Webb: Where CPAC and Bibi cross paths

It is easy to think this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress are not connected, but in fact they are inexorably intertwined. Our world now faces its greatest existential threat — and where leadership vacuums exist, that threat metastasizes. 

Structure and substance collided — or more accurately coalesced — as the annual gathering of the conservative tribes occurred, from the disaffected, libertarians, gays, neocons, to your typical social conservative and everywhere in between. (It is of note that the left does not have a conference like CPAC where multiple aspects of the party get together to debate and activate.)

{mossecondads}Top issues were the economy and jobs with 52 percent of the straw polls respondents, and 29 percent voted for foreign policy and national security. If you cannot afford to live and have a secure environment in which to live, how can any American follow their dreams?

Anecdotally, many of the attendees I spoke with and interviewed on SiriusXM Patriot radio go beyond the single-issue voting perception often attributed to conservatives. They did not sacrifice their individual primary issue but recognize that many issues are interrelated and are not simply a linear ranking. 

So, was there someone in the Gaylord’s Potomac ballroom who will be the Republican nominee and potentially next president of the United States? Rand Paul has won three times in the straw poll at CPAC, but history does not support his chances and there just aren’t enough libertarians to vote him president. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker came in second with a strong showing — and very little plan to bus in the multitudes — but his future, as a candidate or otherwise, is uncertain at this time. 

When it comes to the prime minister of Israel’s speech to Congress Tuesday, the political wrangling between Republicans and Democrats over attending or not attending, led by Democrats who boycotted, is part of what made the event such a controversy. 

Obama the petulant president not only said he would not attend the speech but would not even watch it. It would’ve been best to simply say nothing rather than send that signal. One would think this is below anyone who sits in the Oval Office. Vice President Biden was conveniently abroad. Some 50 members of Congress — all Democrats — did not attend. These actions of petulant politicians send a message of divisiveness to the world and to our enemies. 

Netanyahu had already laid out the red line for the world in his speech at the United Nations in 2012 with a simple picture. 

The Obama administration has erased that red line politically and crossed into dangerous waters, sailing toward a bad deal with Iran — an Iran that aims to be the nuclear hegemon in the Middle East and a direct and existential threat to the world. 

A key component of this current deal being negotiated by the Obama administration via Secretary of State John Kerry in Geneva is that there will be a sunset clause but no guarantee that Iran will sunset its march to a nuclear weapon. 

Obama has never made the commitment — it’s not who he is. Obama thinks and acts like a college professor where the consequences of an intellectual exercise are merely a scholarly grade, not a degraded global situation. 

Could Netanyahu, a man who was a soldier, a commander in Israeli special forces, who became an elected official and developed into a world leader for both his nation and the world against radical Islamo-fascist tyranny, be the canary in the nuclear mine to awaken the world, stop a bad deal, help force a better deal with Iran and help save all of us from a nuclear Iran? 

Communist nations sought and still seek domination but are not willing to except annihilation during the Cold War and today. Radical Islam sees annihilation as an acceptable part of the picture. There is a fundamental question for those seeking the Republican nomination for president next year: What is your cultural and foreign policy footing when it comes to dealing with Islamic-based radicalism? Failure means death of nations. 

Webb is host of “The David Webb Show” on SiriusXM Patriot 125, a Fox News contributor and has appeared frequently on television as a commentator. Webb co-founded TeaParty365 in New York City and is a spokesman for the National Tea Party Federation. His column appears twice a month in The Hill.