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N.Y. Sun: Obama’s Stance on Israel Should Be Welcomed, Not Attacked

The decidedly right-wing New York Sun — a fervent defender of Israel that’s hawkish on the Mideast and bearish on prospects for peace with the Palestinians — is defending Barack Obama from Republican charges that he’s weak when it comes to supporting Israel.

The Sun’s editorialist writes:

New York Republicans, according to an article in the New York Post yesterday, are preparing to attack Senator Obama for his supposed lack of support for Israel. “Obama’s commitment to Israel is open to question, and that would help us with Jews,” the Post quotes a “prominent New York Republican” as saying. We’re no shills for Mr. Obama, but these Republicans haven’t checked their facts. At least by our lights, Mr. Obama’s commitment to Israel, as he has articulated it so far in his campaign, is quite moving and a tribute to the broad, bipartisan support that the Jewish state has in America.

Read the full editorial here.

Hat tip: JTA

Larry David Thinks Obama Would Make a Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good President

Barack Obama has a surly nebbish stumping in the Dartmouth College dorms for him — “Seinfeld” co-creator and star of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David.

“Haven’t we had enough with Bushes and Clintons and Bushes,” David told students. “The country needs a shower, a good, long, hot shower. That’s what Obama is, a hot shower. So fresh you can smell him, delicious.”

According to The Dartmouth, David “avoided serious responses to students’ questions on policy issues.” Instead, he left that task to his celebrity co-campaigners, Arianna Huffington and his agent, Ari Emanuel. (Emanuel, like David, provided the inspiration for an HBO series character, super-agent Ari Gold on “Entourage,” and is also the brother of Democratic political powerbroker, Rep. Rahm Emanuel — who is in the now-dicey position of being a Clinton loyalist in Chicago.)

While shying from the serious issues, David was in top form when asked which “Seinfeld” character would make the best president.

“Newman,” David answered. “Because every time he would give a press conference and walk up to the podium, everyone would say, ‘Hello Newman.’”

Hat tip: Politico’s Ben Smith.

UPDATE: Arianna Huffington has a nice account of David’s appearance here. He actually gave a pretty substantive response to a student who asked about Obama’s preparation for the presidency.

Writers On Strike, With An Assist from Obama

Forgive us if we in the Forward newsroom are paying a little bit of extra attention to the Writers Guild strike. We’re union members ourselves, and the whole brouhaha has our favorite celebrities going all lefty on us: SNL’s Tina Fey and Seth Myers are uptown picketing at Rockefeller Center; Jon Stewart may or may not be keeping his own writers afloat with out-of-pocket payments for the next two weeks.

Barack Obama, meanwhile, has weighed in with statement in support of the writers:

“I stand with the writers. The Guild’s demand is a test of whether corporate media corporations are going to give writers a fair share of the wealth their work creates or continue concentrating profits in the hands of their executives. I urge the producers to work with the writers so that everyone can get back to work.”

Singing the Gospel for Obama

The Obama campaign is announcing the launch of an “unprecedented gospel concert tour” in South Carolina as part of the campaign’s grassroots “40 Days of Faith & Family” effort.

The concerts, which will be next week, will feature Mary Mary, Donnie McClurkin and Hezekiah Walker, Grammy Award winners all, as well as gospel quartet the Mighty Clouds of Joy.

What’s next? Can we expect a Harold Ford, Jr.-esque commercial shot in a church?

For Giuliani, Insults from Carter Sound a Lot Like Praise

The Giuliani campaign is clearly reveling in being attacked by none other than Jimmy Carter on CNN last night. Carter – proving once again that he has zero intention of going quietly into the night – called Giuliani “foolish” for his contention the United States should be open to using force against Iran.

By this morning the Giuliani campaign was emailing around choice snippets from Carter’s interview with Wolf Blitzer, under the subject hearing, “In Case You Were Weren’t Clear That Rudy Is The Right Man To Keep Us On Offense In The Terrorists War On Us.”

Clearly, Carter’s barbs (like when he said the GOP contenders are “competing with each other to appeal to the ultra-right-wing, war-mongering element in our country,”) are only music to the ears of the GOP field. Carter acknowledged as much when he declined to tell Blitzer which Republican he fears the most.

“If I condemn one of them, it might escalate him to the top position in the Republican ranks,” Carter said.

As much as the Republicans love (to hate) Carter, the Democratic frontrunners are clearly going to spend the race hating (having to pretend to not hate) him.

Carter told CNN he disagreed with positions taken by Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who have declined to promise to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq over the following four years if elected president next year.

Given the influence of the Israel lobby — the most powerful in the country, according to Carter — he is not convinced that another president would be willing to do what he considers necessary to bring peace to Israel-Palestine.

“Can the next president say that Palestinian rights need to be protected?” he asked. “Can the next president say that settlements in the West Bank are an obstacle to peace? I don’t know.”

With a new, new book out – “Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease and Building Hope” (Simon & Schuster) – Carter is, by his own admission, on another book tour that feels “like being on the campaign trail.”

The question, down the road, is how will his potential criticism of Clinton and Obama play? It may make them seem trustworthy and mainstream to average Americans, but it may also help galvanize critics in the Democratic base.