McCain Campaign Targets Columbia Professor in Obama Attacks

With just four days (!) left until Election Day, Columbia Professor, and friend of Barack Obama, Rashid Khalidi has been swept into the fray.VP candidate Sarah Palin claimed Khalidi was a spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which Khalidi (who met Obama while at the University of Chicago) denies. And there's that tape of Obama at a 2003 going-away party for Khalidi that the McCain campaign wants to see (another attendee criticized Israel; the LA Times refuses to release the tape, citing a promise to a source). Khalidi is featured in a NY Times article today, and Columbia provost Alan Brinkley says, “In a field that is often politicized, he is respected by people on the right as well as the left.” And former Columbia student Ariel Beery said, "In terms of his role as a professor, he was excellent. He was provoking, he always allowed for different opinions, he had an open zone where people could voice their disagreement."

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By Jen Chung in News on October 31, 2008 10:50 AM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

The Republican Party has degenerated into a Klan rally without any mention of race.

handsomedevil

Yeah, but the video is just one of a million imaginary things that are being COVERED UP. Where is Obama's Columbia transcript? Where's his birth certificate? Where's Biden's brain scan?

Notice how you hear very little of these suspicious details in the mainstream media (or MSM as we independent thinkers like to call it.) That IN ITSELF is suspicious - imagine how much energy they are expending trying to suppress it all! What are they trying to hide?

Mike B.

What is the LA Times hiding?

Oh, here are the trolls.

(For the genuinely ill-informed, their source told them not to release it. This is both a normal request and a solemn obligation in the field of journalism; if they released it their sources would dry up forever and ever.)

VanessaNYC

glennQNYC,

Are you looking for the quote where "Joe" admits that his taxes would be lowered under Obama's plan or the part where he agrees that electing Obama would be "death to Israel." Hold on. Are you defending the guy???

Splicer

McCain is a total and complete assclown - always was, always will be. His party despises the very idea that people think for themselves and have (gasp) opinions that are different than the usual talking points.

TimSPC

Post #4 is all everyone needs to read.

glennQNYC

Would someone send me the link to the Gothamist post titled "Obama Campaign Targets Plumber in McCain Attacks," I must have missed it...

glennQNYC

What is the LA Times hiding? They are only bringing more light to the situation. If the video wouldn't effect the election, why hide it until after Tuesday?

handsomedevil

and of course they'll post it on some other thread, not here.

handsomedevil

Nah, they just need a day for this story to filter into their dumbass blogs and be whittled down to an ignorant slur. Then it'll be "Yeah, Obama came to the Ivy League so he could study with a Terrorist!"

hungryghoast

man, i came to this comment thread hoping for one of the typical trolls to say something really stupid.... But i guess this accusation is so baseless and desperate and ridiculous that there's nothing even a dumb troll can say in its defense.

The Man Bat

John and Sarah need to STFU and go home. Sarah, get yer sorry a** back to Alaska and take care of your special needs grandson Trig.

JacqueMehoff

that's khalidi? I was half expecting a mahmoud abedinejad. can't they find someone scarier???

ed_Extinct

I think the Al-Qaeda endorsement of McCain/Palin says enough about the GOP—the GOP wants a war and so does the enemy.

I also think this is a good a time as any that we highlight the GOPs endorsement of Al-Qaeda during the Soviet-Afghan War—we funded Al-Qaeda with $100MM to stave off the Soviets.

Obama/Biden'08

robingee

Does Sarah Palin say ANYTHING that is true? EVER?

saIad

I don't care if Obama knows somebody with an Arabic surname, and calling him a "spokesman for the PLO" is empty language.

this fear mongering has got to stop. if this bullshit is validated for another 4 years, then this country is done, american project complete: fail

D;

when did we become such a fucking mob of assholes?

nycviabos

John McCain is doing a wonderful job channeling the ghost of Joe McCarthy.

Dirk

It's pure desperation. The GOP, Far Right, and Wingnut crowd are throwing anything and everything they can at Obama, praying that something will stick. In the past few days I've read about how Malcolm X is really Obama's father and that Obama's mother posed nude for porn!

What happened to McCain's pledge to run a respectful campaign? The man is a disgrace. Seriously, how can anyone defend the McCain/Palin ticket.

Steven

The GOP are biting their nails and trying to find anything they can to bring Obama down.

SP

John McCain is a pretty damn goood friend of Khalidi's 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

The relationship extends back as far as 1993, when John McCain joined IRI as chairman in January."

-Huffington Post

Seems to me he should probably STFU.

MaiaW

I think if you looked up the term "grasping at straws" in the dictionary (or whatever) you'd see a big old picture of Sarah Palin.

donner

I don't think I've ever had such strong feelings of dislike for someone I've never actually met.

I really may scratch my eyeballs out if this woman is elected vice president.