Last Hope For McCain... Or Mebbe Not

[Patrick Degan]

Looks like the GOP think they've got the mine they can explode under the Obama campaign:

Linky

John McCain's presidential campaign Tuesday accused the Los Angeles Times of "intentionally suppressing" a videotape it obtained of a 2003 banquet where then-state Sen. Barack Obama spoke of his friendship with Rashid Khalidi, a leading Palestinian scholar and activist.

However, as the Huffington Post reports, there just might be one slight problem with McCain trying to push this:

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."

Background: Rashid Khalidi is an Arab-American professor of Middle Eastern studies at Columbia University and has written several books on the history of the region and given a number of lectures on the conflicts therein. He has been accused of having PLO ties.

[The Romulan Republic]

But despite these "ties" to the PLO he's never been convicted of anything?

So McCain is playing guilt by asosciation with someone who is being presumed guilty without proof?

The only thing that disturbs me is that Obama supposedly supressed the tape. That's the most credible sounding part, because frankly one can see why he wouldn't want such a thing coming out for political reasons. So is their any evidence that he supressed the tape, or did anything improper?

Bah, it won't change the outcome. All it'll do is make it more likely that somebody will take a shot at Obama in the belief that they're patriotically defending America from the Muslim conspiracy. Frankly I suspect that inciting just that sort of violence is the real motive behind these attacks. They can't actually be deluded enough to think they can win, right?

Or maybe they're trying to get it close enough that they can get away with fraud. Regardless, this'll hopefully be over come tuesday.

[General Zod]

But despite these "ties" to the PLO he's never been convicted of anything?

So McCain is playing guilt by asosciation with someone who is being presumed guilty without proof?

The only thing that disturbs me is that Obama supposedly supressed the tape. That's the most credible sounding part, because frankly one can see why he wouldn't want such a thing coming out for political reasons. So is their any evidence that he supressed the tape, or did anything improper?

Just because a request was made to a reporter to not release the video doesn't mean Obama's the one who made the request. The fact that they're being deliberately obtuse about who made the request is rather telling.

[Ender]

It's too late in the game. This is about the time it came out that Bush lied about getting a DUI in 2000, and no one cared.

[4Tran]

But despite these "ties" to the PLO he's never been convicted of anything?

So McCain is playing guilt by asosciation with someone who is being presumed guilty without proof?

The only thing that disturbs me is that Obama supposedly supressed the tape. That's the most credible sounding part, because frankly one can see why he wouldn't want such a thing coming out for political reasons. So is their any evidence that he supressed the tape, or did anything improper?

Just because a request was made to a reporter to not release the video doesn't mean Obama's the one who made the request. The fact that they're being deliberately obtuse about who made the request is rather telling.

I'm not sure why anyone would assume that the McCain campaign is telling the truth by this stage, but it's sort of obvious that whoever gave the tape to the LA Times did so on the condition of them not releasing the actual tape to the general public (probably because it gives away who the source is).

CNN even has the following (emphasis mine):

In April, the Los Angeles Times published an article about a going-away dinner for Khalidi that Obama attended in Chicago, Illinois, in 2003.Khalidi was leaving to become a professor at Columbia.

The paper reported that a young Palestinian-American woman recited a poem at the farewell party that accused the Israeli government of terrorism for its treatment of Palestinians and was highly critical of U.S. support of Israel.

The McCain campaign accused the Los Angeles paper of "intentionally suppressing" a videotape it obtained from that dinner and demanded that it release the footage.

The Times said it won't release the footage because a reporter promised a source that the video would not be made public.

Since the LA Times was the organization to originally break the story, it's not as if it has any other ulterior reasons to withhold the tape.

[General Zod]

I'm not sure why anyone would assume that the McCain campaign is telling the truth by this stage, but it's sort of obvious that whoever gave the tape to the LA Times did so on the condition of them not releasing the actual tape to the general public (probably because it gives away who the source is).

Not necessarily. The request could have just as easily been made when the film stopped rolling. But it would be stupidly easy to verify whether or not it was Obama regardless.

[Samuel]

He has been accused of having PLO ties.

Aren't they now recognized as a legitimate government for Palestine?

Looking at the man the only notable thing is that he is extremely anti-Israel. A little past the rational side with his apologetics and attacks, but not by much. Of course, wiki citing of his views could be wrong.

[salm]

He has been accused of having PLO ties.

Aren't they now recognized as a legitimate government for Palestine?

I don´t think this is the issue here anyway. The problem is that in the US it´s enough to be friends with an Arab or a Muslim in order to lose credibility and respect. This has been shown again and again in recent times and is highly disturbing.

[Davis 51]

Is there any actual evidence he has ties with the PLO? Regardless of the fact that the PLO is a legitimate representation of the Palestinian Government, I'd like to know. It sounds like the McCain camp just flat-out made it up.