# Is McCain forked yet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 25, 2008, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604 "2008-05-25T23:58:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 49
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/961 "2008-10-05T19:00:00Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > Obama is [preempting](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14283.html)McCain’s attack. > > This one is his most effective ads yet. It’s calling out McCain for being erratic in a crisis, ignoring the economy, not understanding the economy, and being out of touch like President Bush. > > All four of those things have been Obama’s most effective attacks to date. I’m glad he’s channeling all of them in for one really powerful attack. I am really impressed. Agree. But I do hope a 527 will point out the irony of someone under legislative subpoena in a corruption investigation (Palin) slinging mud. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/962 "2008-10-05T19:11:59Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Thats genius. McCain has gotten outplayed at every turn. And how flippin’ incompetent of the McCain campaign to pre-announce their attack ads. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/963 "2008-10-06T01:27:26Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Agree. But I do hope a 527 will point out the irony of someone under legislative subpoena in a corruption investigation (Palin) slinging mud. I suspect they’re only waiting till October 10, when the investigator’s report comes out, to see what they can use. Look for some fun stuff by October 11! ---
**Author:** ![Influential\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Influential\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Influential_Panda)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/964 "2008-10-06T01:31:15Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > And how flippin’ incompetent of the McCain campaign to pre-announce their attack ads. I suspect the reason is they’re a bit strapped for cash, and this is the best way to milk extra free coverage. I’m willing to bet they saw Obama’s pre-emptive strike coming, and figured it was worth the risk. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/965 "2008-10-06T01:32:47Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > And how flippin’ incompetent of the McCain campaign to pre-announce their attack ads. That’s what I don’t understand. Why on earth did they do that? Did they think it would scare Obama into backing down? ETA: **Influential Panda’s** post wasn’t there when I posted! That makes sense…well, as much anything McCain ever does makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/966 "2008-10-06T04:18:47Z")
Headline: [Obama to hit McCain on Keating Five](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14302.html) There’s a new website: [www.KeatingEconomics.com](http://www.KeatingEconomics.com), which will feature a 13-minute documentary on the scandal. The full video goes up Monday, Oct. 6 at noon. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/967 "2008-10-06T04:32:49Z")
Heh! From [post #781](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10265097&postcount=781), posted 10/1: > [@Shayna](#): > > This whole “troubling relationships” thing not only pisses me off, but stuns me, as well. Do they really want to go there? If McCain, as opposed to state party people and 527 groups, goes with the “troubling relationships” thing, how long do you think it’ll be before we start seeing official ads about the Keating Five? I guess the answer is, 4 days. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/968 "2008-10-06T04:47:53Z")
I was coming in here to post what **Happy Lendervedder** just said. Looks like he was waiting for the right time to bring out the big guns. McCain isn’t going to have a lot of time to figure out what to do with this. If people can get up to speed by the third debate Obama can hammer this one home. Anyone see this as Obama setting up for a knockout? So far he’s probably been toying with McCain. One writer compared Obama’s strategy with Muhammad Ali’s Rope-a-dope. Obama was just lying on the ropes taking all of McCain’s punches, all the while looking for McCain to make a mistake. McCain screwed up with the Wall Street crisis and now Obama can exploit this with a vicious counter attack. I predict that Obama will satisfy the visceral desire of his supporters and put McCain down during the third debate. Right now he is only setting the stage. God at least I hope so. ---
**Author:** ![Clu-Me-In](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@Clu-Me-In](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clu-Me-In)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/969 "2008-10-06T05:10:35Z")
All I gotta say is; Mr. McCain started it with that character crap. Now it’s our turn to bring up all of his character and judgement past. His ex-wife issue. His Keating five issues. His Washington and Arizona womanizing. His abuse of Senators and colleagues he works with. Sure, we know it’s the economy but he went there, and now he will feel it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/970 "2008-10-06T05:33:57Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > I was coming in here to post what **Happy Lendervedder** just said. > > Looks like he was waiting for the right time to bring out the big guns. McCain isn’t going to have a lot of time to figure out what to do with this. If people can get up to speed by the third debate Obama can hammer this one home. I think a lot of it is taking the high road. Obama has been talking about the issues, but if McCain starts the attack ads (which like morons they’re both admitting and advertising) no one can object if he hits back. Bet you McCain starts crying like a little girl about how mean the Dems are being? ---
**Author:** ![JHE1967](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@JHE1967](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JHE1967)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/971 "2008-10-06T06:57:43Z")
I can’t believe the dems aren’t talking about the Keating 5. I mean the pubs are completely grasping at straws with Obama’s at best teneous relationship with Ayers and McCain was part of a massive fucking scandal most people remember and the dems won’t touch it. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/972 "2008-10-06T07:06:40Z")
Well, the Dems are going to be talking about it now. And in great detail. The Obama campaign has signaled to all and sundry that the Keating 5 mess is not only fair game, it’s going to be front and center. I’m reading the Rolling Stone article right now, and I know some people on the board has compared it to “Swiftboating,” but Jesus Christ. If only half of this stuff is true–and I’m fairly certain most of it is factual as a great deal of the stuff reported on is a matter of public record–than McCain is the scariest sonofabitch in Washington. I foresee that for the next month, there’s going to be a steady and gradual piling on of information McCain doesn’t want to be in the public eye. Coupled with the Troopergate probe and all of the skeletons waiting in Palin’s closet, it’s going to be interesting times. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/973 "2008-10-06T08:15:05Z")
I only hope it doesn’t backfire. I thnk Obama has a winner with the “they launch personal attacks to distract you from the economy” approach where he’s vastly ahead. Why won’t the Keating Five attacks open him to the same thing? Doesn’t seem like he can play both cards at once. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/974 "2008-10-06T08:24:49Z")
As far as I can tell, the Keating Five thing is a web-based documentary 13 minutes in length. They’re not making a 15-second attack ad about it, they’re directing people toward [keatingeconomics.com](http://keatingeconomics.com) (or something like that, I forget) through a mass email. I don’t think you can really condense the Keating Five thing into a pithy advertisement anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/975 "2008-10-06T12:10:16Z")
> [@Cyberhwk](#): > > I only hope it doesn’t backfire. I thnk Obama has a winner with the “they launch personal attacks to distract you from the economy” approach where he’s vastly ahead. Why won’t the Keating Five attacks open him to the same thing? Doesn’t seem like he can play both cards at once. I think the idea is going to tie McCain’s involvement with the Keating 5 into the present economic mess. So, it’s not really changing the subject, at least not nearly as much as any talk about Ayers or Rezko (which I’ve heard is going to be the next line of attack from the McCain camp…they’re not really holding their cards close to their chest, are they?). ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/976 "2008-10-06T12:16:15Z")
> [@C3](#): > > I think the idea is going to tie McCain’s involvement with the Keating 5 into the present economic mess. So, it’s not really changing the subject, at least not nearly as much as any talk about Ayers or Rezko (which I’ve heard is going to be the next line of attack from the McCain camp…they’re not really holding their cards close to their chest, are they?). Yes, McCain is trying to nuke leftovers twice. It’s not going to work. It never does. The public at large knows little about the keating five, but we’ve ehard everything about Rezko and Ayers over and over and over during the primaries. To me, the keating five reflects so poorly on McCain that the moderate republicans who are fence sitters, and the independents out there are simply waiting for an excuse to blow them one way or another…Would you wait in line for microwaved leftover salisbury steak? Me neither. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/977 "2008-10-06T12:26:35Z")
I actually think McCain bringing up Ayers and Rezko is ultimately going to work in Obama’s favor. Until now, they’ve both been water cooler fodder, spurred on by email forwards and whispered gossip. Now, because they’ve been brought up by the campaign, both items have been given enough substance for the mainstream press to address them - and debunk them (which they’ve already begun) - a press that McCain has been systematically alienating over the past few months. The people who were unsure what the details were are going to be able to read exactly what Obama’s involvement with Ayers and Rezko have been…much less than the Republicans would have you believe. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/978 "2008-10-06T14:15:27Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I think a lot of it is taking the high road. Obama has been talking about the issues, but if McCain starts the attack ads (which like morons they’re both admitting and advertising) no one can object if he hits back. Bet you McCain starts crying like a little girl about how mean the Dems are being? Wha’dya mean, “start”? The GOP has been crying since the day after the conventions ended. Nov 4 can’t come soon enough. I hate dirty politics–no matter the side. I understand that the Dems must respond (nice guys finishing last and all that) but I’d like to see Obama just keep rising above it all, on a tidal wave of a landslide (or something-I seem to be mixing my metaphors more and more, but I like this one). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/979 "2008-10-06T14:45:23Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > I’d like to see Obama just keep rising above it all, on a tidal wave of a landslide (or something-I seem to be mixing my metaphors more and more, but I like this one). 🙂 Me, I’d like to see a volcanic eruption on Election Day, a Mt. St. Helens that blows the top off the mountain of corruption and partisan paralysis in Washington, that blasts the land bare of neocons and theocons, that blankets the country with a fresh new landscape of reform, that… Well, you get the picture. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604/980 "2008-10-06T16:18:26Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Me, I’d like to see a volcanic eruption on Election Day, a Mt. St. Helens that blows the top off the mountain of corruption and partisan paralysis in Washington… July news from the USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory: [MOUNT ST. HELENS returns to SLUMBER !!!](http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/Eruption04/Monitoring/July2008/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604.md?page=48) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mccain-forked-yet/450604.md?page=50)