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Turmoil in wake of rally that sought Palin, Clinton

BY CRAIG GORDON | craig.gordon@newsday.com

September 18, 2008

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton dropped out of an anti-Iran rally at the United Nations Monday, but Sarah Palin will be there and will try to use her visit to full advantage - meeting with overseas leaders as a way to burnish her foreign policy credentials.

Republican John McCain's campaign confirmed his running mate Palin will attend the rally - and chided Clinton for dropping out of an event designed to show U.S. opposition to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Governor Palin believes that the danger of a nuclear Iran is greater than party or politics," said spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt. "She hopes that all parties can rally together in opposition to this grave threat."

The sniping over the rally - and Palin's visit to the United Nations - is a perfect example of how nothing is simple in this supercharged political season, especially when it comes to Clinton and Palin.

Clinton backed out of the Monday rally at the United Nations after her staff said she got sandbagged by the organizers, who never told her Palin was invited to attend the event as well.

"Her attendance was news to us, and this was never billed to us as a partisan political event. Senator Clinton will therefore not be attending," said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines.

Even organizers admitted yesterday they probably didn't think through the political implications of giving a platform to Palin or that Clinton's camp would see it as violating the nonpartisan spirit of the event.

"We did not see that coming, but that may be right, and that's our mistake," said Haina Just, a media adviser to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, one of several Jewish groups sponsoring the rally.

But some officials questioned whether it would be appropriate for Palin to be there - without some prominent Democratic representation, perhaps at the level of Barack Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, to add balance.

The groups released a statement last night that made no mention of Palin, Clinton or other possible speakers, saying only that "we have and continue to reach out to the highest levels of both major political parties" for participation. One representative even said Clinton is still welcome.

For her part, Clinton has avoided confronting Palin directly - in effect, aiming not to make real their fictional joint appearance on last week's "Saturday Night Live."

Instead, she'll keep her campaigning for Obama strictly focused on attacking McCain - a strategy agreed on by both the Obama and Clinton camps, as a way to avoid the distraction of a Clinton-Palin standoff, one Clinton source said.

McCain's campaign offered no details of Palin's activities Monday in New York, or which foreign leaders she would meet. Palin is trying to convince voters she has the foreign policy experience to be McCain's vice president, though she has not traveled widely and only obtained her first passport last year.