The Khalidi thing strikes me as nothing more than desperate from a campaign that is already deep in the gutter.
As Stephen Colbert noted - next we'll be learning all about Obama's association with the chupacabra.
"He started his campaign in its lagoon!"
You might just as well be appalled at this, Patti:
In regards to Khalidi, however, the guilt-by-association game burns John McCain as well.
During the 1990s, while he served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi, including one worth half a million dollars.
A 1998 tax filing for the McCain-led group shows a $448,873 grant to Khalidi's Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank. (See grant number 5180, "West Bank: CPRS" on page 14 of this PDF.)
The relationship extends back as far as 1993, when John McCain joined IRI as chairman in January. Foreign Affairs noted in September of that year that IRI had helped fund several extensive studies in Palestine run by Khalidi's group, including over 30 public opinion polls and a study of "sociopolitical attitudes."
Of course, there's seemingly nothing objectionable with McCain's organization helping a Palestinian group conduct research in the West Bank or Gaza. But it does suggest that McCain could have some of his own explaining to do as he tries to make hay out of Khalidi's ties to Obama.
The source here is The Huffington Post - which is, of course, hardly unbiased. But no more so than Fox is for McCain and the Republicans, so it's probably an equally valid source of info. Or not, as the case may be.
Me, I'd check out anything said on either very carefully before forming an opinion on it or, indeed, expressing my astonishment that anyone else wouldn't take it at face value and gospel truth without checking it at all. :rolleyes:
If it is true however, then McCain is either treading on very thin ice by trying to make a mountain out of a molehill on Obama's links to this man or he is confident that the US media will not mention his own dealings on the subject.
Given their silence on his associations with Falwell when he made such a song and dance about Wright, perhaps it's a pretty good gamble at that. :p
LabRat
