Thread: Controversy & The Candidates: What's True, What's False

ITEM: In the 1980s, GOP presidential nominee John McCain was connected to a private group that supplied aid to right-wing guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua as part of the Iran-Contra scandal. The founder of the U.S. Council for World Freedom said that McCain - then starting out his political career in Arizona - joined the board of the group, which funded "anti-Communist" death squads and reportedly worked with Nazi collaborators around Central America.

VERDICT: TENUOUS AT BEST. It doesn't seem that McCain was ever an active member of the group. "I don't recall talking to McCain at all on the work of the group," the council's founder, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, told the Associated Press.

IMPACT: The Iran-Contra Affair is about as high on the minds of 2008 voters as Alf and leg-warmers.

ITEM: Starting as early as Jan. 2007, anonymous e-mails accused Barack Obama of being a lifelong Muslim who keeps his religious beliefs secret for political expediency. In June 2008, Floyd Brown, the Republican consultant who helped create the infamous Willie Horton commercial that shook up the 1988 election, produced a Web ad suggesting Obama was hiding his ties to Islam.

VERDICT: FALSE. While his father, Barack Sr., was born a Muslim, the evidence suggests he was non-practicing. Obama has had to respond to the allegations several times on the campaign trail. During a Jan. 22nd stop in South Carolina, Obama said: 'I've been to the same church - the same Christian church - for almost 20 years. I was sworn in with my hand on the family Bible. Whenever I'm in the United States Senate, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. So if you get some silly e-mail . . . send it back to whoever sent it and tell them this is all crazy. Educate."

IMPACT: Even before the post-Sept. 11 era, voters were unlikely to elect a Muslim presidential candidate. Without any credible evidence, however, these rumors haven't seemed to gain enough traction with enough voters to tip the election.

ITEM: McCain campaign manager Rick Davis's firm, Davis Manafort, was paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac - the mortgage giant whose bankruptcy and government takeover has become a symbol of the current financial crisis - from late 2005 through Aug. 2008. Davis' firm was reportedly retained specifically for lobbying purposes because of his close connections to McCain. Even after he took leave from his company to run McCain's campaign, as a partner and equity-holder he continues to benefit from its income.

VERDICT: TRUE. Considering how much McCain has railed against the culture of lobbyists in Washington, the Davis put him on the defensive.

IMPACT: The financial crisis has hurt McCain in the polls, but it's ultimately the Bush administration and the economy that have been a Republican albatross.

THE ISSUE: Obama has had his own brush with another beleaguered mortgage giant. In an ad released last month, the McCain campaign stated that ex-Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines was one of Obama's leading economic advisors. Raines had been forced to retire from his position over accounting issues four years ago.

Another former Fannie Mae chairman, Jim Johnson, one of three advisors tapped by the Obama camp to vet vice presidential candidates, had to resign from the campaign over a $7 million loan he received from Countrywide, a company at the heart of the subprime crisis. In September, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the federal government to prevent a collapse in the housing market.

VERDICT: INCONCLUSIVE. Raines released a statement denying any role as an advisor in the Obama campaign. Raines had told a Washington Post reporter in July, however, that he did receive phone calls from Obama's campaign asking for advice on housing policy. Johnson had a much more official role in the campaign, and the loan was embarrassing considering Obama's frequent criticisms of Countrywide's lending policies during the Democratic primaries.

THE IMPACT: Any associations with a company at the heart of the mortgage crisis, even one as exaggerated as these, can't help. But it also doesn't have seemed to hurt.

THE ISSUE: Obama's close ties to Chicago entrepreneur Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who was convicted in June of 16 counts of fraud, money laundering and bribery.

VERDICT: TRUE. Obama's links to Rezko are well documented. Though the real estate developer did not contribute to Obama's presidential campaign, Rezko had contributed to every one of the Democratic candidate's campaigns since his 1995 run for Illinois State Senate. Moreover, in what Obama later publicly admitted was "a mistake," he purchased a small strip of Rezko's property in 2005 to enlarge his house's yard. It's been a particularly embarrassing connection for the Obama campaign since Rezko was convicted of influence peddling.

IMPACT: Obama's connection to Rezko was mined earlier in the campaign, particularly during the Democratic primaries.

THE ISSUE: Two decades before the Rezko controversy, in the early 1980s, McCain became friends with real estate developer Charles Keating, who contributed heavily to the Republican senator's campaigns. That friendship backfired on McCain in 1987, when Keating asked for government help for his Lincoln Savings and Loan, which was the target of a government investigation. McCain and four Democratic senators - to whom Keating had donated $1.3 million - met with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board on Keating's behalf. Lincoln collapsed in 1989, and despite a $2 billion government bailout, many elderly depositors reportedly lost their life savings.

VERDICT: TRUE. Keating went to prison, and the five senators were rebuked for "poor judgment" by the Senate Ethics Committee. McCain, however, was his own harshest critic. "I faced in Vietnam, at times, very real threats to life and limb," McCain told The Associated Press in a written statement last March. "But while my sense of honor was tested in prison, it was not questioned. During the Keating inquiry, it was, and I regretted that very much."

THE IMPACT: Minimal, both because it happened in the 1980s and because McCain did admit his errors.

THE ISSUE: In recent days, Republicans have been playing up a link between Obama and 1960s radical Bill Ayers. Ayers, now an education professor in Illinois, is one of the founders of the Weather Underground, a domestic terrorist group that bombed several police stations and other government buildings in the 1970s.

VERDICT: TRUE, BUT HOW MEANINGFUL? Obama and Ayers lived within three blocks of each other in Chicago and both pushed education reform in Illinois during the 1990s. For two years, both were on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, an anti-poverty charity. Ayers once hosted an early fundraiser for Obama. There is, however, no evidence that Ayers and Obama shared any kind of personal relationship beyond that, certainly nothing to support Sarah Palin's repeated claim that Obama learned politics in Ayers' living room.

THE IMPACT: Sarah Palin has recently revived GOP attempts to use the tenuous connection against Obama, saying, "Our opponents see America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who would bomb their own country."

THE ISSUE: Controversial sermons from Obama's former "spiritual guide," Rev. Jeremiah Wright, made national headlines in March. While the sermons were several years old - inflammatory remarks on race and suggestions that the U.S. brought on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks because of its own support of "terrorism" in Palestine and South Africa - quickly became a hot-button political issue.

VERDICT: TRUE. Wright's fiery speech and subsequent refusal to publicly backtrack from his strong statements prompted Obama to address the issue of race head on in a speech in Philadelphia on March 18. In June, Obama resigned his membership in Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, where the Democratic candidate had been worshipping for more than 20 years.

THE IMPACT: Obama seems to have been successful in quickly disassociating himself from Wright.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

THE ISSUE: Controversial sermons from Obama's former "spiritual guide," Rev. Jeremiah Wright, made national headlines in March. While the sermons were several years old - inflammatory remarks on race and suggestions that the U.S. brought on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks because of its own support of "terrorism" in Palestine and South Africa - quickly became a hot-button political issue.

VERDICT: TRUE. Wright's fiery speech and subsequent refusal to publicly backtrack from his strong statements prompted Obama to address the issue of race head on in a speech in Philadelphia on March 18. In June, Obama resigned his membership in Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, where the Democratic candidate had been worshipping for more than 20 years.

THE IMPACT: Obama seems to have been successful in quickly disassociating himself from Wright.

Originally Posted by Hoglander

Not cool.

Originally Posted by DOMS

Not cool.

It is not cool and is controversial for sure but it is true. You can see that in the vid. I'm not trying to BS you so relax.

Originally Posted by Hoglander

are you going for some saying i can't think of it exactly but something like if you cut off the head of the beast it's still the same beast... ?

Originally Posted by Hoglander

Very interesting.

Let dead dogs lie? Is that what you were trying to convey why not just say it instead of posting vicious videos? Politics and religion bring out the worst in people I swear....Atheists for Anarchy is my new club....

Thats an american eskimo, it looks just like my dog Augie.....that video is very saddening to me that poor dog had it's head chopped off and then was made to suffer

I guess I'm just a little bit worn out where this this election is concerned. It's like the dog there, we could just make a choice not to look at it but it's hard to do.

: ( sorry I posted it

Originally Posted by Hoglander

It is not cool and is controversial for sure but it is true. You can see that in the vid. I'm not trying to BS you so relax.

It's nothing against you, I just think that cutting off a dog's head and doing that is beyond cruel.

[QUOTE=maniclion;1829826]Let dead dogs lie? Is that what you were trying to convey why not just say it instead of posting vicious videos? Politics and religion bring out the worst in people I swear....Atheists for Anarchy is my new club....

Agree! I'll be the 1st signatory!