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Opinion: Barack Obama unveils 13-minute Keating Five ‘documentary’

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Barack Obama’s campaign unveiled its latest attack ad this morning -- a 13-minute ‘documentary’ on John McCain’s ties to Charles Keating, the chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Assn. who was charged with fraud, racketeering and conspiracy in the savings-and-loan scandal of the late 1980s.

The ad was rolled out with the same kind of promotional fanfare that you’d expect for the latest indie flick.

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Over the weekend, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe introduced a 30-second preview of the film (‘Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis’) in an e-mail to the campaign’s extensive list of supporters. Plouffe urged recipients to forward the e-mail ‘to everyone you know’ and to stay tuned for the premiere of the full spot.

It debuted at noon EDT (9 a.m. PDT) today on a website specifically created for it.

Production-wise, the spot shows what a campaign awash with money can accomplish these days; it’s heads and shoulders above the average political ad (as well as being far more ambitious in length).

Clearly, it was in the works for a while -- and comes now as McCain’s campaign over the weekend launched a new effort, assaulting Obama for his ties to Bill Ayers, a founder of the notorious Weather Underground radical group almost 40 years ago.

-- Kate Linthicum

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