By The only thing that will defeat President Barack Obama in his November re-election bid will be an Israeli air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Oil and gasoline prices would shoot up and the U.S. economy would go through the toilet. Voters would have no alternative but to elect a candidate from the Radical Party, meaning the Republicans.
That candidate would probably be Mitt Romney unless the GOP poobahs decide to bring in another contender at the 11th hour. He could be Jeb Bush of Miami. Although I think the country isn't quite ready to embrace a third Bush in the White House at this time.
Still, the Bush name has immediate recognition to voters, unlike many of the other would-be contenders over the years.
Before writing off Obama, however, consider the deal the President must have hammered out with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his recent visit to Washington. Money talks and right now the U.S. gives Israel $3 billion a year in foreign aid. Only Afghanistan ($3.9 billion) and Pakistan ($3.1 billion) receive more.
It wouldn't be too far-stretched to assume Obama played the money card and dangled more greenbacks in front of Netanyahu for a promise to hold off any Israeli strike on Iran until after the November election.
There is still another important factor to consider in evaluating Obama's re-election chances. And that is the Jewish Vote.
Like the Hispanic Vote, the Black Vote and the Evangelical Vote, the Jewish Vote is the Liberal Vote - the vote that pushed Obama into the White House and the vote that can get him just as quickly removed from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Should the Israelis hit Iran between now and November, causing the economy throughout the world and in the U.S. specifically to nose-dive again, the Jewish vote would not hesitate to drum Obama out of office and replace him with almost anybody else.
This isn't the first time that fireworks in the Mideast have devastated the U.S. and world economies. Remember the early 1990s when the OPEC oil embargo and the Iraq invasion of Kuwait sent prices soaring?
But not to $4 a gallon where the average price now stands in the US. Should the Israelis strike Iran, it isn't preposterous to envision gas prices at the pump soaring to $8, $9 or even $10 a gallon over a short period.
Administration officials acknowledged the dangers to national security and the economy from an Israel-Iran battle.
In November 2011, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned an attack would damage the nation's economic recovery. In an interview with The Washington Post's David Ignatius, Panetta said he personally felt Israel would strike in April, May or June of 2012.
Well, that hasn't happened and won't happen because of the deal Obama has with Netanyahu.
You heard it here first.
