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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Picture of the Day backstage aipac

















(A day after the final primaries, the Democratic candidates huddle behind the scenes at the AIPAC summit in Washington. (Callie Shell/TIME))

posted by mikevotes at 3:53 PM

8 Comments:

  • Mike, what's your opinion concerning AIPAC and its influence in Washington? Curious to hear your thoughts about the 'special relationship' the US and Israel evidently have.

    By Blogger r8r, at 6:00 PM  

  • I think it's horrible.

    I do think there is a need for the US to back and support Israel, some strategic interests, etc, but, to my mind, AIPAC doesn't represent most of Israel, but is instead a relatively thin slice on the more conservative side.

    To my mind, it's the political equivalent to the mainstream of Israel that Dick Cheney is here.

    I'm very prone towards something like Oslo, two state solution, something approximating 1967 borders, end of Israeli settlements, some sort of verifiable disarming of Palestinian groups and a shared Jerusalem.

    That's a very quick answer on something I could write about for days.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 6:06 PM  

  • Serious comment.

    It's an awesome sight seeing these two together in a quiet, deliberative moment. Two giants of American politics and the personification of the hopes and dreams of countless millions of Americans.

    I also realize, in a single frame, that there is no "dream ticket" here. You can't run a ticket with two equals. Two presidential candidates. Neither Hillary, nor Barack has the temperament nor the political status to run as, by definition, subordinate to the other.

    By Blogger -epm, at 8:55 PM  

  • Two equals is just one of the problems, but yeah.

    And in the media light, they're not even equals. I think she would soak up far more of the media light.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 9:11 PM  

  • Agreed.

    I was too wordy, but my point is, the "dream ticket" idea falls apart right out of the gate because neither Hillary simply couldn't be appropriately subordinate in that role.

    Just to be clear, this is not a knock against Hillary. She is simply too far up the political food chain (former First Lady, historic senator, etc, etc.) to be in that role.

    By Blogger -epm, at 9:28 PM  

  • She's too big and too good to get the VP balance right. Right?

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 5:56 AM  

  • yes

    By Blogger -epm, at 6:52 AM  

  • I do think there is a need for the US to back and support Israel, some strategic interests, etc, but, to my mind, AIPAC doesn't represent most of Israel, but is instead a relatively thin slice on the more conservative side

    As we've seen over the past ten years, AIPAC doesn't even represent the majority of the Jewish-American community.

    Support should also be tempered with criticism. Israel should allow non-Jews to vote. What other democracy in the world excludes citizens from voting based on religion? If Chavez said non-Christians couldn't vote, there would be outrage. Instead, we shovel $12 million each day into Israel as a gift.

    By Blogger Todd Dugdale , at 11:09 AM  

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