Sully lays out his thoughts on the one guy who could really sink the President’s re-election chances: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
I don’t think you can understand the Republican strategy for this election without factoring in a key GOP player, Benjamin Netanyahu. He already has core members of the US Congress siding openly with him against the US president and the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman – like McCain, Lieberman and Butters. Netanyahu’s war would be designed to rile up not only his own neo-fascist base, but also encourage American evangelical voters to turn out against Obama, the “anti-Christ”, while other Greater Israel fanatics, like Sheldon Adelson, keep bankrolling as many Greater Israel GOP nominees as they can. A global war which polarizes America and the world is exactly what Netanyahu wants. And it is exactly what the GOP needs to cut through Obama’s foreign policy advantage in this election. Because it is only through war, crisis and polarization that extremists can mobilize the emotions that keep them in power. They need war to win.
Here’s a prediction. Netanyahu, in league and concert with Romney, Santorum and Gingrich, will make his move to get rid of Obama soon. And he will be more lethal to this president than any of his domestic foes.
I’m of the opinion that if it really was that simple, Netanyahu would have pulled the trigger on this already. On the other hand, maybe he’s just waiting for the GOP Hunger Games to produce a champion first. Netanyahu isn’t going to be able to do this without lining up support from inside Israel, either.
But Sully’s right that should Bibi move, he’s going to have the entire GOP (minus Ron and Rand Paul, I guess) and a healthy chunk of Dems behind him. I’m rather confident that the Obama administration is not only aware of this but well out in front of it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of ways we could end up in the septic tank here and in a really friggin’ scary situation, and not all of those ways are under our direct or even indirect control. I like the team we have at the White House and State getting us through this, however.