Sunday, September 21, 2008

Huh?


The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is organizing a protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to be held at the United Nations tomorrow.... Apparently Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) was invited to attend and speak, and had accepted. Subsequently the conference also invited Republican veep candidate Sarah Palin to participate, and she also accepted. Upon learning of this the Clinton camp withdrew their acceptance of the invitation, ostensibly because Palin's presence raised a concern with Clinton that the rally had become "a partisan political event."

Huh? Partisan? This blogger's understanding is that having Clinton without Palin (or equivalent Republican counter-heavyweight) could perhaps be perceived as 'partisan', while having both there denouncing Iran would be bipartisan...

After Senator Clinton withdrew, the conference subsequently disinvited Palin, saying that a decision had been made to limit participation to unelected officials (and not any political personalities) "... in order to keep the focus on Iranian threats and to ensure that this critical message not be obscured..." Perhaps they should have thought of this before Clinton created this minor partisan kerfuffle....

Palin disinvited from Iran rally

A couple of theories re Clinton's motivation: "Clinton aides fumed over what they saw as a slight by organizers, because they had no idea until told by reporters that Palin was supposed to attend, too," and "... Clinton, whose historic bid for the presidency came up short, has sought to avoid a public face-off with Palin. A Clinton-Palin double billing at such an event would have been awkward..." So, not so much 'partisan' as 'petty.'

First Clinton, Now Palin Out Of NYC Rally