Lisa Schiffren, National Review
Pamela Geller (aka "Atlas Shrugs") has a fascinating piece here, explaining why Hillary Clinton really bailed out of Monday's rally at the U.N., organized by Jewish leaders, to demonstrate opposition to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime's goals. My first guess, last week, was that she pulled out when Sarah Palin accepted because the Obama campaign did not want a head to head clash, and asked (told, that is) her to. I could imagine too, that she did not want to be eclipsed by the new star power that Palin would bring to such an event. This made sense given that the Obama campaign refused to send anyone else as a surrogate -- and then used very thuggish tactics to intimidate the rally's organizers into disinviting Palin.
But, as Geller points out, Hillary is not in competition with Palin. She is looking to 2012. She argues that Hillary decision to bail was a direct hit at Obama:
Hillary did not want to be the one to represent Obama. Obama's position on Iran is sophomoric, idiotic and dangerous. Hillary has been more responsible and she was not going to clean up his mess.... Clinton was not going to be the face of Obama's Iranian foreign policy. Obama has said he would meet with Ahmedinejad without condition -- essentially rewarding him for his nuclear arsenal and genocidal threats. No way was Hillary going to pave that road for him, so she pulled out forcing Obama to face the jihad music.
In withdrawing she forced him send someone in his stead -- but who? Biden? Joseph Biden is the poster boy for Iran appeasement. His record on Iran is so weak that he could never make the case for a muscular policy on Iran's nukes and Ahmedinejad's genocidal threats. There was talk of Wexler, but he has his own problems (residential fraud), and he has lied about Obama's positions and support of the Jews. Sending a silly Florida representative would have spoken volumes on the importance Obama assigns to a nuclear, Jew-hating Iran. Besides, Wexler would have paled next to Palin.
Hillary's withdrawal ... may have seemed to have backfired because folks were so disappointed with her, (but) I am not so sure it was a failure. Palin, in the speech she would have given, quoted statements that Clinton has made against the Iranian regime. Palin never mentioned Obama, but spoke of Clinton most admiringly. The Jews in America cannot rest easy knowing Obama did not think the existential threat to Israel and the free world important enough to address.
Geller goes on to say that "Clinton could not have known that Jewish lay leadership would cave to their left wing activists, but that was of little import to her." . . . |