Yesterday, Sarah Palin “took the gloves off” and proposed that Barack Obama “pals around with terrorists.” This claim has come about because the McCain/Palin ticket doesn’t have anything substantive to offer American voters, and it must now try to win using character assassination on Barack Obama in a last-ditch effort to stir up controversy and get voters onboard. This, despite the fact that McCain once promised that this would be an honest campaign about the issues. And hey, didn’t Palin say something in the last debate about “looking backward?” I thought they were the ticket that didn’t like to look backward? Seems to me that looking back to a time when Barack Obama was eight years old is looking pretty far back!

Well we know all about these “mavericky” types, don’t we? Maverick is just a code-word for liar. Or is it code for “say one thing, do another?” I forget. It’s definitely one of the two.

Anyway, it is a known certainty that Barack Obama didn’t, and doesn’t “pal around” with William Ayers.

But if Palin wanted to throw some stones, she might have given thought to the fact that her running mate is a glass house, and that the Obama camp is not going to sit idly by while the opposing ticket attempts to swift boat its candidate. This is not 2004.

To that end, Obama for America has just released a 13-minute documentary on the Keating Five, of which John McCain was a member. I didn’t recall the details of this shady group of characters, but the broad strokes are, of course, well known. I’m embedding the documentary on this page so all you have to do is click to view it.