The AIPAC gala dinner drew over 6,000 people, with half of the
Senate and more than half of the House on hand to hear Harry Reid,
Mitch McConnell and Ehud Olmert (via satellite). But presidential
politics dominated the discussion among attendees. While Sam
Brownback and Joe Biden both held receptions after the dinner, most
of the interest was in the duel between Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama.
I was able to see both Obama and Clinton speak in receptions of
a few hundred people each (Hillary's was a bit larger) and it was
amusing to watch both of them try to integrate support for Israel
with their broader campaign themes. Obama tried to frame things in
terms of being the healer, the man who wants to fight bigotry and
make everybody get along with one another. He described the
Holocaust as a "universal" tragedy, just like American slavery or
the crisis in Darfur were and are universal struggles. Then he said
(paraphrasing): "The biggest enemy isn't Hamas and isn't Hezbollah,
it's cynicism." That single line made me fear an Obama presidency
more than anything else I've heard him say, or anything I've read
about him. Put aside for a moment that the statement underplays the
evil, fanatical nature of terrorism. The fact that Obama wants to
inject the multicultural platitudes of American liberalism into how
he views a conflict with deep religious, cultural, historical, and
ideological roots really says something about how he's likely to
conduct U.S. foreign policy. The idea that somehow the audacity of
hope will not only cure what ails America, but bring peace to the
world, strikes me as pretty shallow and naïve. I guess you can
call me a cynic.
So, as if I weren't feeling bad enough about our nation's
prospects in the event of an adverse electoral outcome in 2008, I
shuffled down the hall to see Hillary speak. Her reception was
better funded--while Obama had a few regular signs hanging on the
wall behind him, Clinton had a whole campaign podium set up, with a
"Hillary for President" billboard and American and Israeli flags on
the sides of the stage. The room went dark when she entered the
room, like at a basketball game. Most of her speech seemed to be
spent rattling off a bunch of supporters with Jewish last names.
And in keeping with her tradition of piggy-backing off of her
husband's alleged accomplishments, Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust
survivor ever to serve in Congress, nostalgically recalled
traveling to Israel with Bill and Hillary. After giving the
boilerplate AIPAC line about the importance of strong U.S.
relations with Israel, she discussed the need to use diplomatic
leverage against Iran while not taking the military option off of
the table. Then, rather awkwardly, she transitioned into her
domestic policy themes: universal healthcare, different energy
future, fighting the war on global warming, and improving the
education system.
As for the other candidates, I caught the tail end of Biden's
speech, at which point he said that if Israel didn't exist, America
would have had to invent it anyway, because we need a democratic
ally in the Middle East. Thus, the U.S. needs Israel just as Israel
needs the U.S. Brownback was wrapping up as I walked in, shaking
hands, and posing for photos. Oh, and I met a guy doing Jewish
outreach for Mitt Romney who was handing out stickers saying "Mitt
in '08" with Mitt's name written in Hebrew.
UPDATE: Ben Smith has the full Obama quote
I paraphrased above:
"The biggest enemy I think we have in this whole process (and
why I'm so glad to see a lot of young people here, young in spirit
if not young in age) -- the reason I think it's so important, is
because one of the enemies we have to fight -- it's not just
terrorists, it's not just Hezbollah, it's not just Hamas -- it's
also cynicism," Barack Obama told a reception after the AIPAC
policy conference last night.
topics:
Foreign Policy, Education, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Global Warming, Military, Iran, Israel, Energy, Oil
