Palin Uninvited To Protest Rally

Next week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is coming to New York. Several Jewish groups have planned to mark the visit with a large protest rally. In order to help draw a large crowd and get the most news coverage possible, they invited both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin to speak at the rally.

Upon hearing that she would be on the same bill as Palin, Hillary Clinton said thanks but no thanks. She declined the invitation. That left only Palin attending the rally, and it looked like it might turn into a campaign rally for McCain/Palin instead of a protest against the Iranian leader. At least that's what the organizing groups thought.

The organizers have asked Palin not to appear at the rally. They issued a statement saying, “In order to keep the focus on Iranian threats and to ensure that this critical message not be obscured, the organizers of the rally have decided not to have any American political personalities appear."

Of course, the McCain campaign was quick to blame Democrats for Palin's being uninvited. McCain himself is beating that drum. He said, "Governor Palin was pleased to accept an invitation to address this rally and show her resolve on this grave national security issue, regrettably that invitation has since been withdrawn under pressure from Democratic partisans."

But it wasn't the Democrats that don't want the rally turned into a campaign event for McCain. It was the organizers of the rally. As one of the organizers, Ira Forman, said, “We have a presidential election where the McCain-Palin ticket want to use what’s supposed to be a very, very bipartisan-type of operation to, again, use it as a campaign event."

They just prevented the Republicans from hijacking the protest rally.