Subject: Clinton receives new endorsements
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:32:40 +0000
THE DERSHOWITZ/BERMAN PRIMARY...Barack Obama picked up the endorsement of Ted Kennedy today. Hillary Clinton got Alan Dershowitz and Paul Berman in the pages of The New Republic.
Need I say more?
Dershowitz has devoted his life in recent years to discrediting the careers and reputations of critics of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, slavishly defending Israel against any and all comers, no matter the validity of their point.
Berman (no relation) was the intellectual architect behind the liberal hawks case for war in Iraq, which he described as a 'Lincolnian war, a war for the liberation of others.' TNR asked fourteen authors/intellectual to endorse candidates. Dershowitz and Berman, given their hawkish worldviews, were the ones who immediately jumped out. Their words aren't likely to boost Clinton's standing in progressive political circles.
'I favor the nomination of a centrist Democrat, one who is capable of attracting independents, moderates, and the growing number of anti-Bush Republicans,' Dershowitz writes. 'Hillary Clinton understands this and has not pandered to the extreme left of her party.'
Berman also likes the idea of Clinton in the war room. 'A candidate like Hillary, who participated in the decisions that toppled Slobodan Milosevic, is nicely situated to argue that, on the topic of military stand-offs and far-away dictators, she possesses a superior understanding.'
Berman also offers Clinton a rather counterproductive piece of advice: 'I think it wouldn't do her any harm to acknowledge that, now and then, John McCain has been right.'
These are the types of endorsements one wishes the candidate would decline. Unless, of course, she agrees with them.

Posted by Ari Berman at 01/28/2008 @ 4:15pm |