CNN reported that Obama was "clearly uncomfortable" criticizing Carter for meeting with Hamas - now we know why. Having properly fallen on his sword, you can expect Malley to reappear as an Assistant Secretary of State in Obama's administration. Maybe they'll even give him his dream job of imperiously demanding that Israelis take "risks for peace":

A principal Middle East adviser to US presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama resigned on Friday after reports surfaced that he had been in repeated contact with members of Hamas... Malley interviewed Hamas officials, as well as Israeli, Palestinian and other international officials, while researching reports he wrote for the International Crisis Group, a nonpartisan conflict-resolution think tank... Yet despite his justifications, Malley chose on Friday to resign from the campaign so as to keep critics from getting distracted... "This was a distraction for me; this was a distraction for them," he said Friday night. "It is absurd, but that is what this campaign is about." The Obama campaign downplayed the development, emphasizing that Malley's role was informal from the start.

It's the logical conclusion of Obama's facile and unpersuasive distinction between why it's OK to negotiate with Iran but not OK to negotiate with Hamas. No wonder Hamas endorses Obama for President - an enthusiastic show of support that, by the by, the Obama campaign is "flattered" to accept.

You can tell that the Obama campaign is at a loss when they use both their standard "he's not really an adviser" argument and their standard "every criticism of us is a distraction" argument. Powerline went through the trouble of debunking the "Malley wasn't an top adviser" nonsense while NRO posted the Obama campaign's own earlier press releases and demonstrated that he was on Obama's "Middle East advisory council". The "distraction" argument though - that's a powerful and original innovation.

The irony, of course, is that Obama's remaining foreign policy advisers still quite open about how they're itching to screw Israel once they get in power. And yet that gets very little media play despite the Israel Lobby's stranglehold on the American media.

References:
* CNN: Obama, Clinton "Clearly Uncomfortable" Criticizing Carter's Hamas Visit [MR]
* Key Obama Middle East adviser resigns [JPost]
* Obama's Anti-Hamas Stance Short On Change And Hope, Long On Rank Hypocrisy [MR]
* A Hamas problem for Obama? [Fox News]
* Obama strategist "flattered" by Hamas tool comparing him to JFK [Hot Air]
* Obama Defenders: What Brzezinski Guy? (Plus: That's Not Even Their Worst Argument) [MR]
* CNN T-Shirts Provide Hours Of Entertainment, Uncomfortable Reminder Of Absurd Anti-Israel Bias [MR]
* A sacking long overdue [Powerline]
* Hate Israel? Yes, We Can [NRO Corner]
* Top Obama Foreign Policy Adviser: No Seriously, We Are Totally Going To Screw Israel When We Get Into Power [MR]

Previously:
* Obama: Meeting With Hamas Is Wrong - But Meeting With Hamas's Holocaust-Denying Genocidal Iranian Sponsors Is The Best Idea Evuh
* Obama May Or May Not Think That Israel Is An Important US Ally
* Obama Discovers That Iran Has Nukes, Circa 2011 (Plus: Sophisticated Foreign Policy Expertise About Iran Is Very Sophisticated)