You're way over-thinking this, Jonze.

What makes you think K5 is the last bullet in Obama's gun, anyway? What about this guy?

The co-host of a recent top-dollar fundraiser for Sen. John McCain oversaw the payment of roughly $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary group that is today designated a terrorist organization by the United States.

Carl H. Lindner Jr., the billionaire Cincinnati businessman, was CEO of Chiquita Brands International from 1984 to 2001, and remained on the company's board of directors until May 2002. Beginning under his tenure, Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym AUC), which is described by George Washington University's National Security Archive as an "illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country's most notorious civilian massacres."

Following a Justice Department indictment last year, Chiquita admitted to illegally funding the paramilitaries and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Chiquita's payments to the AUC began in 1997 and lasted seven years; roughly half of the funds came after the group was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001.

According to the Justice Department, the payments "were reviewed and approved by senior executives" of Chiquita, who knew by no later than September 2000 "that the AUC was a violent, paramilitary organization."

Late last week, Lindner co-hosted a $25,000-per-person fundraiser for McCain and the Republican Party in the wealthy Indian Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. The event raised about $2 million; Lindner also serves on McCain's Ohio Victory Team.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/02/mccain-fundraiser-oversaw_n_110354.html

I don't think Keating 5 is anywhere nearwhat Plouffe and Axelrod have ready to go. It just depends on how low McCain wants to go.

They would not play this game if they couldn't win it. Take a breath.

I do agree with your assessment that the Keating 5 scandal has to be tied into the current economic situation, which I think it will be. But I sort of disagree with the tactic of just letting the surrogates explaining away Ayers - whats the saying, "If your explaining then you're losing." The combination of on-message republicans and a lazy media could be a toxic cocktail for Obama come November 4th. Remember how silly the Swiftboat guys seemed when they first reared their ugly heads, thinking that any rational person would see through their bullshit? Well, four more years of a Bush presidency later, I personally don't feel as if countering with Keating is the worst thing in the world. What do you think?

Tactics were putting together the threads, strategy was buying the website!

Because I don't think they would have brought it up where it not for good political contexts established. From the beginning of the general election, the McCain camp keeps trying to frame this whole thing as a personality battle, but (I think) Obama has pushed it back to define it as an issue vs. non-issue personality battle, and in that very process simultaneously attempted to destroy the authenticity of the personality the opponent touts. This Keating thing is one of those things that can help achieve this goal, and now is the best timing.

* Then again, I may be making an ass of myself (English is, strictly speaking, not my first language, so sorry if I'm not making sense).