I asked a smart friend what he thought noteworthy about the Khalidi controversy:
"I suppose the vilification of Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians ('neo-Nazis'?) that not one American public figure but Powell has said a word about."
Oh my. Brings tears to my eyes. I pray for my country, and for President Barack Hussein Obama. P.S. Where is the train of intellectuals for Khalidi? NYRB? Leon Wieseltier?
At least Obama hasn't denounced Khalidi yet.
It's nice that Powell has spoken out against anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination. It would have been real nice if he was as in touch with his conscience when he decided to lie to the world in order to allow an illegal invasion and occupation of a defenseless country which has turned into a genocide, all in the name of Eretz Israel.
The intellectual community does not regard McCain's actions as consequential. They accurately see it as desparate, the action of a dying approach.
I don't see it even hitting the press that I read, except as a mosquito.
I don't think that many have read Khalidi either. I haven't.
Obama didn't denounce Ayers either. He didn't praise him, nor denounce him.
He correctly avoided inferences of guilt by association, pro or con.
He is the man within his control, and he is the man that is to be judged on merit.
I agree with Richard Witty here.
Obama's intellectual curiosity is a blessing much needed as a practical matter by the USA–I hope he is elected; that will be a first in our politics right up there with his mixed ethnicity.