McCain on Larry King made a few statements on Larry King that deserve some attention. The first is an apparent backtracking on the recent accusations of "socialism." The second is a continuation of an allegations on Professor Khalidi.
KING: You don't believe Barack Obama is a socialist, do you?
MCCAIN: No.
KING: Is this Palestinian [Rashid Khalidi] some sort of terrorist?
MCCAIN: We know that at that time, the PLO was a terrorist organization.
KING: He was PLO?
MCCAIN: Yes, yes -- that's what the allegation is, Larry.
Unfortunately, McCain and the associated campaign make allegations Obama and socialism (that McCain now seems to rebut), all the while their V.P. candidate made statements on "sharing the wealth" just weeks before she was selected as McCain's running mate. The comments on Professor Khalidi are similarly strange as, while McCain funded Khalidi's work (including one grant totaling nearly half a million dollars) in a relationship extending back to the 1990's, McCain now sees fit to not only use a relationship of Khalidi and Obama as a tactic, but also to raise dubious claims that the professor "was PLO".
McCain on Larry King made a few statements on Larry King that deserve some attention. The first is an apparent backtracking on the recent accusations of "socialism." The second is a continuation of an allegations on Professor Khalidi.
KING: You don't believe Barack Obama is a socialist, do you?
MCCAIN: No. But, I do believe -- I do believe that he's been in the far left of American politics. He has stated time after time that he believes in "spreading the wealth around." He's talked about courts that would redistribute the wealth.
KING: Is this Palestinian [Rashid Khalidi] some sort of terrorist?
MCCAIN: We know that at that time, the PLO was a terrorist organization.
KING: He was PLO?
MCCAIN: Yes, yes -- that's what the allegation is, Larry.
Unfortunately, McCain and the associated campaign make allegations Obama and socialism (that McCain now seems to rebut), all the while their V.P. candidate states just weeks before she was selected as McCain's running mate
[Palin] "we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs."[1][2]
John McCain sharpened his attack on presidential rival Barack Obama's economic proposals Saturday, accusing the Democrat of seeking to turn the United States into a socialist country and convert the IRS into a giant "welfare agency" that would dole out cash at Washington's discretion.
McCain, delivering a national radio address before setting out for stops Saturday in North Carolina and Virginia, said Obama's approach sounded "a lot like socialism."
"At least in Europe, the socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives," the Republican nominee said. "They use real numbers and honest language. And we should demand equal candor from Sen. Obama. Raising taxes on some in order to give checks to others is not a tax cut. It's just another government giveaway."[3]
The comments on Professor Khalidi are similarly strange as, while McCain funded Khalidi's work (including one grant totaling nearly half a million dollars) in a relationship extending back to the 1990's [4], McCain now sees fit to not only use a relationship of Khalidi and Obama as a tactic, but also to raise dubious claims that the professor "was PLO."
Another key purveyor of the smear campaign is Aaron Klein, an Orthodox Jew who is Jerusalem correspondent for WorldNetDaily. WND is notoriously disreputable, a sort of National Enquirer for the right (typical headline: "Sleaze Charge: 'I Took Drugs, Had Homo Sex With Obama'"). Klein made a name for himself by getting terrorists to say nice things about Democrats and allying himself with extremist elements of the Israeli right, whom he frequently quotes as sources in his articles - when he bothers to quote anyone at all. Klein originally called Hillary Clinton the "jihadist choice for president," but when Clinton stumbled, he turned his fire to Obama, attempting to expose his so-called "terrorist connections."
Klein penned two stories in late February wildly distorting Obama's links, from his days in Chicago, to pro-Palestinian activists like Rashid Khalidi, a respected professor of Middle East studies at Columbia University who previously taught at the University of Chicago (hardly a bastion of left-wing activism). Klein's story goes something like this: Obama sat on the board of a foundation in Chicago that gave a grant to the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), run by Khalidi's wife, which supposedly rejects Israel's existence; and Khalidi directed the PLO's Beirut press office and is a supporter "for Palestinian terror." (In fact, the AAAN focuses solely on social service work in Chicago and takes no position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Khalidi says he was never employed by the PLO; he has been a harsh critic of Palestinian suicide bombings and a longtime supporter of a two-state solution, and he has never been an adviser to Obama. As for Obama's past statements, at least in Chicago, being pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian is not a contradiction in terms.)
Once again, the facts mattered little, and Klein's stories gained an audience beyond the narrow confines of WND. Christian publicist Maria Sliwa sent Klein's articles to prominent reporters, the Tennessee GOP included his claims in a press release titled "Anti-Semites for Obama" and the Jewish Press, an Orthodox Brooklyn paper, reprinted his story about Khalidi. His latest article alleges that "terrorists worldwide would indeed be emboldened by an Obama election." As evidence, Klein quotes Ramadan Adassi, a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank's Askar refugee camp, who says an Obama victory would be an "important success. He won popularity in spite of the Zionists and the conservatives." In previous stories, Klein has quoted Adassi praising Cindy Sheehan, Rosie O'Donnell and Sean Penn. For a suspected terrorist, Adassi follows pop culture and US politics remarkably closely.
Despite Klein's questionable sourcing and scandalous accusations, mainstream reporters now call the Obama campaign to ask about Klein's articles. He also reports for John Batchelor, a right-wing talk-radio host for KFI-AM in Los Angeles who has written a series of outlandish columns about Obama for the conservative magazine Human Events and repeatedly pushed the Obama smears on his radio show. According to an e-mail of Batchelor's obtained by The Nation, Batchelor says that information about Obama and Khalidi came via "oppo research."
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