The New York Sun is pretty blunt about this: “It may be too soon to say who won the election in Israel but it’s not too soon to say who lost — President Obama.” …and, let’s be honest, here.  It was a remarkably silly thing for the President to try to get involved in.  No, seriously, think about it for a moment.  What was the upside for any attempt by Barack Obama to influence the Israeli election? What was his victory condition?

Because I’m pretty sure that President Obama’s victory condition didn’t involve a possible federal probe:

The American nonprofit OneVoice Movement[*] – under scrutiny by a U.S. Senate panel over possible links to a campaign to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – quietly filed paperwork that would allow it to engage in political activism after two leading Republican lawmakers questioned its use of government funds, FoxNews.com has learned.

Now, I’m not going to weep bitter tears at the thought that Barack Obama has the effrontery to think that he can interfere in foreign elections.  Admittedly, that is because Barack Obama also has the hubris to think that he can interfere in foreign elections – or, indeed, any third-party decision not invovling Obama’s election or re-election.  The man’s track record in that regard is remarkably poor, in fact, considering that he’s a two-term President. So it’s not about the act, itself; a dirty deed simply loses most of its sting when it’s done this incompetently.

But the attitude behind that act still confuses me. At what point, exactly, will the President allow himself to understand that he’s not actually all, well, that and everything? How many times can a man step on a rake before he accepts the fact that maybe he shouldn’t be hanging out in the backyard?

(Image via Shutterstock)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: I would not expect much from any federal investigation into OneVoice, should it even happen. It doesn’t feel that it will have legs, sorry.  Not least because the attempted shenanigans didn’t even work.

*OK, this bears explaining. OneVoice is linked to V15, which was apparently President Obama’s vehicle of choice to go after the Netanyahu government… actually, it was almost certainly personally about Netanyahu, from Obama’s point of view.  It typically is, when he’s been thwarted by somebody.