Actually, the first photo is from 1998 when Said was the guest speaker, not the 2003 farewell party for Khalidi (according to what I have been seeing around the web) — it was Obama seated next to Said when Said was the honored keynote speaker in 1998 at a fundraising event for Khalidi’s activist group.
I find it astonishing that Obama was selected out of all the radical academics and activists in the Chicago area to be seated next to the guest of honor. Why not Khalidi, why not any one of a number of other Chicago radicals? Granted, people may have been expecting big things from Obama, but at that point in time there were plenty of Chicago area radical academics and activists who were much more prominent. I suspect that Obama and Said had some significant personal connection, probably going back to Obama’s student days at Columbia.
Oops, you’re right. But I wonder what they had to say then too. Can’t blame him for the fundraising, after all believe Khalidi was one of Obama’s biggest fundraisers. hand washes the other in Chicago politics, and political leprocy is never a concern.