Obama Advisers 'Deferred Questions' on Hamas or Fatah Coordinating Security For His Visit

(By Jim Geraghty of National Review Online) - Major Garrett of Fox News clarifies a bit on the Obama adviser's recent comment to the press:

“It is not going to be a political speech,” said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. “When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.

“But he is not president of the United States,” a reporter reminded the adviser…

Like Garrett, it's easy to believe that the adviser wanted to compare Obama's speech to non-partisan, not-terribly-political speeches given by the president while traveling overseas, and it just came out clumsily.

More disturbing, however, was the advisers' inability to address the report that the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades are assisting with security for Obama's visit to the West Bank.

One other note, the campaign deferred questions about Obama’s security arrangements in Ramallah. We should receive a more precise read-out on that tomorrow. Either Fatah or Hamas must coordinate security for this visit and that could complicate matters for Obama. Tony Blair recently canceled a trip to the territories over this and other issues.

Never mind the political fallout of an American presidential candidate being protected by members of an organization classified as a terrorist group; one wonders if any one of Obama's 300 foreign policy advisers objected to this arrangement simply out of regard for the senator's safety. How reliable are the ranks of Hamas or the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades? How do we know one of them doesn't want to write himself into the history books?