Obama Campaign Fights Fire With Fire

Almost one month ago, David Plouffe said that the Obama Campaign "will respond with speed and ferocity to John McCain's attacks and we will take the fight to him, but we will do it on the big issues that matter to the American people."

He wasn't kidding, folks.

It certainly seemed like a bluff. After all, the first ad to come out after that email was the one about how McCain didn't know how to use a computer.

But then came this weekend.

It all started when it was reported that the McCain campaign, seeing the polls continuing to tilt to Obama's favor, would be going increasingly negative. Soon after, Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin trying to give the weekend papers something to write about when she told a crowd of supporters that Obama was "palling around with terrorists", referencing William Ayers. And of course, not to be outdone, FOX News continuously filled its "news ticker" with Ayers references, even though cartoonish blowhard Sean Hannity has been trying to hammer the issue for a year now.

*Cue the "gloves are off" reference*

First, Obama hit back at a rally in North Carolina, telling supporters that the McCain campaign would begin to follow through with the kitchen sink strategy, saying "That's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time."

Obama then released an ad that played on major networks, including during NBC's Meet the Press, in which Obama pro-actively called out the McCain strategy to "assault" him with attacks as a way to not talk about the struggling economy.

Now comes the exclusive Politico report that Obama will play the Keating Five card.

But he won't just mention it in a "Ha - You have bad associations too!" kind of way.

No, no, clearly the Obama campaign has had an uppercut planned for quite some time, because on Monday at 12pm EST, a 13 minute campaign-produced documentary will be available on the web that explains how, as Politico reports, "the deregulatory fervor that caused massive, cascading savings-and-loan collapses in the late '80s was pursued by McCain throughout his career, and helped cause the current credit crisis."

Fellow Politico member Ben Smith reports of its potential damage because "the story of McCain and Keating is not guilt by association; it's guilt by guilt. McCain's problem isn't that he knew Keating in activities unconnected to his wrongdoing; it's that Keating, in the course of his wrongdoing, gave McCain money and tried, with a bit of success, to use him to influence regulators."

Furthermore, a link on the KeatingEconomics website directs you to a website that slams John McCain's record by telling voters "alarming facts" backed up with accessible and available sources.

Yes, the gloves are off, indeed.

But is fighting fire with fire a good strategy? Some Obama supporters would probably say that it is about time, but any cautious supporters should take notice that the Obama Campaign isn't just slamming McCain for being involved with Keating, but they are making a case that McCain's past judgments and practices have contributed to the economic crisis.

Remember what Plouffe said: "We will respond with speed and ferocity to John McCain's attacks and we will take the fight to him, but we will do it on the big issues that matter to the American people".

It's the economy, Senator McCain.

Comments

[Lucide]

RE:
Obama Campaign Fights Fire With Fire
----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------
Montreal, CANADA, October 4, 2008

TO THE NEXT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NEW PRESIDENT:

SIR:


"MAY I CALL YOU "O" ?"

Because of MAIN STREET!

Because of WALL STREET!

Because of the final electoral sprint - ending soon next coming november 2008 - while THE WHOLE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA has its eyes on YOU.

Everyone expects You to be democratically elected and see that something happen in America.

In March 1983, one of humanity's most famous spokesmen, Pope John Paul II, came to our country - 'Haîti' - and loudly proclaimed what each and every one of us had been whispering:

'Something must change here.'

Today, more than ever, a lot of people of The United States of America stand up, longing for something and working to make something happen.

You offer this country what it takes to be a 'Wonderfull Land.' Yes, let us say 'with a great people living and working together.'

Go thou, America, go ahead, following in the footsteps of one of thy sons who is now becoming one of thy statesmen.

Lucien Bonnet

PLease, SEE :
LETTER TO POPE JOHN-PAUL II
in 'BILL A RI AND THERE WAS LIGHT !
http://www.contact-canadahaiti.ca

[Edward Rotchford - Huffpost Blogger]

The key here is that McCain's ties are his involvment with a proven scandal that cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Obama ties with Ayers are because he worked on Education Reform with him. The McCain Campaign is truly desperate, and the voters wil see through it because this stuff has already been talked about during the primaries.

[jadeba]

I don't think there is any question about the need to fight back - look what happens when dems take the high road. We already tried that and it made our candidates look weak. As they launch lie after lie, we can, and will, kill them with the truth. Mc/SP have run the worst campaign - of, perhaps, epic proportions - we've got the "gun", they've supplied the bullets.

[disgustedcitizen]

It is about time the "Keating five" card was played. It is my hope that this is just the beginning, and the Obama campaign will hammer McCain into the ground from not until November 2.