What Obama Said Last Night

What Obama told 80 Jewish donors last night is all here, so you can actually read it. Absolutely none of it will surprise: “That one inviolable principle will be that the United States and Israel will always be stalwart allies and friends—(applause)—that that bond isn’t breakable and that Israel’s security will always be at the top tier of considerations … there are going to be moments over the course of the next six months or the next 12 months or the next 24 months in which there may be tactical disagreements in terms of how we approach these difficult problems. But the broader vision, which is one in which Israel is a secure Jewish state …. That will remain our North Star. ”

That the Obama administration is spinning the event, whose lowest ticket was $25,000 and which was sold out, as a success and proof that President Obama’s bond with Jewish donors and the Jewish community remains firm is unsurprising, and speaks for itself.

Want to spin it the other way? There’s room there! Why did those donors need reassuring, for example? And what’s that old line about “faint praise”? Conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin lays out out this alternative view of last night’s event. “But of course they were all ‘reassured,’” she writes. ” They are paying him to be reassured. When you plunk down that kind of cash you don’t want to be told you’ve put your money on the wrong horse.”

But there’s spin, and then there’s dishonesty. “The press has an obligation when taking comments from these people, or any other interested party, to explain to readers where they are coming from and why they are being sent out to talk to the media,” Rubin argues. But about a paragraph before, she supplies what appears to be her own source’s report: “A Capitol Hill staffer rolled his eyes, cracking, ‘Why don’t the liberal Jewish donors just cut out the middle-man and write their checks directly to Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] since the President is the performing the job of the chief negotiator of the PA.’” Um, who is that staffer, and why is he/she being sent out to talk to the media?

Anyway, this is all vanity and handwringing. The scoreboard is all that ultimately matters. November 2012 can’t come soon enough!

Remarks by the President at a DNC Event [White House]
Barack Obama Reassures Jewish Donors [Politico]
Another Spin Event for the Jewish Community [Right Turn]