BEND, Ore. – Senator Barack Obama said today that a scandal from Senator John McCain’s past – the Keating Five – was just as relevant to the presidential campaign as questions about who Mr. Obama has associated with over the years.

In a news conference here, Mr. Obama was asked whether his campaign intended to raise the banking scandal from the 1980s, which Mr. McCain has apologized for. Every piece of every candidate’s public record, Mr. Obama said, is “germane to the presidency.”

“I was just asked previously about a whole host of issues and associations that are a lot more flimsy than John McCain’s relationship to Keating Five,” Mr. Obama said. “What I said, I can’t quarrel with the American people wanting to know more about that and me having to answer questions about it.”

Mr. Obama’s background, ranging from his longtime pastor to his friendship with former radicals from the 1960s, has been widely debated during the Democratic nominating fight. He said he expected the same level of scrutiny would be applied to Mr. McCain.



The topic was raised briefly during a 20-minute news conference here today. It drew sharp criticism from the McCain campaign, with a spokesman saying: “Apparently, Obama’s lively calls for new politics ended today.”

“If Barack Obama doesn’t have the strength to stand up to his own standards, how is he going to stand up for hardworking Americans?” said Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Mr. McCain.

While the Democratic presidential primary is May 20 in Oregon – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigned here yesterday, former President Bill Clinton arrives tomorrow – Mr. Obama’s two-day campaign swing here carried the feel of the opening volley of a general election campaign in a battleground state. Mr. McCain is set to make his first trip on Monday to Oregon, a state that is being targeted by both campaigns.

As he spoke to reporters, with the Cascade Mountains in the distance, Mr. Obama sought to clarify a remark he made the other day when he suggested Mr. McCain was “losing his bearings.”

Was that a veiled reference to age? No, Mr. Obama said today.

“His team somehow took this as an ageist comment,” he said. “How that was interpreted in that fashion still is not clear to me.”

Then, he added: “Last I checked, people lose their bearings at every age.”

Perhaps. Yet it was an interesting moment, particularly considering Mr. Obama was not asked here about “losing his bearings” – or age. Mr. Obama raised both topics on his own accord.