Sarah Palin is raining on Hillary Clinton’s parade, literally. Clinton was planning to attend a rally in protest of President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad of Iran, who will be in New York next Monday at the United Nations. But, after learning the Sarah Palin is now expected to attend, a Clinton spokesman confirmed the former first lady will not attend the demonstration. “(Palin’s) attendance was news to us, and this was never billed to us as a partisan political event,” says a Clinton spokesman.
My question is, would Clinton have been attending this rally if she had won the Democratic nomination for president? I think not. Because no matter the distaste for Ahmadenijad, this is no time for saber-rattling from the highest offices in our land, or from those who would occupy them. And for Sarah Palin to have insisted that the United States could not “second guess” Israel if it were to bomb Iran in an unprovoked attack is the kind of careless, breezy diplomacy that President Bush (43) has been widely criticized for, and actually chastened away from in his current approach to Iran.
Here is where knowledge of the Bush Doctrine comes in. Ahmadenijad has said horrible things about Israel–suggesting it should be wiped off the face of the earth being the worst among them–but he has not attacked Israel, and must certainly know that if he did, the United States would retaliate swiftly. Would we side on the sidelines if we learned Pakistan were going to launch a pre-emptive attack on India?
I deeply believe in a Jewish state, and want to see peace between Israel, a Palestinian state and the rest of the region. But if Israel were to attack Iran, such an attack could unleash a world of hatred and hurt against Israel (and no doubt, the United States) from terrorist enclaves and their sympathizers around the world. The goal of the next administration must be to reduce worldwide tensions, not incite them further.
I feel quite sure, however, that as much as this photo op of Veep Palin bashing Ahmadenijad, the United Nations meeting provides Palin an opportunity to force a head of state to meet with her and bolster her foreign policy credentials. I’m guessing it’s going to be Angela Merkel (female bonding photo op), Nouri Al-Maliki (which almost counts for having been to Iraq, right?) or perhaps with Nicolas Sarkozy, an equal opportunity photo-opper out to boost the French presidency after that whole “old Europe” thing.
One wonders, while in New York, will the vice presidential nominee find time to stop by Wall Street?
Inform Your Consent 