Are you really suggesting that it is off limits to talk about Barack Obama's association with Reverend Wright and Bill Ayers?

How many candidates for president could have had even the most fleeting association with figures as controversial as these men and survive?

The problem seems to me to be that, until they were in desperate straits, none of Obama's opponents dared talk about something that in any other candidate would have been thrown in his face since day one. The media as it did in the lead up to the war in Iraq has been derelict in their functions.

All of this should have been looked at carefully by the media during the primaries and even before. Now, when it is too late, it is all going explode in last minute sewer politics.

Geez, Michael... looks like this has turned into early troll-bait. Can that vile Vlad be far behind??

For what it's worth, I'll never forget that dark day as long as I live. When news arrived of Rabin's assassination I was immediately struck by thought analogous to 'the day the music died' - albeit of obvious political connotation.

That is when I knew -just knew- that Clinton's unprecedented efforts to move the ball forward in the mideast was going to be for naught; that the forces of hatred, ignorance, and darkness would ultimately prevail.

But -geez- even I had no way of envisioning the depth and breadth that darkness would ultimately extend.

Excellent food-for-thought post, M. Grazi.

I think the connection between Obama and Rabin is wildly far fetched... I am reminded of when Lloyd Bentsen told Dan Quayle "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy".

What both Leah Rabin and MJ (yibadel l'haim aruchim) are talking about is supression of free speech against their political opponents. Neither McCain nor his political supporters wants any harm (G-d forbid) to Obama or his supporters. Howver, if someone believes that his election as President would endanger the US (as you MJ feel about McCain) he has every right to say what he thinks in order to warn the voters, which is exactly what you are doing about McCain. Bringing up a candidate's character and past associations is very legitimate and goes all the way back to the beginnings of the US. No one has a "right" to be President. They have a right to try and also the citizens have a right to choose and decide based on the information they have about the candidates.

During the mass terror that Stalin unleashed in the USSR during the 1930's, it was argued that expression of any opposition to Stalin AUTOMATICALLY meant that the person expressing this opposition wanted Stalin dead, so therefore the must extreme punishments were warranted against such a person (death penalty or long years in a GULAG concentration camp in Siberia). Perhaps Leah Rabin felt the same way..that all expressions of opposition to Rabin and the Oslo Agreements should have been suppressed. However, in Israel, the long ruling Labor Party had a problem tolerating expressions of opposition to their rule. This is not the case in the US, where any hint of suppression of freedom of speech traditionally triggered a reaction to prevent this violation of a sacred American right. Interestingly enough , it was usually the "progressives" who were the first to stand up in opposition to attempts to silence people. Thus, I find it odd that a "progressive" like MJ should demand silencing people and the fact that someone like Leah Rabin who came from a very different background than Americans do does not serve as a good precedent.