Since They’re Being Compared, Which Association Is Worse From A Presidential Standpoint – Ayers Or Keating?
By-Ayers set bombs in the early 70s, actions which Obama has condemned. His condemnation is left out when McCain or Palin talk about his associations.
-Ayers has rehabilitated his image with many in the Chicago community, including Mayor Richard M. Daley. Ayers is now a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has developed a reputation as an advocate for school reform. Which is, according to Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, how the two met.
-Ayers helped Chicago win nearly $50 million for Chicago schools as part of a national school reform project, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.
-In March 1995, Obama was named chair of the six-member Chicago Annenberg Challenge board that distributed the grants. A New York Times review of archives of the Chicago Annenberg project found that the two attended six board meetings together.
-Later that year, the Ayers’ hosted a coffee at which Illinois State Sen. Alice Palmer, who planned to run for Congress, introduced Obama to some of her long-time supporters as her chosen successor. The event was not a fundraiser.
CONTRAST WITH:
-Keating and McCain, both former Navy fliers, met at a Navy League dinner in 1981, and became friends and mutual supporters.
-Keating, a prominent Arizona banker, organized fundraisers for McCain’s campaigns for the House and later the Senate, and donated $112,000 to McCain by 1987. He also hosted the McCain family at least nine times at his lavish vacation home in Cat Cay, Bahamas.
-On two occasions in 1987, he and fellow Sens. Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, Alan Cranston of California, John Glenn of Ohio and – in the second meeting – Don Riegle of Michigan, (all Democrats aside from McCain), met with federal regulators at Keating’s request and asked them to back off Lincoln Savings and Loan, a subsidiary of Keating’s American Continental Corp.
-During the second meeting, the regulators told the senators they suspected Lincoln of criminal misconduct, and intended to refer the matter to the Department of Justice. That took the senators aback – McCain, in particular, did nothing more on the matter after the regulators mentioned criminality, a Senate investigation later found.
-The government seized the failing institution in 1989. Different players in the drama have different interpretations of whether the senators’ involvement delayed the investigation.
-But it is clear that indeed McCain “intervened on behalf of Charles Keating with federal regulators tasked with preventing banking fraud.”
-McCain had intervened on Keating’s behalf before. Having “heard frequently from Charlie” about a proposed savings-and-loan regulation called the “direct investment rule,” Mcain tried to fight the regulation or get an exemption for Lincoln, he wrote in his book.
-So yes, McCain also “championed legislation to delay regulation of the savings and loan industry,”
-The Senate Ethics Committee, after a 14-month investigation into the Keating Five, largely exonerated McCain, citing him only for “poor judgment.”
-He did not reimburse Keating for $13,433 worth of airfare to Keating’s home in the Bahamas until the trips were exposed years later by reporters in Arizona. And reporters also discovered that McCain’s wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a shopping center with Keating in 1986.
-The government seizure of Lincoln cost taxpayers more than $2 billion, a sum that many would find “incredible,” as the Obama campaign claimed.
So neither Senator really broke the law, but both exercised poor judgement. Which do you think is worse? Working with a respected professor to allocate education funds, who happens to have a shady radical past? Or being the very definition of a Washington insider, trading lavish vacations and large sums of campaign funds to help your banking buddies get around regulations? http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/…http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/…
27 Comments
December 13th, 2009 at 11:01 am
I agree, with the comment about the Economy… I really don’t think folks give a hill of beans about these past associations… We are more concerned about our Jobs and the prospects of keeping them…
December 13th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
McCain did worse, especially from what I just read. McCain was also involved with the same Nazis who funded the Contras in Nicaragua, and tortured and killed many innocent villagers.
December 13th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
WHO LIES AND TRY TO HIDE THE PAST. WHAT’S UP WITH THIS BOOK OF BILL AYERS THAT OBAMA HAS WRITTEN A BLURB IN? OPEN YOU EYE AND YOU WILL SEE THE BIG PIC.
December 14th, 2009 at 4:56 am
Seems as though you willingly left huge holes in your Obama/Ayers story.
December 14th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Ayers
MCCAIN/PALIN
December 14th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Keating 3.4 billion tax payer dollars lost
December 14th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
It’s the Economy Stupid!
December 14th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Ayers could give a damn about this, our Country. He still to this day hates this Country. Sorry, a terrorist is still a terrorist.
December 14th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Ayers the cult terrorist.
“kill your parents, thats where it’s at.”
December 14th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
FOCUS ON THE ISSUES
December 15th, 2009 at 2:23 am
Obama didnt do any thing, but McSame seem to have some back deals going on.
December 15th, 2009 at 8:04 am
McCain is the worst by far and away.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Let’s see an American hating terrorist who kills people or a corrupt banker. I would say the terrorist is worst!
By the way there was an investigation into McCain and Keating and it was found that McCain did nothing wrong.
As soon as Obama’s relationship with Ayers has been fully and fairly investigated I would be willing to let it go.
December 15th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Ayers is The Dude from The Big Lebowski.
December 15th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Well, just look at whose friend ended up in prison? Hint: it wasn’t Ayers.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Ayers.
December 16th, 2009 at 2:49 am
It’s funny how Obama supporters JUST learned about this, Shows you how informed they are. McCain went to one meeting, and said no thank you. Obama and his radical associates are trying to turn out Govt into a Radical dictatorship. McCain was grilled for months and cleared of all charges, the only reason he was questioned is because they needed a Republican to go down with the rest of the Democrats. Why wont Obama answer any questions?
December 16th, 2009 at 8:32 am
McCain really broke the law, republicans have also served on boards with Bill Ayers, are they “terrorist pals as well”?
Obama’s links with Ayers seem tenuous at best, whereas Mc Cain has admitted to being involved in a criminal enterprise to benefit a rich donor at the expense of the taxpayer.
No contest
December 16th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
let’s see…
Obama had occasional instances to be around Ayers, which isn’t what I call “palling around”.
McCain and family flew to the Bahamas some 9 times to Keatings home, for vacations. Involved financially by McCain investments with Keating.
Looks simple to me. One is allegations. The other is proven by Senate investigation.
And yes.. you DO have to ask which is a “worse” person. Ayers himself has shown regret for his actions in the 60s. Keating was convicted of many counts of fraud, and lost billions of investor monies.
Ayers past never had ANYTHING to do with Obama. Not true of Keating.
McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981,[11] and McCain was the only one of the five with close social and personal ties to Keating.[35][36] Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona.[28] Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.[37] In addition, McCain’s wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard Keating’s jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating’s opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.[7][38] In 1989 Phoenix New Times writer Tom Fitzpatrick opined that McCain was the “most reprehensible” of the five senators.[3 (widipedia)
edit
OMG, CRYING WITH LAUGHTER… “MCCAIN WENT TO ONE MEETING”….
December 16th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Ayers is worse. keating was bad, but found the democrats guilty, not McCain. It is public knowledge. Obama is still trying to cover up his relationship with ayers. Just more lies and tap dancing.
December 16th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
I would say the association between Keating and McCain is worse. They had known and documented interactions that undermined the economy of the United States.
The association between Ayers and Obama is largely speculative. Yes, they both worked on committees together. Yes, Ayers hosted a “coffee” to launch Obama’s campaign. But, there is no documentation or proof that anything they did together in any way undermined or put at risk the United States. The work they did together was community based and was meant to improve the lives of the constituents in Chicago.
December 17th, 2009 at 1:39 am
McCain was not guilty and absolved of any wrong doing, Obama has many more terrorists type connections
McCain will win in November
PS: Prior to that, Ayers and his cohorts succeeded in bombing the Pentagon. Ayers and Dohrn remain unrepentant for their terrorist past.
December 17th, 2009 at 6:45 am
It’s not about what Ayers did in the 70’s. It’s about his so called relationship with Obama, a relationship that has been exaggerated by the right for months. Knowing someone is not the same as “paling around” with them.
December 17th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Ayers
It is only to liberals who hate America that he has “rehabilitated” his reputation. Those of us with thinking brains believe that his continued (to this day) unrepentance and regrets that he didn’t ‘do more’ do not a rehabilitated terrorist make.
He and Dohrn declared open war on their own nation; tried like hell to kill lots of people; managed to kill 2 policemen; still think they didn’t do enough; conspired with enemy government during Vietnam; sported rings given to them by enemy made from the metal from downed US aircraft… need i go on? And this and more is all self-admitted by Ayers.
Obama’s association with these types of disgusting America-hating characters is a pattern.
Vote for Obama if you WANT America to be communist nation led by an admitted America-hater (by obama’s own words). But don’t try and pretend Obama is blameless.
McCain was completely absolved in the Keating mess. In fact, the prosecutor was forced to include him so it didn’t look like a typical Democratic line-up and to this day states his digust over that matter.
1) Neither candidate wins points for perfection, but only ONE has demonstrated his loyalty to his nation instead of loyalty to admitted terrorists.
2) Who DOESN’T our enemies want us to vote for? That’s who I’ll vote for.
EDIT: and ps…..Obama has never condemned Ayers and his wife Dohrn. Quite the contrary…… he’s still funneling money to them.
December 17th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
well considring that McCain was recommended to be completely exhonorated for any involvement by THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY and Ayers has never shown any remorse or regret for the killing innocent AMERICAN citizens,well I quess it goes without say which is less aggregious.
December 17th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
It’s unbelievable to me that the answer to this question is glaring to some people. You have an unrepetant bomber, featured in a Chicago rag years later stomping on the flag.
You have a connection between mcCain and Keating, with McCain having outlined his mistakes in dealing with Keating.
You have Obama associating closely with Ayers and, just as he did with Rev. Wright, defending his associations and coming up with excuses as to why they don’t matter. For a U.S. presidential candidate to downplay and defend connections to a domestic terrorist, is beyond reason.
December 17th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Both are bad people. Ayers wanted to bomb and kill innocent Americans, therefore he is much worse.
McCain has apologized and said befriending Keating is the worst mistake of his life.
Obama has yet to admit that Ayers is a horrible unrepentent domestic terrorist and that he should not have ever gotten so deeply involved with someone like that. Ignorance is bliss to Obama.
EDIT: Obama also associates with corrupt bankers, check is economic advisors list.