Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, called me today to say he thinks President Obama created a big fat opening for his party in its bid to pull votes away from the Democrats’ traditional constituency, Jewish Americans.
He kept calling Obama’s position, in his Middle East policy speech last week, a call on Israel "to return to its 1967 borders."
It wasn’t, of course — Obama made clear that it would include mutually agreed land swaps.
I’ll be here to remind readers of that every time it comes up, but in any case, Priebus has no intention of dropping this ball. (UPDATE: I mean the larger ball, of the president’s perceived overreaching in terms of setting parameters for an ally. Priebus will go with this, "land swaps" or no. So apparently, will Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate.)
"It’s in our strategic interest as Americans to support Israel, and deviations from that position do not square with voters in our country," Priebus said. "That’s what we’re gonna be singing from the mountaintops for the next 17 months. We’re going to be making a strong play for Jewish voters in 2012, I can tell you that. We just did an eight city tour in Florida, and we’re going to go back to Florida — we’re not going to let any stone unturned."
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