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Can Biden and Palin be believed?

By Ami Eden · September 12, 2008

Remember the hubbub back in April, after George Stephanopoulos asked Hillary Clinton what she would do if Iran attacked Israel and she said the Islamic Republic would be met with "massive retaliation"? Well the question – and henceforth the answer – struck me as utterly besides the point.

After all, does it really matter what the United States would do if God forbid such a thing took place, considering that Israel is believed to posses a second-strike capability? The real question is what the next president will do if the Israelis decide to launch a first strike against Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Well, if the veep candidates have any say, the answer is that the next administration will trust whatever decision the Israelis make. "We are friends with Israel," Palin told ABC's Charlie Gibson on Thursday. "I don't think we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security."

As for Joe Biden ... "This is not a question for us to tell the Israelis what they can and cannot do," the Democratic vice presidential candidate said last week in a conference call with members of the Jewish media. "I have faith in the democracy of Israel. They will arrive at the right decision that they view as being in their own interests."

Clinton's answer may have been honest, but the question was irrelevant. In contrast, Biden and Palin tackled the fundamental question – yet their answers were thoroughly unbelievable. This isn't 1967, 1981 or even 2007, when ultimately Israel bore the bulk of the risk, responsibility and consequences of a preemptive strike against a looming threat. By most accounts, it will be impossible for Israelis to attack Iran without U.S. knowledge and cooperation, considering America's control over Iraqi air space and Israel's need for the electronic Identification Friend or Foe codes that combat planes need to cross international airspace. And, if you believe the gloomiest of doomsday scenarios, Iran would not only retaliate with a rocket barrage against Israel, but would also move to cripple the world's oil supply with pinpoint attacks and unleash a wave of terror against U.S. and European targets.

This is not to say that a President McCain or a President Obama would automatically order the Israelis to hold their fire (though, depending on whom you believe, the Bush administration is doing just that right now). It's just to stress how suspect Biden's and Palin's answers are – how implausible it is that, given the need for U.S. cooperation and the wider ramifications of a strike against Iran, Obama or McCain would blindly follow the lead of the Israeli government.

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Political tidbits: Is Palin pushing Jews toward the Dems?

By Eric Fingerhut · September 12, 2008

• The Jerusalem Post speaks to a couple Florida Democrats who say John McCain's selection of VP nominee Sarah Palin helped push them into the Obama camp.
• Georgetown University's Jacques Berlinerblau, writing on the Washington Post's On Faith blog, asks and answers a number of questions about the Sarah Palin pick's possible effect on the Jewish vote – and seems to believe the jury's still out.
• The Forward examines GOP Jews' pushback on Palin.
• Writing in the Forward, David Luchins,a longtime aide to the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, argues that Orthodox Jews aren't shifting their party loyalties to the GOP – there's simply some "sophisticated ticket-splitting" going on when it comes to the presidential ballot.
• Which candidate's values are truly in line with Jewish values? The Jewish Week's Jonathan Mark explores that question.
• This Orthodox Jewish blogger argues that Palin's thrice-repeated refusal to "second guess" Israel illustrates the difference between the candidates on Israel.
• Why is Barack Obama struggling in the polls? According to Tikkun Community Rabbi Michael Lerner, his "capitulation to AIPAC and the most reactionary elements in the Jewish world" is one reason.
• The executive director of the Christian Coalition of Florida calls Obama "scary" because of his "Muslim roots," according to the Miami Herald.
• Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) tells Chris Matthews he regrets comparing Obama to Jesus, as well as comparing Jesus to a "community organizer."
• You're a Jewish young adult and are having trouble convincing your bubbe to vote for Obama? Jewish Grandchildren for Obama is here to help.

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Matthews to Cohen: Hitler and Jesus are off limits

By Ron Kampeas · September 12, 2008

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) backed off likening Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, to Jesus, saying the comparison was a mistake.

Cohen, who is Jewish, told the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday that Jesus, like Obama, had been a "community organizer" and that Pontius Pilate was a governor – leaving unsaid but understood the parallel to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential pick who had mocked Obama's community organizer past in her speech last week to the Republican Party convention.

Chris Matthews carpeted Cohen on "Hardball" on Thursday in a short segment that seemed to have been arranged solely so Matthews could, well, carpet Cohen.

Here's the transcript of the exchange, courtesy of the Federal News Service:

MR. MATTHEWS: Congressman Cohen, was Jesus a community organizer? I thought he was a carpenter.

REP. COHEN: Well, he was several things, but he was an agent for change and he was outside the system. I certainly didn't mean to compare Barack Obama to Jesus as a –

MR. MATTHEWS: No, Al Sharpton is a community organizer. Jesus was a carpenter.

REP. COHEN: Well –

MR. MATTHEWS: I just think it's – well, how do you make – why do you come up with comparisons like that? I thought the rule was stay away from Jesus; stay away from Hitler. These comparisons never work. I'm not giving you a hard time, but metaphors in that category are generally very dangerous.

REP. COHEN: They are dangerous, and I shouldn't have done it. The first minute of my speech was accurate, and it was the disingenuousness of the Republicans condemning community activists, who brought about much of the change in America. I'd seen a bumper sticker on my e-mail that morning from an activist friend in Memphis. Those things are more for activists and less for congressmen, and I've learned from this particular speech.

Matthews then graciously (to Cohen, anyway) segued into a softball about suspicions among Democrats that deriding "community organizers" - former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was even harsher than Palin in his convention speech - was racially charged. That let Cohen get in some campaigning - a sweet chaser after the bitter admission that he had gone too far with the Jesus analogy (and that it had been inspired by a bumper sticker!)

MR. MATTHEWS: Congressman, do you think the phrase "community organizer" is meant to suggest a kind of inner-city, big-city, ethnic, black, if you will, background and somewhat different or remote from the experiences of voters they're trying to reach? In other words, are they setting up a caricature here through innuendo? Remember welfare mother? Remember how Reagan would talk about the young buck with his – I remember how Reagan used to do it – the young buck with his food stamps buying a bottle of gin. That was a fairly innuendo there. Is that – is this another one of these welfare mothers, community organizers, code phrases?

REP. COHEN: I believe it is. I saw (New York) Governor (David) Paterson reference that. And I felt it when I saw Governor (sic) Giuliani make the comment, as well as Governor Palin. Community activists, community organizers, do a lot of good in helping feed people, helping to take care of health needs, Habitat for Humanity efforts. And if you look at Dr. King and Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth, they've done so much good. That's where change comes from. But I think it is a way to categorize somebody as a liberal, a leftist, an inner-city person. And that's wrong. You know, Cesar Chavez helped farmers in California, and there have been efforts to help the people in the rural South as well.

Even sweeter, Matthews sent props to Cohen's hometown before sending him on his way:

MR. MATTHEWS: Well, there's nothing wrong with Memphis, is there? Congressman, thank you very much –

REP. COHEN: Memphis is great.

MR. MATTHEWS: Thank you for coming on and taking – explaining the whole thing.

The question remains, though - is this the first time a bumper sticker was read into the Congressional Record?

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