Watching Ralph Nader on Meet the Press this morning (complete transcript here), it occurred to me that he could conceivably make a difference in the campaign in one respect. He could shed insight into Barack Obama’s otherwise obscure views on the Israel-Arab conflict. Take, for example, this portion of his response to one of Tim Russert’s questions this morning:
Senator Obama is a person of substance. He’s also the first liberal evangelist in a long time. He’s run a brilliant tactical campaign. But his better instincts and his knowledge have been censored by himself. And I give you the example, the Palestinian-Israeli issue, which is a real off the table issue for the candidates. So don’t touch that, even though it’s central to our security and to, to the situation in the Middle East. He was pro-Palestinian when he was in Illinois before he ran for the state Senate, during he ran–during the state Senate.
Nader proceeded to lard his answer with the usual Palestinian propaganda, following which Russert asked this characteristically incisive follow-up:
But would you prefer, as an American citizen, to have Barack Obama or John McCain as president?
Perhaps other inquisitors would be more interested than Russert in having Nader expand on his understanding of Obama’s views predating his presidential candidacy.
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