Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. - Oscar Wilde
It was inevitable, I suppose, that the McCain campaign would adopt character assault as its primary message down the stretch, including smearing Obama as a Muslim terrorist. In response, the Obama campaign is giving the green light to surrogates to go Keating Five.
It's great that they aren't taking it laying down, but Keating Five isn't the best negative attack to use against McCain. His age is.
Frankly, I'm surprised that Obama has waited this long to use a Keating Five attack. It's not only potentially effective as an indictment of McCain's ethics, but it's tailor made for the deregulation/economic crisis/bailout message that Obama's campaign has been pushing. The problem with a Keating Five attack is that the scandal is long past from the public's consciousness. It has very little currency for most voters today (Teapot Dome scandal anyone?), especially voters who don't immerse themselves in the history of banking regulation or the details of Senate ethics flaps.
Attacking McCain's age, on the other hand, is much more promising. Everybody relates to the effects that age has on a person, and there is data supporting the notion that there is traction among the electorate for this kind of attack:
- Up to 33% think his age would impede his ability to govern.
- 23% of voters are more concerned about his age than Obama's race.
- 40% of retirees think he's too old to be president.
Add to these concerns the fact that he chose Elly May Palin to be his running mate, and you have two major concerns reinforcing each other.
For every talking head who mentions Ayers or Wright, there should be another one who mentions cancer, senior moments, or Reagan's Alzheimers. Letterman and Leno should be mentioning Depends every night. The words senility, elderly, doddering, dotage, mental deterioration, feeble, feebleminded, weak, decrepit, and ancient should all appear regularly in public discourse until McCain becomes synonymous with senility. If a Supreme Court nominee can be "Borked" then McCain can be "Doled."
Oh, and everyone should be able to name at least a few things that are younger than John McCain.