Wednesday, October 29, 2008

McCain, Obama and Khalidi

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Liberals are doing everything possible to link John McCain with former PLO spokesman and Obama acquaintance Rashid Khalidi:

But McCain has his own connection to Khalidi.

In 1993, McCain became chairman of the International Republican Institute. He still chairs that respected organization.

That same year, Khalidi helped found the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, self-described as “an independent academic research and policy analysis institution” created to meet “the need for active Palestinian scholarship on issues related to Palestine.” (Its archived website is HERE.)

Khalidi was on the board of trustees through 1999.

According to tax returns the McCain-chaired IRI funded the organization Khalidi founded and served on to the tune of $448,873 in 1998 (click HERE to see the tax return)* as first reported by Seth Couter Walls at HuffPo.

The IRI continued to give money to the CPRS after Khalidi left the group as well.
It's not the same and those who read the piece can see that clearly.

If Obama and his supporters want to play it straight, let's have both candidates lay it all out. Have Obama call for the release of the video and have McCain discuss any meetings he may have had with Khalidi. Lay everything bare.

The problem is McCain was in a business relationship (it's not clear if he ever met Khalidi) and Obama was at a social function and seemed quite friendly. At that function, some anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric was flying and it would be interesting to see if any of it came from Obama.

This is a problem for Obama and his campaign is trying to tamp it down yet it will raise some issues and will change some votes. That video will be released.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If this guy was that bad wouldn't it be questionable for McCain to even do business with him? If it was the opposite and McCain was at the cocktail party and Fox News tried and did tie Obama to him as a business partner you would be all over it. You are indeed a freaky Republican.

Anonymous said...

why weren't you screaming about this when the story was written in april? Rashid Khalid was born in america is seen as a moderate anyway and considers suicide bombings war crimes. do you not have any compassion for any country other than super powers? and if he was that bad mccain being the nutty military guy would not come near him. this is going nowhere.

Scott said...

Not quite true. Obama did sit on a board with a terrorist--William Ayers. I didn't get on him about that but about him starting politics in Ayers' house.

#2:
I missed the story in April and if i had heard about it would have questioned what the tape said. Release the tape and then we can decide if it's going nowhere.

Better yet, don't and just let McCain beat the hell of Obama with it. I would bet it gets released on Friday afternoon...highly edited.