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."
Published Oct 31, 2008
Modified Oct 31, 2008
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