2008 Primaries Thread 2: THE QUICKENING

wright discussion starts at about 3:20 xpost

Just came here to post this article about that Ann Lewis quote re: Israel

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/18/top_clinton_deputy_the_role_of/

Huckabee is almost the epitome of a rational person whose beliefs are antithetical to mine (I say "almost" because I am not convinced he's rational).

Huckabee should run for Senate when his governorship term is up - he could become the new McCain - ie., the Dem's favorite Republican maverick.

he should replace jay leno as host of the tonight show

he's more rational than tyra lol

damnit I want to read that TPM thing about the Israel quote but I keep getting a browser error. Fuck an Internet Explorer.

I would buy satellite radio if I could listen to the Morning Zoo with Mike Huckabee and DMX.

In Tuesday's Washington Post, Dana Milbank reports on a debate between McCain, Obama and Clinton deputies at a United Jewish Communities(the old UJA-Federation) event in Washington on Monday.

According to Milbank, it was the usual Jewish organizational political event where candidates or their representatives try to outdo themselves by demonstrating their "fealty to Israel."

Ann Lewis, a top Clinton aide, tore into Obama (she is the campaign's main Obama attacker on Jewish issues) for having said that "unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel, then you're anti-Israel" and that the "the debate in Israel is much more open than it often is in the United States."

Lewis rejects that view. "The role of the presidents of the United States is to support decisions made by the people of Israel." Netanyahu, Rabin? Not our business to prefer one over another. Not our business to help Israel achieve peace and security rather than maintain the deadly status quo.

That's an amazing statement in so many ways.

The role of the President of the United States is to implement policies that best benefit not the people of Israel but the people of the United States. That is why George HW Bush and Bill Clinton openly tilted toward Rabin and Peres during their terms in office. Doing so was right for America, and for Israel too.

In any case, the role of the President is not to "support decisions" made by Israelis, Brits, Germans or anybody but Americans.

Lewis was debating Ambassador Dan Kurtzer, an Orthodox Jew who was our ambassador to both Egypt and Israel and is an outspoken Obama supporter. I don't know about Lewis but Kurtzer has been involved in Jewish life as long as I have, which is our whole lives. He said the anti-Obama smears in the Jewish community are lies spread by campaign "attack dogs."

That is true, of course. No one believe Obama is anti-Israel just as nobody believes he is anti-white, a Muslim or an anti-American. But that won't stop rival campaigns and their deputies from spreading the lies.

Nor will it stop Jews from supporting Obama. No doubt Milbank is correct. There probably was alot of anti-Obama sentiment at the UJC meeting. So what? The overwhelming majority of American Jews were neither in the room nor represented by anyone who was. Jews have voted in the primaries like the rest of Democrats. Jews under 60 are overwhelmingly for Obama, over 60 for Clinton. In neither age category, is it Israel that determines their vote but rather what's good for America.

Yesterday I spoke to a student at a large midwestern univerrsity with thousands of Jewish students. He said he was the "loneliest kid on campus." "I'm Jewish, I'm male and for Clinton. I think I'm the only one. All the Jewish kids are for Obama."

Even the women, I asked.

"There are a few Jewish women for Hillary but they keep their heads down. Hillary does not have much Jewish support. Period."

That is no surprise. Jews have been at the forefront of anti-war and civil rights activities in this country from time immemorial. It would be startling if the children of the kids who came to Washington by the hundreds of thousands to protest the Vietnam war and then worked to elected Bobby Kennedy, Gene McCarthy and George McGovern had shifted rightward. They haven't.

The older folks (with the exception of types like me who are pretty comon among Jews) just don't get the kids' music. What's new about that?

Hmm, apparently Huckabee has denied he has any designs on the Senate (and his governorship is already over):

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20080308%5cACQRTT200803082111RTTRADERUSEQUITY_0046.htm&&mypage=newsheadlines&title=Huckabee%20Says%20He%20Won't%20Run%20Against%20Pryor

this just in:

michigan mulligan: so not gonna happen

Thanks, was just going to do that - that's the TPM article you couldn't read, Hurting 2. (xpost)

xx, that is

rational /= 'reasonable' dan! pretty much everyone on this thread (far as i know - i could be wrong) is reasonable. even morbs is REASONABLE in a enraged/engorged mclaughlin-germond luvchild way. pretty fucking slim few are RATIONAL. i mean dear god was this place always like this? ponderous! anyhow what gets me about huck is that his reasonableness is clearly rooted in his faith as much as his batshit 'lock up the gays!' unreasonableness.

yeah, basically says what I thought.

Huckabee should run for Senate when his governorship term is up - he could become the new McCain - ie., the Dem's favorite Republican maverick.

picturing a Wire season-closing montage set to "You Can't Always Get What You Want" with McCain walking morosely down the steps of the Senate, followed by a Huck's Scarborough appearance.

obama is slamming out historic speeches every day now

dude's the lil wayne of speeches

" - sasha frere jones"

I still wouldn't rule out a 2010 Senate run for Huckabee, when the other Arkansas senate seat is up for election. I think that he probably was just ready for a rest from campaigning this year, and the goodwill and recognition he built up this year will still be around in 2010.

even morbs is REASONABLE in a enraged/engorged mclaughlin-germond

ewwww, ewww, ewww

So none of you really care about where Obama's getting his $$$ from, huh? Even if it's the subprime/pre- and post-post-Katrina bandits? I thought his was a NEW politics...

thank god we have a 100% clean money candidate like Ralph Nader with such a realistic shot of winning the white house

Hooray for impotent moral absolutes!

Three cheers for accomplishing nothing!

So none of you really care about where Obama's getting his $$ from, huh?

He's not demonstrated any inclination to return political favors based on donations in his presidential campaign, so until that happens, I can't say I care all that much.

lol nader's money is pretty far from clean.

Wasn't that the joek lol

Well observed there, balls.

you people kinda deserve what yer gonna get.

What's that going to be?

Whereas you will continue to live happily in the nation of Morbius.

Ixnay on the Uckabeehay as Enatorsay, easeplay.

anyway, I guess Perrin has been lurking...

What's your favorite speech, Morbs? What sets the standard for you?

pp what can you tell me about yr boy mark pryor? some hot chick i know (jena knows her too) is interning w/ him.

eazy he already said kucinich or sharpton up above.

McGovern '72 (balls, indeed)

TPM:EC on why the Michigan mulligan wouldn't have mattered anyway:

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/michigan_post.php

xp: not speech, candidate.

But, but Morbs, what's your standard for a politician who has won an election?

you people kinda deserve what yer gonna get.

-- Dr Morbius, Wednesday, March 19, 2008 12:54 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

The fact that nu-ilx doesn't let us ban people from individual threads?

yeah the way he caved on eagleton, what fortitude. if only obama had been brave enough to handle this rev. wright situation the same way.

I SEE, NO MISTAKES ALLOWED

i mean jesus mcgovern wasn't even the best candidate in 72 for fuxx sake.

Mark Pryor is probably more conservative than Giuliani or Bloomberg, a classic blue-dog Democrat. His dad was governor and senator as well. He's popular in the state and is running unopposed for re-election this year. (He's only served one term so far, making the fear of the Republicans not sacrificing anyone even more astonishing.)

Huckabee versus Pryor would've been a close race. They're both social conservatives with a huge populist touch. If Huckabee runs against Blanche Lincoln in 2010, it won't be as close for Huck. He lost a lot of support from local Republicans during the primaries, he'll be quite a bit more faded by then, and everyone just adores our Senator Blanche.

where were you in '72, balls?

Don't answer. seeya.

lol at morbs 'caving in to nixon campaign at a time when liberalism was still powerful/relevant is okey dokey - not caving in to limbaugh/hannity at a time when liberalism is dead/buried is wishy washy' twostep.

You know Morbs if you dropped the sanctimony I imagine a lotta people in this thread might be more receptive to your points. And Dennis Perrin is the worst kind of bombthrower.

that dennis perrin post could be michael savage

Know who McGovern's campaign manager was?