No Wonder They Endorsed Him

I didn't slap Barack Obama over the recent ringing endorsement that Hamas gave him. No politician can control unwanted endorsements once they are made. But maybe Hamas had a reason to believe that Obama would be willing to welcome their overtures. Since one of his advisers happened to be regularly meeting with Hamas.

One of Barack Obama’s Middle East policy advisers disclosed yesterday that he had held meetings with the militant Palestinian group Hamas – prompting the likely Democratic nominee to sever all links with him.

Robert Malley told The Times that he had been in regular contact with Hamas, which controls Gaza and is listed by the US State Department as a terrorist organisation. Such talks, he stressed, were related to his work for a conflict resolution think-tank and had no connection with his position on Mr Obama’s Middle East advisory council.

“I’ve never hidden the fact that in my job with the International Crisis Group I meet all kinds of people,” he added.

Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Mr Obama, responded swiftly: “Rob Malley has, like hundreds of other experts, provided informal advice to the campaign in the past. He has no formal role in the campaign and he will not play any role in the future.” The rapid departure of Mr Malley followed 48 hours of heated clashes between John McCain, the Republican nominee-elect, and Mr Obama over Middle East policy.

I wouldn't know Robert Malley if I tripped over him in the street. But you can bet your bottom dollar that Hamas knew he was associated with the Obama campaign. This shows a shocking lack of political and diplomatic acumen on both Malley's part and of the Obama campaign. Whether Malley intended to or not, he was seen by Hamas as speaking for a potential President of the United States. He should not have offered to advise the campaign without telling them of his involvement with Hamas. The Obama campaign should have vetted Malley before letting him anywhere near the candidate.

And if the Obama campaign knew of Malley's connection, that raises this to a whole different level.

Farewell To Hillary

Charles Krauthammer analyzes what Hillary Clinton did wrong on her way to losing to Barack Obama.

But going left proved disastrous for Clinton. It abolished all significant policy differences between her and Obama, the National Journal's 2007 most liberal senator. On health care, for example, her attempts to turn a minor difference in the definition of universality into a major assault on Obama fell flat. With no important policy differences separating them, the contest became one of character and personality. Matched against this elegant, intellectually nimble, hugely talented newcomer, she had no chance of winning that contest.

She tried everything. Her charges that he was a man of nothing but words came off as a petulant, envious attack on eloquence. The power to inspire may not be sufficient to qualify for the presidency, but it is hardly a liability.

She tried a silly plagiarism charge, then settled for the experience card. In a change election, this was not a brilliant strategy. It forced her to dwell on the 1990s, playing candidate of the past to Obama's candidate of the future. Her studied attempts to embellish her experience led her into a thicket of confabulated Bosnian sniper fire.

It wasn't until late in the fourth quarter that she found the seam in Obama's defense. In fact, Obama handed her the playbook with Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Michelle Obama's comments about never having been proud of America and Obama's own guns-and-God condescension toward small-town whites.

Actually, it wasn't Hillary who found that line of attack and she really didn't exploit it effectively, either. I think Clinton's failure comes down to arrogance and an inability to get good campaign staffers. She chose people for personal loyalty, not for their campaign smarts. She ended up being out-maneuvered by a neophyte.

Pink Loons

Well, since nothing else appears to be working for them, Code Pink is trying to enlist witches to help them protest the Marine recruiting office in Berkeley, California.

Code Pink is now resorting to witchcraft to beef up the number of its supporters protesting Berkeley's controversial Marine Corps Recruiting Center.

The women's anti-war group has told ralliers to come equipped with spells and pointy hats Friday for "Witches, clowns and sirens day," the last of the group's weeklong homage to Mother's Day.

"Women are coming to cast spells and do rituals and to impart wisdom to figure out how we're going to end war," Zanne Sam Joi of Bay Area Code Pink told FOXNews.com.

The group's week of themed protests, which included days to galvanize grannies and bring-your-daughter-to-protest, appears to have done little to boost its flagging numbers.

A FOX News camera, which has a 24/7 live shot of the recruiting center's front door, recorded little action, and the gatherings have, until this point, been ill attended.

Apparently Code Pink's tenuous grip on reality has gone altogether. Ah, well. The best thing to come out in this article is that the protests have accomplished exactly one thing: increased recruiting.

But if events this week are an attempt by anti-war protesters to remarket their cause, the Marine recruiters in Berkeley tell FOXNews.com that Code Pink's presence outside their office has helped — not hindered — their mission.

"Ironically, it's actually helped us by putting our name out. We're now well known. And people know who we are, and where we are, and they come in to talk to us about enlisting. They've gotten us the publicity that we could've never afforded to pay for ourselves," (Captain John Paul) Wheatcroft told FOXNews.com.

"Just in the last three weeks, 10 people came in looking to apply, looking to become Marine officers, and that's much higher than normal," he said.

It would appear that the witches got burned.