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."
He continued, "(Obama's) position on Hamas is very clear. Until
they renounce violence, until they recognize Israel's right to
exist and recognize previous agreements, we shouldn't have any
contact with him."
I followed up by asking Axelerod why Obama didn't urge Jimmy
Carter to not meet with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.
"He said today that he fundamentally disagrees with Jimmy
Carter," Axelrod said.
But I reemphasized that Obama never said that Carter shouldn't
do the meeting, and then Axelrod launched into a straw man argument
about personal freedom.
"He said that it was ill advised, that he shouldn't do it, but
that he can't. We actually don't have any ability. This is the
United States of America. We don't have any ability to go seize
someone and neither does the President of the United States, who
also asked Mr. Carter not to do it."
But nobody is urging Obama to seize Carter. The debate is over
why he can't take a moral stand against an ex-president who is
meeting with a terrorist group.
I began asking another follow up question on why Obama said Don
Imus
should be fired, which was a private matter, but would not take
a moral stand in the case of Carter.
But a frustrated Axelrod turned away and took another
question.
I asked Hillary Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson about the
matter, but he declined comment.
topics:
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Israel
