OPINION: McCain's Attacks Misguided

Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) has floundered this week. His lack of understanding of the economy has McCain scrambling every which way -- both bashing bailouts and blessing them on consecutive days. He's come up with a tack to resolve his image problem -- go on the attack.

McCain is now stretching the truth about Sen. Barack Obama's (D., Ill.) ties to former executives at Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). But the offensive move is ironic, considering McCain is the only one of the two candidates implicated in a scandal involving impropriety in bad banking deals. Anyone remember the Keating Five? McCain was one of them. Worse still, he has lobbyists on his campaign staff with ties to the Fannie and Freddie.

On Thursday, the McCain campaign released an attack ad suggesting Obama had a connection with Franklin Raines, offering advice on housing matters to his campaign. Raines served as the CEO of Fannie Mae until implicated in an accounting scandal in 2006. After leaving, he received a significant severance package -- a "golden parachute," which is standard for executives. There's only one problem: The ad was completely false. Raines has no role with Obama's campaign. Worse, The Associated Press on Friday reported an email sent by Raines to McCain adviser Carly Fiorina that succintly stated the truth.

On Friday, the McCain campaign released a new ad titled "Jim Johnson." Jim Johnson headed Fannie Mae prior to Raines. He didn't have an advisory role to the campaign aside from helping Obama pick a running mate. Johnson stepped down after a controversy erupted about him getting loans from Angelo Mozilo's firm Countrywide Financial. The ties exist, but Johnson had nothing to do with the present housing crisis.