Aspiring politicians in New York once made a point of visiting the three I’s: Italy, Ireland and Israel.
For the GOP’s presidential prospects in 2012, it’s all about one: Israel.
A stop in the Jewish state is becoming as critical to a would-be president’s political resume as an early trip to Iowa or New Hampshire, a sort of global two-fer. Get some early foreign policy street-cred and play a little dog-whistle politics with Christian conservatives who are deeply invested in Israel’s fate – some because they view it as critical to the Biblical vision of the end of days.
Not only that, you get to look presidential by having your picture taken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has played host to no less than three Republican contenders in recent weeks. Particularly for governors – who always face the question of whether they’re ready for the foreign policy part of the job — you can’t buy an ad that good.
“It’s not the Ames straw poll, but I do think a visit to Israel is an important stop for folks who are running for president,” said Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matthew Brooks.
“You have a lot of governors and former governors running – folks who have not necessarily had a chance to immerse themselves in these issues,” Brooks said. “So much of what our commander-in-chief will deal with in the White House is rooted in this part of the world.”
There are currently two Republican presidential prospects in Israel: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Barbour, who’s visiting on a trip organized by the Republican Jewish Coalition, will meet with Netanyahu and speak at a policy conference on Wednesday. Huckabee met with Netanyahu last week as part of an even more extended visit.
They arrived not long after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney departed Israel as part of a weeklong foreign trip that also took him to Afghanistan last month. He, too, got face time with Netanyahu, whom he worked with decades ago at Boston Consulting Group.
Other presidential hopefuls haven’t visited quite as recently, but have still taken time to burnish their pro-Israel credentials in the run-up to 2012. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty went on a trade mission to Israel immediately after the 2008 elections. And in mid-January, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gave an interview to Israel Today laced with dire warnings about the Obama administration.
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6 Responses
Even though very few Jews vote in the Republican primaries.
Most non-Orthodox Jews are super-blue, and while Orthodox Jews tend to be red (though perhaps not in fiscal matters since we like government largesse and don’t think enough about how it gets paid for), most Orthodox Jews live in areas with solid Democratic majorities and register as Democrats so they can vote in the local primaries.
Quit pandering and get to work figuring out how to
1:Get manufacturing jobs back in America
2:Restore the Free Market
3:Reduce the size and power of the Federal Government
4:Abolish the Federal Reserve
5:Ending 2 no win wars.
After you deal with all of that, then you can go shake hands with a bunch of people with funnny looking hats and accents
#2- the answers are obvious, but no one cares
1. Cut wages down to the global level. If a skilled worker in India or China gets $10/dollar, and unskilled gets $1/day, we can’t compete if we pay skilled works $30/hour and unskilled get $60/day.
2. No one wants a free market – Americans want a safety net so they can get a bailout. This is especially true of rich corporations.
3. The Federal government does what the people tell it to do. It has no mind of its own. If we elected fools, we get fools running the government.
4. We tried going without a central bank for almost a century, and it didn’t work. It might be a good idea to nationalize the Fed (it’s a private corporation) and limit its powers.
5. We can just leave (though to late in Iraq as we already won). Isolationism has proven to be a sucess (if you consider the rise of Hitler and World War II to be a success story).
#3,
Try raising a large frum family on $10/hour. I can’t believe the number of people who post on this allegedly Jewish site who support policies that would destroy the Orthodox community in America.
#2,
Akuperma was understating when he said not having a central bank didn’t work.
I am not suggesting the frum families(or Americans) should try to compete with the Chinese. I should support free trade and make high quality goods that support higher wages.
Though in all fairness, $10/hour comes to $20K per year, which would support a standard of living that our grandparents in the “good old days” would have found adequate.
5:
There are so many things wrong with your last sentence that it’s hard to know where to begin.