Fear of Lobby Keeps Dems From Praising Obama's Iran Deal [View all]

[Whisp]

-- and the Best Book on Israel in 40 Years
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/fear-of-lobby-keeps-dems-_b_4404408.html

Above all, the agreement (if Congress allows it to be implemented) puts a brake on Iranian nuclear development, something that no other strategy the U.S. has tried has accomplished. (Sanctions? Before sanctions were imposed Iran had 160 centrifuges for advanced uranium enrichment; now it has 19,000).

But lay all that aside for a moment. And think only of the politics. At a time when President Obama's popularity may be at its lowest point since his 2009 inauguration (due largely to the problems with the Obamacare rollout) the administration has something truly magnificent to show off as a second term accomplishment: the Iran breakthrough. With the off year election looming, Democrats can go into the campaign with something tangible to show, something on a par with Nixon's opening to China. Congressional majorities are built on successes like the one in Geneva.

Only it is not turning out that way because most Democrats are too worried about offending donors to even discuss Iran, let alone take credit for the agreement. The ones who are talking about it are condemning it in terms that sound Ted Cruzesque. (See top Democrats Chuck Schumer and Bob Menendez for two, of many, examples). And it's not just Democrats from the northeast who are hammering on Obama. Congressional campaigns now fundraise nationally, meaning that senators from South Dakota and Oregon respond to events in the Middle East as if they represented the New York metropolitan area. Pretty much all Congressional Democrats are running scared...of a Democratic president's historic success.
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Right or wrong, nothing else he does overseas will be remembered or noted with as much attention. Normally, a party's leadership will stand behind a president in his moment of diplomatic achievement. Not this time.

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fuckers.