Obama Throws a Punch at McCain

Recently John McCain has been not too subtly insinuating that Barack Obama has ties to terrorist groups, by making the false and completely irrelevant claim that Barack Obama has been endorsed by Hamas.  In doing so, McCain has been contradicting his previous pledge to run a respectful campaign.  

When McCain was pressed on why he raised the issue, Mr. Straight Talk Express gave...a cop out:

"It's very obvious to everyone that Senator Obama shares nothing of the values or goals of Hamas, which is a terrorist organization," McCain said. "But it's also fact that a spokesperson from Hamas said that he approves of Obama's candidacy. I think that's of interest to the American people."

Translation: I'm pusing a bogus charge, but it's okay since it's "of interest to the American people."

Recently on the stump in Oregon, an Obama surrogate brought up an unsavory McCain association, albeit a much more direct one than Obama's Hamas "association."  This was regarding McCain's ties to the Keating 5 scandal:

At the end of a two-day trip through Oregon, Obama was asked Saturday morning about whether it was fair for one of his supporters, Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.), to have invoked McCain's role in a nearly 20-year-old scandal when he introduced Obama at a University of Oregon rally Friday night.

DeFazio had said: McCain "says we need less regulation. Hello! Wall Street mortgage meltdown, Bear Stearns taxpayer bailout, Enron, but, you know, I guess maybe for a guy who was up to his neck in the Keating Five and savings-and-loan scandal, less regulation is better."

DeFazio was referring to McCain being one of the five senators disciplined for improperly trying to influence federal regulators in the late 1980s scandal. McCain has called it "the worst mistake of my life."

Ouch.

When Obama was later asked about his surrogate raising this issue, Obama didn't back down:

"John McCain's public record about issues that he's apologized for and written about," said Obama, "is germane to the presidency. . . . I can't quarrel with the American people wanting to know more about that."

Sorry, John, but if it is of interest to the American people, what choice does Obama have but to bring it up?