I like how not automatically agreeing with you means you assume I’m ‘unenlightened’. I’ve spent plenty of time studying the issue — the real question is what your definition of ‘corporatist’ is. I’m guessing you’re using the term about like the modern definition of fascism, where it amounts to “any behavior you don’t particularly like”. For example, in addition to the question of how you’d define corporatism, which specific policies of Barack Obama would you consider to be overly corporatist?

This is, essentially, horseshit.

First, it’s not ‘untold billions’. We have a good sense of the overall number, and the amount of aid we provide to Israel is a tiny portion of our budget.

Ethically speaking, the way the Israelis treat the Palestinians is far more ethically defensible than how many of the other governments we ally with treat people – from Uzbekistan to Saudi Arabia to Turkey to Pakistan.

It’s not a political nightmare, since its political effect is negligible.

Makes us less secure? It’s not one of the main drivers of global terrorism.

Plain and simple, it’s a third-rate issue.

“From a symbolic point of view, isn’t that the kind of face we want representing America to ourselves and to the rest of the world?”

No, I want a president who cares about my interests more than what the world thinks of us. Fuck Obama in 08!

Hmmm…one softball, and one question far too complex to address in a blog comment. OK, here goes:

The softball: why Palestine should be a major issue? Easy. Our underwriting Israel’s aggression to the tune of untold billions and infinite political support is an ethical, political and financial nightmare. It contributes to the disdain with which we are rightly perceived by much of the world. It makes us less secure. It is a howling, balls-out infamy of the very first order.

Yeah, I don’t like corporatist politicians. To educate yourself, have a look at Pollin’s Contours of Descent, Hartmann’s Unequal Protection, Bakan’s The Corporation, Nace’s Gangs of America and any of Ralph Nader’s position papers. Just don’t expect me to drag you kicking and screaming into the light in the space of a paragraph or two on a blog.

For starters, please explain why Palestine should be a major issue for anyone in selecting a presidential candidate.

Oh, and please explain why “corporatist” is, in your mind, automatically a pejorative.

You really think lobbying conferences are supposed to be “an arena for debate”?

And you think these are the first guys who don’t comment on pending legal cases?

I know you don’t. You are smarter than that. You might want to try not to become the very type of propagandist you claim the other side is littered with.

Not a very impressive package.

Even al Jazeera deserves better than that.