OBAMA'S PROBLEM WITH JEWISH VOTERS

Seems the Barack Obama campaign will be facing trouble in critical swing states if he prevails, as expected, over Hillary Clinton, and faces the Republican nominee, John McCain, in November. In a spot of good news, Obama's apparent coziness and unfortunate naivité with regard to the bellicose stances of Hamas and Iran have unsettled many Jewish voters who traditionally vote the Democratic ticket. The Washington Times explains Obama's dilemma in an editorial, excerpted here:

AS HE MOVES CLOSER TO WINNING the Democratic presidential nomination, it is becoming increasingly apparent that Barack Obama has a huge problem winning the trust of Jewish voters, and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain knows it. On Friday, Mr. McCain criticized Mr. Obama for advocating unconditional talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who last week called Israel a "stinking corpse" which is doomed to disappear. In October, Mr. Obama attacked then-Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton for supporting a nonbinding Senate resolution declaring Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization—which it manifestly is. (The resolution passed the Senate 76-22 in September, winning the votes of almost half of Senate Democrats.)

On Friday, Robert Malley, an Obama advisor, resigned from the senator's campaign as reports surfaced that he had met with the terrorist group Hamas. Last month, Hamas political advisor Ahmad Yousef said on WABC Radio in New York that he hoped Mr. Obama would be elected president. Mr. McCain said Hamas would never want him to be president, "so if Mr. Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly."

Read it all.