Keatonomics

With the election less than a month away, both campaigns have moved into full Say Hi to the Bad Guy mode. In case you missed it this weekend, the WaPo ran a story about the coming shift in the McCain campaign.

“We are looking for a very aggressive last 30 days,” said Greg Strimple, one of McCain’s top advisers. “We are looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing Mr. Obama’s aggressively liberal record and how he will be too risky for Americans.”

The short version: We’re going to start throwing around the word “terrorist” and a few not-so-subtle racists codes and hope that will shut everybody up about the economy. Because if McCain pulling out of Michigan showed anything, it’s that if the race is about the economy, McCain losses.
So you get Sarah Palin saying this over the weekend:

“Our opponent … is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

It’s the final stretch for both campaigns, and Obama ramped up his economic attack ahead of the expected personal attacks from McCain.
But he’s also got a little something in his back pocket. I wondered when and if he’d throw the Keating Five scandel into the mix. With the financial meltdown, insider dealing, and deregulation under a big microscope, there couldn’t be a better time to start talking about McCain’s involvement.
And overnight, that’s exactly what Obama did. Below is the short video. The campaign is saying that the full documentary will be available at noon today. Watch it and pass it on.