John McCain wasn't kidding when he said he was taking the gloves off, and it's about time. There are so many dubious associations and facts about Obama that are fair game and ripe for the plucking, one almost doesn't know where to begin. Associations include (left to right in accompanying image): Rabidly anti-Israel Columbia University professor Rahid Khalidi, domestic terrorist William Ayers, convicted felon Tony Rezko, and the Anti-American racist Reverend Wright, as well as (not pictured) terrorist sympathizer Ali Abunimah, Hatem El-Hady, a former official of the Hamas-linked charity Kindhearts, and others. In addition he has ties with Acorn, the lobbying group which has been accused but not convicted of voter fraud, and has taken several thousands of dollars of illegal campaign contributions that he has had to return, as well as being one of the leading recipients of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. We could go on, but you get the point.

The Obama campaign has tried to intimidate McCain by threatening to call attention to McCain as one of the "Keating 5," the group of senators who aided and abbetted the Savings and Loan scandal in the 1980s. McCain was one of the five, but was not convicted of any wrong-doing. The official ethics committee report stated that McCain's "actions were not improper nor attended with gross negligence and did not reach the level of requiring institutional action against him....Senator McCain has violated no law of the United States or specific Rule of the United States Senate." John McCain himslef has stated frankly, "the appearance of it was wrong. It's a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do."

Contrast that frank and earnest evaluation of his own behavior with that of Barack Obama's. Throughout the Keating 5 scandal, John McCain was open about his involvement and was honest about his role, and tried to cover up nothing. When Obama is questioned about any of his questionable associations, he deflects responsibility, calls it a non-issue and tells us the American people are not concerned about such "distractions."

These are not "distractions." To put it bluntly, Barack Obama has too many nefarious connections for me to be comfortable with him as President of the United States. Obama can try to counter Ayers with Keating. When that is done, McCain still has dozens of other questionable issues in relation to Obama to bring up. It is time for Mccain to put these questions to the American people, and today in New Mexico he has begun to do so:

Whatever the question, whatever the issue, there's always a back story with Senator Obama. All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults. Is he the candidate who promises to cut middle class taxes, or the politician who voted to raise middle class taxes? Is he the candidate who talks about regulation or the politician who took money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and turned a blind eye as they ran our economy into a ditch? Is he the candidate who promises change, or is he the politician who has bought into everything that is wrong with Washington? We can't change the system with someone who's never fought the system.