While watching CNN this morning before class I noticed that the names Charles Keating and Bill Ayers have come up a lot. Perhaps this caught my attention because of the research I did as an undergraduate on the Weather Underground Organization, but it's interesting to me that each side is going to so much effort to bring up these names. Obama has posted a 13 minute long "documentary" on the McCain/Keating scandal from the early 90s. If you haven't seen it, here is the link:
http://www.keatingeconomics.com/
Having little prior knowledge of this scandal (since i was 5 years old when it happened...) I found the documentary to be a little overwhelming. For having put so much effort into a documentary like this, I would think they would want to be able to reach as many people as possible, but I did not feel like it was very effective, with one exception: the visuals. Seeing the images of Keating in handcuffs and then pictures of McCain vacationing with him was a very strong message. Otherwise I feel like they did what Luntz talked about in "Words that Work," they used great SAT words and jargon, but I don't think that was the best way to reach the general American public and persuade them that this was a serious offense.
I also checked out the newest ad from the McCain camp, called "Hypo". Here is the link for anyone who hasn't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIlUaKIB07E
The most interesting thing to me was the beginning shot of the Missouri news cast. McCain offered a link to the full newscast, and here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2p4kohUP3I
This seems odd to me. Should law enforcement be publicly offering support to one candidate over another? Perhaps it is just me, but it seems as though Sheriffs, Chiefs of Police, and others in prominent authoritative positions in states (especially more borderline states like Missouri) should not be allowed to publicly practice partisanship. Granted, the only information I have on this is from that YouTube clip of the newscast, but it struck me as odd that this was occurring without any mention of support for the McCain side. Do the candidates consider these law enforcement officials Navigators (a la Applebee's America)?
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It is odd. In fact, if they're actually campaigning or working on behalf of a candidate while serving in their capacities as law enforcement officials, they're breaking the law (unless Mo. laws are drastically different than those in the other 49 states, which frankly wouldn't surprise me).
However, I noticed that, in the actual interviews, neither prosecutor said anything about one particular candidate. The Obama connection was mentioned by the newscaster, not the prosecutors. The prosecutors mentioned insuring adherence to the Mo. ethics laws, which would fall under their purview. Here's the Mo. governor's response.
http://governor.mo.gov/cgi-bin/coranto/viewnews.cgi?id=EkkkVFulkpOzXqGMaj
Interesting that McCain used it in that ad. Brings up even more questions about the effects "new" media have on campaigns.
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