(The Washington Post) - Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is engaged in a concerted effort to reassure Jewish leaders in the face of an increasingly aggressive Republican campaign to question his tolerance and his commitment to supporting Israel.
In a typical attack, the Tennessee Republican Party, under the headline "Anti-Semites for Obama," said Monday that it was joining "a growing chorus of Americans concerned about the future of the nation of Israel, the only stable democracy in the Middle East, if Sen. Barack Hussein Obama is elected president of the United States."
Two controversial Chicago figures - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Obama's church - have figured prominently in the criticism of Obama. In Tuesday's Democratic debate in Cleveland, Obama disavowed an endorsement from Farrakhan but did not directly answer a question about Wright once having said that Farrakhan "epitomizes greatness."