# John McCain and Keating: All is forgiven?  Or nothing to forgive?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-and-keating-all-is-forgiven-or-nothing-to-forgive/170206>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 22, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-and-keating-all-is-forgiven-or-nothing-to-forgive/170206 "2003-04-22T02:15:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-and-keating-all-is-forgiven-or-nothing-to-forgive/170206/1 "2003-04-22T02:15:36Z")

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This remark from in another thread caught my eye:

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by asterion \*  
> \*\*Then again, I’m biased in McCain’s favor. He is one of the few politicians I would vote for no matter what party he was running with. \*\*

I’m not picking on **asterion** , but I’d like to ask this question generally: John McCain enjoys a certain amount of popularity in many circles both Democratic and Republican. Yet his biggest claim to fame before the 2000 election, as I recall, was his membership as part of the notorious Keating Five, who were all but accused of pressuring regulators to stop the S&L scandal investigation in exchange for large campaign contributions. (This is just by my memory and a little webcrawling; feel free to correct me.)

How has he changed his image between now and then? Have people just forgotten about this, or have they forgiven him? Or was there anything to forgive him for?

McCain supporters, what’s the story here?