It's from a Letter to the Editor at "The New Republic" (NOT a conservative publication!).
It's long, but worth it:
Dashendorf - As an ex-Chicago Jew (for the 8 years before moving to Israel) I must protest that not all Chicago Jews supported Obama. Hell, I didn't even vote for him for the Senate as I had a lot of vague doubts back then. Not all Chicago Jews are starry-eyed naifs.
I want to float a different hypothesis to explain Obama, different in the sense that I don't recall seeing this elsewhere. If someone has seen idea this elsewhere I'd love to know where.
Obama has let loose a few hints that he might well be satisfied to be a one term president. And as several have observed, he doesn't really seem to like the job of POTUS. In view of this, a friend and also an ex-Chicagoan (and my son's father-in-law) suggested that Obama's bizarre, and seemingly counterproductive approach to foreign policy becomes more understandable if he is merely using the presidency of the USA as a stepping stone to become UN Secretary-General.
To wit:
First of all, UN Sec'y General is the perfect job for Obama, from his perspective. He gets to sit around or travel the world and jabber with world leaders & strive to fix the world but without having the degree of administrative responsibility and accountability that is inherent in the US presidency. Indeed the UN Sec'y Generalship is almost without any accountability. Furthermore there is none of the messiness of electoral & party politics.
It's essentially a job that offers a lot of opportunity for pontification without actually having to build or do something. Just like academia from whence Obama came.
Furthermore Obama claims to be a great believer in the moral & political superiority of doing things via transnational institutions, a belief that almost has a religious, mystical quality to it. Hence his recent nuclear disarmament conference in Washington DC designed more than anything else to polish up the heavily tarnished respectability veneer of the ineffectual NPT, but without actually dealing with the pressing Iranian nukes problem in a meaningful way. Hence Obama's insistence on making-do with merely symbolic, "nibbling" sanctions that have the official blessing of the UN Security Council, as opposed to going for more effective, but less (in his mind) legitimate crushing sanctions imposed by the USA & a coalition of the willing.
Indeed, given his own views on "world governance" (also exemplified by the appointment of Harold Koh to a senior legal position in the administration) what could be a greater achievement in his mind than to become Sec'y General of the UN, in effect Supreme Leader of the World?
He seemed most in his element, most comfortable when he chaired the the UN Security Council meeting last fall. Ditto for the Climate Conference.
Assuming that Obama probably has a greater chance for the job coming as a "transnational" nominee from the Third World bloc (if need be I am sure he could arrange to get Kenyan citizenship in a flash) & hence his policy & behavior have been aimed at ingratiating himself to the Third Worlders, in part by "dissing" the icons of the first world.
Dump on the Europeans & especially the Brits, particularly by distancing himself from Brown, returning the Churchill bust, and giving ridiculous gifts to the queen & prime minister. Show undue respect to Third World monarchs & despots regardless of their human rights records.
Downplay human rights violations in third world countries so as to placate their political leadership & hence gain their support. Re-join the UN Human Rights council, a hot bed of Third Worldism, to give it increased legitimacy.
Show favor to Muslims who control a big bloc of support at the UN, by banning mention of Jihad & radical Islam.
And most of all dump on Israel, the favorite bete noir & boogey man of the Third World countries, while shielding the Palestinians -- the quintessential poster children of an "oppressed" third world people (to hell with facts like the 8+% growth in the Palestinian economy in 2009) -- from any criticism or from having to actually do something to advance the "peace process".
I am sure if you go through Obama's policies & decisions and behaviors you could come up with more examples that are quite consistent with an undeclared ongoing campaign to become UN Sec'y General by being a nominee of the Third World.
Food for thought...
Hershel Ginsburg
Efrata / Jerusalem
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