NASHVILLE — Senator Barack Obama is prepared to hit back, including with Keating Five scandal if necessary, if Senator John McCain uses tonight’s presidential debate to attack him over his associations with controversial figures like former William C. Ayers, the former Weather Underground leader, Mr. Obama’s chief strategist said this afternoon.
“I know that Senator McCain may not know this, but the Internet – you can get on it anywhere in the world,” Mr. Axelrod said, referring to Mr. McCain’s past statement that he was not savvy about computers.
Asked if Mr. Obama would respond to any discussion of Mr. Ayers by touching upon Mr. McCain’s role in the 1980s savings-and-loan scandal involving a political patron, Charles Keating, Mr. Axelrod was circumspect.
“I’m not going to predict whether he will or he won’t,” he said. “I don’t think he’ll shy away from the discussion if it comes up.”
Mr. Axelrod added that the Keating Five scandal – involving four other senators and Mr. McCain – resonated far more in the campaign than Mr. Obama’s past associates, because Mr. McCain met with federal regulators who were investigating his friend, Mr. Keating. The ongoing economic crisis stems partly from shoddy regulation of Wall Street firms, Mr. Obama and many Democrats and Republicans have said.
“The Keating case is pretty germane to the discussion we’re having right now,” Mr. Axelrod said. “Many people lost their homes and savings and so on, so it is a germane issue, it’s not an abstraction. Now, are there broader issues to be discussed? Yes, and we’re discussing them.”