GOP insiders are said to be comforted by Sarah Palin's disclosure that foreign policy experience falls upon her shoulders like pixie dust, anytime Vladimir Putin flies over Alaska. Reports are that state Republicans had been considering the Yeager Airport lost baggage guy for a run at the U.S. Senate, until a buzz-killing NORAD official disclosed that Putin's plane never enters Alaska's air space.
GOP insiders are said to be comforted by Sarah Palin's disclosure that foreign policy experience falls upon her shoulders like pixie dust, anytime Vladimir Putin flies over Alaska. Reports are that state Republicans had been considering the Yeager Airport lost baggage guy for a run at the U.S. Senate, until a buzz-killing NORAD official disclosed that Putin's plane never enters Alaska's air space.
As the presidential campaign nears its conclusion, events move quickly. In the midst of economic chaos John McCain had hoped to project calm leadership. Instead he resembled a waterbug on amphetamines.
First, McCain told us on September 15 that the fundamentals of our economy were "strong." Maybe he was talking about the smell coming from Wall Street.
By the following day he called for a commission to investigate the financial "crisis." Later that week he opposed a bailout of insurance giant AIG, then supported the bailout a day later. The following week he "suspended" his campaign, but evidently did so without advising his surrogates or the workers in his field offices, all of whom were doing business as usual.
As the economic meltdown proceeded, McCain galloped into Washington, probably hearing the "William Tell Overture" in his head and convinced his belt was lined with silver bullets. He then sat silently in a meeting with the president and others. Soon McCain's TV ads were telling us he had accomplished an economic rescue. That was a dynamite campaign stratagem, if one overlooked the messy fact that the deal then fell through, and that House Republicans had killed it.
We find ourselves in the midst of two wars, an economic meltdown and record unemployment. We have nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance, our standing in world opinion has never been worse, we are less safe from terror than ever, and we have become the biggest debtor nation in history. With all of that awful business going on, John McCain's plan for America is - character assassination of Barack Obama.
On a recent Saturday, Palin slithered to the microphone and asked whether we ought to have as president someone who has been "palling around with" a domestic terrorist.
Sarah P. was referring to William Ayers, a former member of the nutty Weathermen group that bombed buildings and people in the late 1960s and early 1970s when Sen. Obama was 8 years old. Ayers was convicted, rehabilitated and became a professor at the University of Illinois.
Sen. Obama is about as friendly with Ayers as I am with any Pitt Panther fan who feels it necessary to mention last year's game against the Mountaineers. In the mid- and late 1990s, Sen. Obama served on two education-related charitable boards with William Ayres in Chicago. No wrongdoing by Obama relative to Ayers has ever been alleged by any responsible person
Conversely, Sen. McCain's 1980s and early 1990s connections to crooked Lincoln Savings and Loan boss Charles Keating ran deep. As McCain's benefactor and buddy, Keating had committed massive violations of a law designed to prevent S&L officials from stealing from the till. Investigators alleged that Keating had illegally grabbed about $615 million. Keating later went to the federal pokey for five years.
GOP insiders are said to be comforted by Sarah Palin's disclosure that foreign policy experience falls upon her shoulders like pixie dust, anytime Vladimir Putin flies over Alaska. Reports are that state Republicans had been considering the Yeager Airport lost baggage guy for a run at the U.S. Senate, until a buzz-killing NORAD official disclosed that Putin's plane never enters Alaska's air space.
As the presidential campaign nears its conclusion, events move quickly. In the midst of economic chaos John McCain had hoped to project calm leadership. Instead he resembled a waterbug on amphetamines.
First, McCain told us on September 15 that the fundamentals of our economy were "strong." Maybe he was talking about the smell coming from Wall Street.
By the following day he called for a commission to investigate the financial "crisis." Later that week he opposed a bailout of insurance giant AIG, then supported the bailout a day later. The following week he "suspended" his campaign, but evidently did so without advising his surrogates or the workers in his field offices, all of whom were doing business as usual.
As the economic meltdown proceeded, McCain galloped into Washington, probably hearing the "William Tell Overture" in his head and convinced his belt was lined with silver bullets. He then sat silently in a meeting with the president and others. Soon McCain's TV ads were telling us he had accomplished an economic rescue. That was a dynamite campaign stratagem, if one overlooked the messy fact that the deal then fell through, and that House Republicans had killed it.
We find ourselves in the midst of two wars, an economic meltdown and record unemployment. We have nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance, our standing in world opinion has never been worse, we are less safe from terror than ever, and we have become the biggest debtor nation in history. With all of that awful business going on, John McCain's plan for America is - character assassination of Barack Obama.
On a recent Saturday, Palin slithered to the microphone and asked whether we ought to have as president someone who has been "palling around with" a domestic terrorist.
Sarah P. was referring to William Ayers, a former member of the nutty Weathermen group that bombed buildings and people in the late 1960s and early 1970s when Sen. Obama was 8 years old. Ayers was convicted, rehabilitated and became a professor at the University of Illinois.
Sen. Obama is about as friendly with Ayers as I am with any Pitt Panther fan who feels it necessary to mention last year's game against the Mountaineers. In the mid- and late 1990s, Sen. Obama served on two education-related charitable boards with William Ayres in Chicago. No wrongdoing by Obama relative to Ayers has ever been alleged by any responsible person
Conversely, Sen. McCain's 1980s and early 1990s connections to crooked Lincoln Savings and Loan boss Charles Keating ran deep. As McCain's benefactor and buddy, Keating had committed massive violations of a law designed to prevent S&L officials from stealing from the till. Investigators alleged that Keating had illegally grabbed about $615 million. Keating later went to the federal pokey for five years.
But as Keating was attempting to squirm out of the clutches of the federal investigators, he called on old friend John McCain. And John "Straight-talk" McCain provided help. Major help. It has been lost to history whether McCain suspended his campaign while helping the crook.
McCain met twice in a week's time with the federal investigators, pressuring them to drop the charges against Keating. William Black, who was a federal banking investigator from 1984 to 1994, recalled McCain this way: "Sen. McCain knew the facts. He knew this was a criminal enterprise, because we had briefed him. He knew what was being done [by Keating] was improper. ..."
As McCain's efforts played out over the following two years, another $3.4 billion was lost. A taxpayer bailout was undertaken. Sounds familiar.
And why had John McCain gone to bat for a criminal like Keating? Because Keating and McCain had been "palling around" for years. According to McCain's own attorney, Keating had funneled over $100,000 into McCain's runs for Congress, and Keating had lavished McCain with numerous trips to Keating's luxury home in the Bahamas. McCain's wife, kids and the kids' babysitter went too.
In the part of the world where two plus two continue to make four, McCain's involvement in Keating's crimes would have prompted McCain to push for tighter regulation of the banking industry. But he never did. Not until Sept. 16 of this year when, with the country in an economic meltdown, and with McCain steadily losing ground in the polls, he finally called for regulation of the banks and Wall Street.
One wonders why the McCain campaign would attempt to manufacture an ounce of guilt-by-association dirt on Barack Obama, knowing that such a move would cause the 100-pound Keating skeleton to tumble out of McCain's closet.
John McCain invited this scrutiny of his own much deeper association with a crook like Charles Keating for one reason. Desperation.
Wyatt, a professor
at Marshall University, is
a Gazette contributing columnist.
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is blowing in the wind.
Obama has lied about his relationship with the American Terrorist who continues to say he wished he had bombed more of America.
If Obama was applying for a govt. job that required clearance he would be denied the job based on his connections with Terrorists and Convicted Criminals.