial crisis, etc.

[Mr Skeptic]

Yes, the timing for it was just perfect as well. They might have modified the schedule to accommodate Palin though.

[padren]

I like how they have a 30 second trailer for a 13 minute video - that shows some very deep insight into the current condition of the average attention span.

 

The video seems pretty well done too, quite a brilliant move in my opinion.

[bascule]

I like how they have a 30 second trailer for a 13 minute video - that shows some very deep insight into the current condition of the average attention span.

 

In their defense the trailer was made available before the actual video

[Pangloss]

I like how they have a 30 second trailer for a 13 minute video - that shows some very deep insight into the current condition of the average attention span.

 

Lol.

[bascule]

Interesting to see CNN's fact check on this:

 

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/06/fact-check-did-mccain-intervene-on-behalf-of-charles-keating/#more-23012

 

The Verdict: True. McCain did push to delay regulations that would have cracked down on savings-and-loans practices and intervened on Keating's behalf' date=' although he was cleared of wrongdoing in the "Keating Five" case.

[/quote']

[padren]

In their defense the trailer was made available before the actual video

 

While I did find it somewhat funny, it is also pretty brillant. If a conservative friend send me a link saying "This 13 minute video proves Obama is a Muslim and a Black Panther" I'd probably not look at it, but 30 seconds... I might invest that time to find enough points to ridicule him with later.

 

The 30 second clip might hook people to watch the full 13 minutes who wouldn't bother otherwise - after all, you could almost expect some sloppy BS trying to tie McCain to bail out scandals following the current state of Wall Street... it's a pretty lucky coincidence that his shady S&L history resonates at this exact moment in history.

 

 

Regarding the fact checking: If anyone runs across a youtube of Bill O'Rielly's comments on it, I'd love to see how he "no spins" this one. I can't stand to watch the guy but it may just be tight enough to make it entertaining in this case.

[Pangloss]

It's accurate in its factual statements, but of course "passing a fact check" implies to a viewer that every allegation and circumstantial suggestion is also true, and that's not the case. John McCain didn't personally cause the S&L crisis, for example, but that statement is included from a third party in the opening scene. Spooky music and dramatic statements from biased individuals does not a case make. (Which, btw, is exactly why I constantly challenge Bascule for his use of ellipses.)

 

My feeling on the Keating scandal has always been that it's a relatively significant event that should not have happened, but that it's generally typical of what happens in the influence game in Washington. It isn't $90,000 in the freezer, but it speaks to the influence problem in general. That is a serious problem, and we never seem to do anything about it, and it's frustrating. It's even more frustrating when Democrats tell us it's something only Republicans do, or vice-versa.

 

But that's not the case here. If this were coming from anyone other than Obama I'd be really steamed about it. As it is, it's probably only a LITTLE bit hypocritical, and frankly there's nobody else in Washington who's likely to ever be able to do anything about this problem. And I don't believe in two wrongs making a right, so I absolutely support criticism of McCain on this issue -- always have.

 

But this is also why I tell partisans to be careful what they wish for. Criticizing something and fixing it are two separate things. Like the guy says in the video, I'm sick of it. And I expect Obama to do something about it, because he said that he would.

 

Expect. That is the correct word.