Hamas Endorses Obama; Campaign Flattered

I wouldn’t call it a good thing when your candidacy is endorsed by a terrorist organization… but it’s even worse that Obama’s campaign is apparently flattered by the endorsement.

In the spin room following the debate, I asked Barack Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, to respond to a report that a top Hamas official had endorsed Obama.

“I have no idea about that, I have not heard that,” Axelrod replied.

I told him that the words were spoken by Ahmed Yousef, and offered to read him the quote, which I I proceeded to do from my Blackberry: “we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle…”

Axelrod focused on the Kennedy portion of the quote, and was “flattered” by the comparison.

“I like John Kennedy too,” Axelrod said. “That’s about the only thing we have in common with this gentleman from Hamas. We all agree that John Kennedy was a great president, and it’s flattering when anybody says that Barack Obama would follow in his footsteps.”

Michael Goldfarb says it all:

Note the slipperiness. Axelrod first distances himself from the “gentleman from Hamas,” but in the next breath he embraces the gentleman/terrorists’ comparison to Kennedy, pronouncing it “flattering.” Only recently Obama declared that “nobody has spoken out more fiercely on the issue of anti-Semitism than I have.” Apparently there’s an exception for when anti-Semites compare Obama to Kennedy. Then all bets are off!

Perhaps the Obama campaign would be equally flattered by an endorsement from Osama bin Laden if the endorsement compared Obama to MLK.

Tags: endorsements, Global War on Terrorism

41 comments April 17th, 2008

Judge Robert Bork Endorses Mitt Romney

Now, this is a big endorsement for Romney.

Today, noted conservative jurist Judge Robert Bork endorsed Governor Mitt Romney for President of the United States.

Joining Romney for President, Judge Bork said, “Throughout my career, I have had the honor of serving under several Presidents and am proud to make today’s endorsement. No other candidate will do more to advance the conservative judicial movement than Governor Mitt Romney. He knows firsthand how the judicial branch can profoundly affect the future course of a state and a nation. I greatly admired his leadership in Massachusetts in the way that he responded to the activist court’s ruling legalizing same-sex ‘marriage.’ His leadership on the issue has served as a model to the nation on how to respect all of our citizens while respecting the rule of law at the same time.”

Judge Bork continued, “Our next President may be called upon to make more than one Supreme Court nomination, and Governor Romney is committed to nominating judges who take their oath of office seriously and respect the rule of law in our nation. I also support Governor Romney because of his character, his integrity and his stands on the major issues facing the United States.”

With judicial nominations being a big concern regarding who the next president is, getting Bork’s endorsement should help Romney in these crucial weeks before the Iowa Caucuses. The question is, will this eclipse the Tuttman/Tevares story? It might do just that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Huckabee camp will respond by bringing that up again.

Tags: 2008 Campaign, endorsements, Judge Robert Bork

5 comments December 15th, 2007