Following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's impassioned plea for a red line on Tehran's development of a nuclear weapon at the UN this week, it was presumably a given that the two candidates running for US President would act more or less true to type in response.
Obama is not in favor of the increasing fervor with which Netanyahu demands that a red line be drawn on Iran, which when crossed over, would automatically result in military action. Obama still insists that a diplomatic solution can be found, even when dealing with what is seen by and large, by many, as a rogue nation.
Of course, increasingly, one feels like asking Barack: "Tell us what you really think", because when he is campaigning, he would say just about anything that would guarantee him four more years. He went from being stubbornly of the belief that marriage was a partnership between men and women only, to suddenly supportive of gay marriage, in a lightning bolt overnight fashion, for example. Well, it is an election year after all!
But he also stayed true to type by not only refusing to meet one-on-one with various leaders of key middle Eastern countries at the UN recently, but did so at least in part because he already had a hot appearance scheduled on daytime TV with the gals of The View. Typical. Not only the first POTUS to ever grace the daytime talk show circuit with the first lady, but now also the first POTUS in about 20 years to not make time to meet the other leaders at the UN general assembly, because of daytime TV. Incredible.
What's world politics and talk of nuclear threats when compared to a chance to sit and be fawned over on The View by Babs et al., and the opportunity to be seen more as the Hollywood celebrity that he would secretly prefer to be?! I think it is truly shallow, and an embarrassment to the nation, but of course it is also a way to exude total arrogance at how certain he is that it will only have a positive effect (the power of the talk show culture) on his re-election chances.
Also true to type, Romney naturally seized on the opportunity to attack Obama as he has "deserted the friend" that is Israel and decided to use it as a campaign factor on why people should vote for him instead. He is scheduled to talk with Netanyahu today, which I sort of find to be a totally futile and meaningless exercise in that he is not the leader today and will in all likelihood still not be the leader by November, if you believe the various polls. So who cares what he thinks about an issue that he will never be in any position to act on, if he doesn't get his campaign back on track?
It's totally ironic in many ways. The guy who is the leader of the free world is too busy promoting himself on The View's sofa to talk about Iran, while the guy who could probably use that kind of TV land popularity is the one who wants to talk to the Israeli PM about it! It's either a brilliant example of the problems in both campaigns, or might eventually underline just whose campaign was sheer brilliance.
I think both are flawed, quite frankly. Obama's is rife with self-satisfied smugness and the usual inappropriate celebrity-driven Hollywood glamour, while Romney doesn't seem to realize that he is in the fight of his life, in the eighth round. He's trailing, some cuts are beginning to surface, and unless he is now ready to throw off the gloves and get down to some serious jabbing and taking the fight to Team Obama, then it's already over.
The first Presidential debate is next Wednesday and I vouchsafe that this first one is massively important and it may well have an impact that neither candidate will be able to shale off later. If Romney falters, even against an extremely average debater such as Obama, then it's a done deal. Conversely, if Romney can whack in some serious jabs, uppercuts and even a few below-the-belt hits out of range of the referee(s), then we might still have a competition by the next day.
Hmm, I wonder who's on the The View today? If it was Netanyahu, now that would be worth watching! As long as it's not Obama, I might even grab a coffee and be able to get through five minutes of it before yawning and turning to the Weather Channel! ;) - Kevin Mc
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