Who is the real Barack Obama?

"Who is the real Barack Obama? But you ask such questions, and all you get in response is another angry barrage of insults. Our current economic crisis is a good case in point," said John McCain at a spirited University of New Mexico rally this afternoon where he used his opponent's own words and actions to shine a little light in dark places. [via Hot Air]

"John McCain, today, finally starts talking about Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the irresponsible leadership at both, and the Democrats' efforts to prevent serious oversight," writes an ecstatic Jim Geraghty at NRO, providing the quotable quotes we had tried earlier to hurriedly transcribe when we happened to catch McCain's rousing speech live on Fox this afternoon (thank you, Google!). First a few excerpts from the speech and then on to our own crackpot theory about how the speech is part of the former Navy jet pilot's latest maneuver to catch his unwitting opponent off guard in the OODA loop:

Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed. But the truth is I was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place.

Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in. As recently as September of last year he said that subprime loans had been, quote, “a good idea.” Well, Senator Obama, that “good idea” has now plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

To hear him talk now, you’d think he’d always opposed the dangerous practices at these institutions. But there is absolutely nothing in his record to suggest he did. He was surely familiar with the people who were creating this problem. The executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have advised him, and he has taken their money for his campaign.  He has received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other senator in history, with the exception of the chairman of the committee overseeing them.

"If McCain is going to have a chance at winning," writes Carol Platt Liebau, "he must make sure that the public becomes thoroughly acquainted with the real Barack Obama — the most radical presidential nominee ever. And because the press evidently intends to abdicate its responsibility to acquaint voters with the less-popular parts of Obama’s record, he’ll have to rely on paid advertising to do it". New McCain "Dangerous" ad above. [via Hot Air]

"More, please," writes Ed Morrrissey:

Let’s see quotes from Democrats in ads, along with the bill for their social engineering. We need this for bigger reasons than a presidential election: we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The best way to make sure it doesn't happen again is for the Republicans to win the White House, of course, and that's where John McCain's OODA loop maneuver, referenced above, comes in. Here's the set-up, from a USNews report:

Over the weekend, McCain aides served notice to the media that they would begin an intensive assault on the character and judgment of Democratic candidate Barack Obama — a strategy that is expected to continue through tomorrow night's presidential debate and right through to Election Day. McCain aides say GOP vice presidential nominee [as attack dog in the traditional running mate role] Sarah Palin's critique of Obama last weekend for "palling around with terrorists" marked the start of their final offensive.

It's all part of McCain's effort to change the subject of the national debate from the economy, which is considered a winning issue for Obama, and focus on other issues that may hold more potential for McCain.

Like USNews, the Obama camp bought McCain's story about trying to change the subject:

Obama's campaign responded fiercely. It not only denounced Palin's accusation as a false "smear" but came up with another line of attack against McCain, resurrecting the Arizona senator's connections to businessman Charles Keating and the savings and loan scandal from the 1980s …

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe sent out an E-mail to supporters last night — which was passed along this morning to reporters by the campaign — that said "It's not just McCain's role in the current crisis that they're avoiding. The backward economic philosophy and culture of corruption that helped create the current crisis are looking more and more like the other major financial crisis of our time.

Then, this afternoon, came McCain's surprise attack. Instead of changing the subject from the economy — as the Democrats and their fellow travelers in the media had been expecting — he turned the tables on Obama, countering his opponent's evidence-free charges of a "backward [Republican] economic philosophy and culture of corruption that helped create the current crisis" with some hard, cold facts about the role of Obama's own poor character and judgment in fomenting the current crisis. As we blogged the other day, "It's the character, stupid." But how to get the word out over the spin and din of a fellow-traveling media in the tank for the Democrat? It's the ads, stupid?

Update: This just in over the email transom from Obama's Campaign Manager, David Plouffe: "Keating Economics: the Making of a Financial Crisis," a "documentary that shows why John McCain's failed philosophy and poor judgment are a recipe for deepening the economic crisis." You're projecting again, David. Note: So far we've been unable to watch more than a couple of seconds of the "documentary" due to the toe-curl factor.

Update II: Laura Lee links with a fascinating tour of her local Arkansas neighborhoods, where McCain/Palin seems to be far ahead of Obama/Biden in the yard-sign polls, suggesting a groundswell of support for the alpha underdog and pitbull with lipstick under the radar -- seismograph? -- of Gallup, Rasmussen, Quinnipiac & Company.

Update III: Joan of Argghh! floats our boat with a link: "Looks like McCain is ready to paint his ship red and decorate it with the dead bodies of all the people Obama has thrown under the bus."

Comments

[gail]

Finally, I believe that since
shamefully the press did not do its job of finding out more about Obama, it is McCain 's responsibility to do it.
We know very little about Obama, what has he done all his life?

He has written two memoirs but there is not a word of his years of President of the Board of an extreme left foundation founded by Ayre ... there is a lot of explaining to be done because we need to know who is the real Obama.

[goomp]

Human nature, which leads so many to believe that there is no such thing as too much of a good thing, that more is never too much, produced this economic collapse, largely brought on by over borrowing, aided and abetted by the liberals of the Democrat Party. May the valiant efforts of the bloggers such as yourself reach out and inform enough voters of the catastrophe that awaits the United States should they elect Obama as their President.

[Gayle Miller]

This nation stands on the absolute brink right now and I am honestly terrified for the future.

All those people who sought to "teach President Bush and the Republicans a lesson" in 2006 are seeing the fruition of what they chose to do by NOT voting (which is their civic responsibility). In Ohio a Democratic Secretary of State is allowing people who are brought into the state by busloads to register AND simultaneously VOTE with no documentation of their residence. And no assurance that they won't then go back to whence they came and vote a second (or third) time! In Virginia the Governor (another Democrat) is restoring the voting rights of thousands of felons - just in time for the November election.

I think our Republic is in serious trouble folks and we need to do what we can to save it - which includes voting!

[Ginilynne D. Hilt]

I want to know why you want to be our American President when you do not respect our flag, recite the Pledge of Allegience, or stand at attention with our National Anthem. If you are to be our Commander -in-Chief, how can you dishonor those who are in your command? I find this appalling and can't figure out what change you plan to bring. I have the impression you will let terriorists kill us and have our Armed Forces lay down their guns. I am a disabled veteran and I have little respect for anyone who thinks my service to my country is unworthy of your respect. We hear all the good things about you but noone dares question you on your non respect of America.
You probably will delete or not answer my e-mail and that's okay because other veterans feel the same way I do.

[kalley stout]

Obama needs to be stopped about the abortions. Nobody should be for them that is just wrong. McCain is too needy and wants a high powered economy when he knows its hard for people as it is i dont think there is a good choice for the Presidential elections this year AT ALL.