Obama Scoots to the Center at AIPAC
Just a day after clinching the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama appeared before the gathering of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), as John McCain had done earlier in the week.
His mission: reaching out to American Jews, many of whom have expressed concern over his choice of Middle East advisors, his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright (who called Israel a “dirty” word), his past relationships with Palestinian activists and his position on meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmajinedad.
Ironically, his address came on the same day that embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was set to meet with President George W. Bush. For Olmert, facing a bribery scandal likely to end his tenure imminently, this is likely his last official visit to the White House.
The implication of the day was clear: by year’s end both countries will have new leadership.
Obama’s speech was noteworthy both for what he said and for what he did not – and for what he said differently than in the past.
As for what he said, he began by suggesting, as he has done before, that nefarious emails making their way across the Internet had given Jews the wrong idea about him:
I want to say that I know some provocative emails have been circulating throughout Jewish communities across the country. A few of you may have gotten them. They’re filled with tall tales and dire warnings about a certain candidate for President. And all I want to say is – let me know if you see this guy named Barack Obama, because he sounds pretty frightening.
He then recited his personal devotion to Israel, correctly related his great uncle’s role in liberating Buchenwald (he previously had mangled the tale, indicating it was his uncle and the concentration camp was Auschwitz). He criticized U.S. foreign policy under President George W. Bush, and said that he remains devoted to Israel, promising to maintain Israel’s military advantage over its enemies.
He also declared: “The long road to peace requires Palestinian partners committed to making the journey. We must isolate Hamas unless and until they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and abide by past agreements.”
What he did not say is how he intended to pressure Israel’s enemies to accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state or how negotiations could succeed on his watch in the absence of a responsible negotiating partner. Nor did he explain the distinction between excluding terrorists from the negotiating table and negotiating with the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, Iran.
He also did not say how he would force Syria out of Lebanon, although he had many nice words of support for the U.N. resolution on the subject:
I also believe that the United States has a responsibility to support Israel’s efforts to renew peace talks with the Syrians. We must never force Israel to the negotiating table, but neither should we ever block negotiations when Israel’s leaders decide that they may serve Israeli interests. As President, I will do whatever I can to help Israel succeed in these negotiations. And success will require the full enforcement of Security Council Resolution 1701 in Lebanon, and a stop to Syria’s support for terror. It is time for this reckless behavior to come to an end.
What Obama said differently than in the past is what caused the most stir. Last September he skipped the vote to the Kyl-Liebermann Amendment classifying the Iranian National Guard as a terrorist organization (he opposed it and defended his opposition in its debate) . Other prominent Democrats including Hillary Clinton, fellow Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid all voted in favor of the measure. At the time, and in a subsequent debate, Obama justified his vote, claiming it would empower the Bush administration to attack Iran as part of the war on Iraq. His website reiterated that position.
But that was then, this was AIPAC. In his speech, he spoke out in favor of “boycotting firms associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, whose Quds force has rightly been labeled a terrorist organization.” Well that would be the vote he opposed.
Simple question: Did Obama lie to get the nomination, or is he lying now? McCain probably can’t ask it, but a lot of other people should.
Surely Jewish voters are too smart to fall for his mendacity?
Am I really the only person (other than Abbas) who noticed that he pledged that Jerusalem is and shall remain the undivided capital of Israel? Should we point out to him that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel and that Jerusalem is currently a divided (and hotly contested) city?
“The newly-minted presumptive Democratic nominee…adjusted his stance on some key issues – like Iran. A sign of shifts to come?”
Well, yes and no.
“Yes,” if you consider Obama’s “shock” about Rev. Wright, Rezko, etcetera, etcetera, a “shift.”
I’d call it the same old “shifty” weasling of an inexperienced double-talker. He isn’t the first and won’t be the last – of note though is how he’s equally unconvincing with or without teleprompter.
“Am I really the only person (other than Abbas) who noticed that he pledged that Jerusalem is and shall remain the undivided capital of Israel? Should we point out to him that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel and that Jerusalem is currently a divided (and hotly contested) city?”
Oh, IAEE, Abbas…. Which Abbas is that? Are you talking about Mahmoud Abbas who wrote that thesis as a student in the Soviet Union denying the Holocaust or someone else? There are so many.
The more I hear Obama the more I think Ahmadinejad. Obama is lying through his teeth. This guy is obviously modeling himself on Ahmadinejad. The lying president of Islamic regime lied through his teeth during his campaign. The most notable was when he was interviewed on the state TV about the stricter Islamic dress code if he became the president. He replied “Really, is our problem now the style of our young people’s hair? Our young people can wear whatever they like and it is not up to you and me. We must attend more important issues. The people have different styles. Why do you belittle the people? This is an insult to our people to tell them what they should wear.”
As soon as he came to power, his government security forces harassed, arrested and persecuted thousands of young Iranians for their hair styles and their not wearing taliban style cloths.
The difference and I think Obama is forgetting is that Ahmadinejad can say something and do the opposite because his regime is despotic and rules with an iron fist and there is no freedom of press to question him. There is no accountability in the Islamic regime. How can a presidential candidate change his position on almost every issue according to the audience?! I guess he is campaigning for ‘change’. Somebody ought to tell him that the ‘change’ campaign does not mean he should change his position every week and explain what his campaign organisers had in mind by ‘change’!!!
He is the Bobble Head Candidate. But before we wake up to the fact that he is nodding to everyone it will be too late. I recall that Clinton won his second term because he was advised to move from left to center if he wanted to win a second term. He did and he won.
I have a question for those out there who are smarter than me, , I’d like to know why no one is asking the Dems how those early primaries would/might have gone had if we had seen the Rev. Wright sermons, known about Obama’s close association with Bill Ayres, had the liberal press not swept the Obama/Rezko sweetheart real estate scandal under the rug? Remember, many of those early delegates were picked up pre- Wright, pre- Rezko, pre- Ayres, pre- Fr. Michael Pfleger, and pre- knowing much of anything about the real Obama. Does anyone not doubt that we might be looking at a different presumptive Democratic nominee if these salient issues had been in front of the voting public from the outset?
This is something that has been gnawing at me as I have watched the last 5 out of 7 less important Democratic primaries go to Billary Clinton with approximately 30+% of the exit polled Dems saying they no longer thought BHO was completely honest and trustworthy.
If John McCain and his team can’t make soup from this mismash I’d be very surprised.
The Rev. Wright stated it very clear if anyone was listening. “Obama has to says what he says to get elected”. A continious change of position on a subject tells me that he has no real principles or dignity. A real leader would state this is what “I believe in” and stick to it.
@Gene,
I’m well aware of Rev. Wright’s statement, and I applaud his direct honesty for “tellin’ it like it is”, that is to say, he recognizes that politicians will say whatever they think it will take to win. He got himself, his Church, and 20 years of close association with the Obama family thrown under the bus because it was politically expedient to do so. That he feels no resentment for this speaks to his character, (however you might feel about that)…
The question I was asking, prolly badly, is that Super Tuesday, in general, refers to the Tuesday in February or March of a presidential election year when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to national conventions at which each party’s presidential candidates are officially nominated. More delegates can be won on Super Tuesday than on any other single day of the primary calendar, and, accordingly, candidates seeking the presidency must do well on this day to secure their party’s nomination. In 2008, Super Tuesday was February 5. On this date 24 states held primaries or caucuses, with 52% of all pledged Democratic Party delegates at stake. Obama did well on Super Tuesday. His true character had not yet been revealed.
My time line may be off a bit, but if I recall correctly, Fox News broke the Rev. Wright story in March, Obama had already won a significant number of delegates before the Wright sermons, the Bill Ayres association, and much of the facts about the Rezko connection came to light. Billary was playing catch up after Super Tuesday and never even got close.
My question goes to the heart of why so many of the Democratic talking heads on TV are so full of bluster and bravado about party unity and “hope and change”, and in their sinking hearts I think they recognize the fact is they have saddled the losing horse in this race.
I’m still astounded that there are people take such appearances during a political campaign seriously, as if saying properly selected words legitimately erase all history.
If we as a nation are stupid enough to get taken in by this calculated ad-hoc pandering, we deserves every bit of misery we will reap from this folly.
“What he did not say is how…”
Does he EVER on ANYTHING???
Actually, I’m quite sure he doesn’t because even HE doesn’t know. He’s never actually had to DO anything in his whole legislative experience other than vote for or against (or present!) on SOMEONE ELSE’S bill, or attach his name to SOMEONE ELSE’S bill as a co-sponsor.
Of course, actual foreign policy would be a whole NEW playground for him to learn and experiment with. What fun…meeting all those famous despots, demagogues, and dictators he’s only read about, and visiting all those strange foreign lands he’s only seen in movies and television!
Gosh, it will be just like when he was a little kid…only this time he won’t have to attend a boring ol’ Muslim school and learn all those boring ol’ Quranic prayers!
Obama is cut from the same cloth as every other radical left-wing liberal. They are so driven by their world-view beliefs that actual facts, truth and reality are not even visible when viewed through their ideological glasses. To the radical left-wing ideologue, it’s the end result that counts not how you get there. The only truth, ethics, morailty and reality that exists is the one they have defined. That’s is why the radical left has taken so strongly to Obama. His messianic skills make him the ideal cult leader to deliver the message and pour the kool-aid.
I credit Obama with the intelligence to scoot even more to the center. If he wins this fall and then treats gun control with at least benign neglect, he may even get my vote in 2012, if he doesn’t pick Hillary as his VP nominee, that is.
John, I’m not smarter then you but I do have a theory.
Ohhhh……BAMA is the darling of the MSM, as well as their last great hope. The MSM is losing money hand over fist.They are kept going by guys with billions of dollars that see an advantage (profit making) to controlling the media. The problem for the MSM is they have to deliver to keep getting their dole.
Just to keep it from getting to simple, they have to deliver a product that satisfies their master AND their conscience, which happens to be 180 degrees out of whack with the mainstream America’s conscience. Nobody ever said life as a scumbag was easy.
Enter Ohhhhh…..BAMA. BHO is a typical Chicago politician, which means he is for sale to the highest bidder, which makes the Money guys happy. That is why the Saudis loved Carter and Clinton. He also is a Marxist, which fits the conscience of the cocktail party crowd that controls the MSM. Out of line with the mainstream, but that is why Goebbels perfected Propaganda. The MSM has to move the mainstrean into position with Ohhhh…..BAMA.
The problem is that Ohhhhh…..BAMa is both dirty and to inexperienced to be President. So the MSM has to keep the dirt under the rug and the Inexperience off the radar.
The MSM did this lightly with the Carter administration. WE know how that worked out. Cater was Ohhhhh….BAMA lite.
BHO means 20% inflation, 15% unemployment, a stock market that is barely sliding along in it’s own blood. Barry will give us 10$US a gallon gasoline ( after all that is what the socialist brothers in Eurostan are paying now. It would be unfair of Americans to pay less), street riots and daily terrorist attacks.
Well, the youngsters DID want change.
What amuses me is that of all the people damaged by Ohhh….BAMA, the MSM will be hit the hardest. The rich will get richer, of course. Poetic Justice.
Berry is a one and done. The Problem is the mess he will leave behind.
Obama has problems with honesty. He is backpedaling on the Israelis just like he is backpedaling on “talking with America’s enemies”.
Obama is not to be trusted – why does the MSM not report on the guy accurately and honestly? I am tired on the MSM not doing their jobs, or even worse, lying in their news reporting.
@John Samford,
I tend to trust anyone named John.
) Thank you for the reply.
While I agree with most of what you wrote, I do think Obama is instead; Carter-Lite, there is much less substance there than you think. Carter, for all his faults, was not a stupid man, Obama is. This latest blatant pandering to the Jewish vote is evidence enough of that.
Obama has managed to insult the memory of all the men and women who served in WWII with his wild tales of concentration camp liberation, he has managed to throw his grandmother under the bus,,, as a “typical white person” with prejudices against blacks walking in the night, he had already managed to thrown his own mother under the bus in his book, “Dreams From My Father” where he acknowledged that he was the product of her own “social experiment” with a black man, and denounced her race therein.
The man has much to explain. All of these things probably play well on the south side of Chicago, but from where I sit it is a sham. I won’t be voting for the man.
I AGREE THAT OBAMA SHOULD GO TO IRAQ HIMSELF TO SEE THE PROGRESS ON HIS OWN TERM BUT PLEASE GIVE HIM CREDIT THAT HE WILL SIT DOWN WITH COMMANDERS AS HE HAS SAID HE WILL DO BEFORE PULLING OUT TROOPS..HE WANTS THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT TO TAKE MORE RESPONSIBILTY WHATS WRONG WITH THAT.
HE WANTS THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT TO TAKE MORE RESPONSIBILTY WHATS WRONG WITH THAT.
Bessie, assuming that was a question and not just a shout for attention, The Iraqi Government IS taking more responsibility.
Look at the offense against JAM and the ongoing cleanup of Mosul. The MSM got all weepy over the 100 Iraq soldiers that fled battle in Basara. They didn’t say a word about the 8,000 that stayed and kicked butt.
The Sunni’s have come on board and will participate in the October elections. Iraqi’s everywhere are turning on Al Qaeda. Homicide bombings are down from several per day to a couple a month. There is a SoFA that is being finished as I type. It will allow a trip wire American force to stay in Iraq.
I predict that it will highly sought after duty in another couple of years.
Right now Iraq is able to defeat the terrorists on it’s soil. The Iraqi government has more support from it’s citizens then the US government. OIL deliveries are increasing and the Army is being re-built and trained.
What more do you want?
I think the problem here is the left has unrealistic expectation.
Iraq RIGHT NOW is a better place to live then 75% of the other Mid Eastern nations. Look at all the refuges that are returning to Iraq.
Iraq is NOT paradise and never will be. It will be an oasis of freedom in the ME. That will take another generation. Todays Iraqi teenagers have to grow up free and produce a generation born to freedom before this show is closed.
America will be there as long as we are needed, just like in Japan, Germany, the ROK.
I expect Iraq to end up like Germany in that in a couple of decades we will want to leave and they will want us to stay.
The reference to his great uncle in Buchenwald may also be an invention. A verification On VWR they named the great uncle (from the Obama campaign), and placed him in the US Navy in 1943. It’s therefore unlikely. Furthermore,Obama used the same story in a speech some 2 years before, so this is like the Hillary Kosovo story.
Funny that the AIPAC crowd is supposed to reflect the glory of an old uncle’s role in freeing a concentration camp but reflecting Ayers, Wright or any other of Obama’s chosen associates is off topic. If he is a hypocrit it is only because that is what is expected from a politician. If he is a panderer then it us only because one must be to win an election. If he has betrayed anyone it is due to pragmatism. This man is one sucking blackhole of irresponsibility and the cynicim of those who excuse him is as nebulous as… ah… a nebula in slow motion.
OK Obambi, lying emails are being sent around. What SPECIFICALLY do they accuse you of that you can PROVE are lies.
Here on PJM, Jun 4 5:26 AM Dean in a comment on Rick Moran’s column on McCain Obama accused you of
being Arab rather than Black (Your dad is 87% Arab and his birth certificate lists him as Arab T/F
your half-brother Abongo Obama and cousin Raila Odinga are trying to bring Muslim Sharia law to Kenya and overthrow the duly elected government by use of violence and you called them during the New Hampshire campaign T/F
You were born in 1961, Selma occurred in 1965; hence, that signal event did not exactly (“get you born”) T/F
your name isn’t African Swahili. Barack means “blessed” in Arabic. Hussein is obviously Arabic and so is Obama T/F
and the list goes on to 28.
Please send to your favorite lamestream reporters imbedded with the Obama campaign.
People Power Granny is already disappointed with Barack Obama’s position of promising to not negotiate with Hamas in the Middle East, if he is elected president. Do you think that Hamas should be negotiated with, as former President Carter has done? Vote in my poll at my blog so I know what you think.
Obama = Opanderer
He will say anything to get elected… He has demonstrated that he will shamelessly take different positions on issues depending on his audience.
What does he really stand for?