Tuesday July 24, 2012

I've Been Thinking:

Presidential electioneering is in high gear.

Next week, Romney will be making a trip to Great Britain, Israel, Poland and Germany.

And an aide to President Obama, Colin Kahl announced that the president will visit Israel in his second term. The comment was met with a chuckle - the last trip Obama made to Israel was a 2008 campaign visit.

To effectively reach out to important constituencies, the standard rule for presidential candidates is to visit the "Three I's," those of course are Ireland Italy and Israel. Obama visited Israel in 2008, Italy in July 2009 and searched for his roots in Ireland in May 2011.

As a sitting president Barack Obama has been all around Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia almost everywhere in the region, but he never stopped in.

Some say that the entire issue is irrelevant. Bush 43 visited late in his second term and Reagan and Bush 41 never visited Israel at all. Clinton visited four times and Bush the junior, although late in his tenure, visited Israel twice. Even Jimmy Carter who only visited thirty-one countries during his entire presidency made certain to visit Israel.

Some serious Democratic friends of Israel are struggling to determine if Obama really is a friend of Israel, or, is he just playing lip service. If Obama is elected to a second term, we will find out.

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