Palin Speech on Iran Blocked by Obama Camp By Mark Impomeni

Source: http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/09/22/palin-speech-on-iran-blocked-by-obama-camp/

By Mark Impomeni
Sep 22nd 2008 8:30PM

In prepared remarks scheduled to be delivered today at a rally in front of the United Nations, Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin was to say that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "must be stopped." The speech was not delivered as planned, but ran instead as an op-ed in the New York Sun. The reason that the speech was not made today: the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.

Palin was slated to appear at the rally, sponsored by a consortium of American Jewish organizations, to protest the presence of Ahmadinejad in the United States and to make clear that the U.S. would stand strongly against Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. Sen. Hillary Clinton was originally scheduled to appear at the rally as well, but canceled at the behest of the Obama campaign upon learning that Palin was going to appear. Several leading Democratic politicians, including Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) then prevailed upon the sponsoring organizations to dis-invite Palin, on the grounds that the event would be viewed as political in nature if she appeared. Reportedly, Democrats threatened the tax-exempt status of the sponsoring groups if Palin were allowed to speak at the rally.

In the speech, Palin takes a hard line on Iran, calling it the world's number one sponsor of state-terrorism, and refusing to dismiss Ahmadinejad's various provocative statements as, "the rantings of a madman."

Tomorrow, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will come to New York - to the heart of what he calls the Great Satan - and speak freely in this, a country whose demise he has called for.

Ahmadinejad may choose his words carefully, but underneath all of the rhetoric is an agenda that threatens all who seek a safer and freer world. We gather here today to highlight the Iranian dictator's intentions and to call for action to thwart him.

He must be stopped.

The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us.

Palin cited U.S. intelligence information that says Iran may have enough nuclear material to produce a weapon within a year, and underscored the threat that Iran would proliferate any nuclear arms it is able to obtain to terrorist groups that is sponsors, like Hezbollah, with the ultimate aim of destroying Israel. Ironically, Palin praised Sen. Clinton, saying that she, "understands the threat," posed by Iran. She also wrote favorably of Clinton's call for increased sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, saying that tighter sanctions should be, "part of our response," to continued Iranian nuclear development.

The McCain campaign has criticized Obama's decision to effectively censor Palin by puling out of the anti-Iran rally as choosing politics over the national interest. The campaign claims that it tried to get the Obama campaign to send a representative to the rally and make the event a bi-partisan stand against Iranian aggression. But the Obama campaign would only commit to sending Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) to appear alongside Palin. Wexler is a fiercely liberal partisan who has called Palin, "a far right, pro-life zealot," and has denigrated her experience as a small town mayor. The McCain camp took that as a signal that the Obama campaign had no intention of engaging in a serious effort at bi-partisanship.

The specter of two opposing campaigns standing side by side to oppose Iran in front of the United Nations would have sent a powerful signal to the world, and to Iran, that domestic political considerations in the U.S. will not interfere with its foreign policy, no matter which side wins the election. Sadly, the Obama campaign could not see past the politics of the moment, and an opportunity to practice some of the "new politics" that Sen. Obama so often preaches about was lost. Ultimately, that only plays into Iran's hands. A divided U.S. political system gives Iran more room to pursue its nefarious ends.