Obama's friends

First there was his grandmother. Famously, he said he could no more divorce himself from his controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright than he could his white grandmother. But since he went on to say about that grandmother that she was

a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe

he did not so much divorce her as chuck her onto the trash. Then there was the indicted Chicago developer and political fundraiser Tony Rezko, his one-time friend with whom he had been involved in a land transaction. When this came to light, all of a sudden Obama realised

that it had been

a mistake to have been engaged with him at all in this or any other personal business dealing that would allow him, or anyone else, to believe that he had done me a favor.

Then there was William Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground, a terrorist group that bombed the Capitol, the Pentagon and the State Department in the 1970s. The Sunday Times reported:

Obama’s supporters say in response:

'…he was an 8-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost 40 years ago is ridiculous.’

Yeah, right. Somehow I doubt Ayers would be invited onto the platform at the possible coronation of Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate. Then there were the Palestinians.

Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people

Obama told Iowa voters in March. Two months later he was avowing:

…my starting point when I think about the Middle East is this enormous emotional attachment and sympathy for Israel, mindful of its history, mindful of the hardship and pain and suffering that the Jewish people have undergone, but also mindful of the incredible opportunity that is presented when people finally return to a land and are able to try to excavate their best traditions and their best selves.

Then there was his pastor Jeremiah Wright — the one for whom he would sooner divorce his grandmother than him. After Wright repeated his incendiary opinions, however, Obama suddenly discovered that Wright’s comments about the United States

over the last several months and over the last several years … are contrary to what I stand for and who I am… The person I saw yesterday was not the person I had come to know over 20 years…To some degree, I know one thing he said was true, he was never my spiritual adviser; he was never my spiritual mentor…

Most recently there was Robert Malley. As the Times reported:

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.’

Oh dear: Obama nevertheless has a very special fan club. Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef said:

'We like Mr. Obama and we hope that he will win the election.’

Aaargh! But wait -- no surprise here, surely, since Obama’s very own church bulletin last year re-published this encomium to Hamas, which sought to justify the genocidal Hamas charter as

an essentially revolutionary document born of the intolerable conditions under occupation more than 20 years ago.

Oh, sorry — that was on the mag's Pastor's Page which was written by Jeremiah Wright; and of course, Obama has now distanced himself from Pastor Wright (but not the church); and so the newly Wright-less Obama says of Hamas:

I’ve repeatedly said, and I mean what I say: since they are a terrorist organization, we should not be dealing with them until they recognize Israel, renounce terrorism, and abide by previous agreements.

I expect Hamas will be inconsolable.

Unfazed by the gowing pile of discards amonst Obama's friends and familiars, the Democratic party seems all but certain to crown Princess Obama as their presidential candidate. And then we'll see whether the American people will be played for suckers too.