Heilemann 'Saddened' That Bibi Team Sees Win as Blow to Obama—But Obama View If Bibi Lost?

March 17th, 2015 7:39 PM

Imagine the secret scene inside the White House if Bibi Netanyahu had lost tonight: President Obama popping the bubbly as Samantha Power and John Kerry danced an Irish jig? There's no denying that the Obama admin ardently davened for Bibi's defeat. Top Obama campaign aides had been dispatched to Israel for that very purpose. Indeed, there are even allegations that the Obama admin had underwritten the effort to defeat Netanyahu.

But in a classic MSM bit of hypocritical hand-wringing, on this evening's With All Due Respect, John Heilemann lamented that he was "saddened" to hear that an adviser to Netanyahu said that his victory would be "a defeat for Barack Obama."  

Does anyone doubt that President Obama himself would view a Bibi win as a defeat?  

MARK HALPERIN: I gotta say: I was surprised to hear from a Netanyahu adviser who cast a Netanyahu victory as a defeat for Barack Obama.

JOHN HEILEMANN: Ugh.

HALPERIN: But that's a window into the mindset of --

HEILEMANN: -- Yes. Well I'm not surprised to hear that. I'm saddened by it. I mean, it's a horrible place for American-Israeli relations to be, but this relationship has gone from bad to worse progressively, and I can't imagine that Bibi will not feel emboldened by this, and that will be bad again for US-Israeli relationships on top of everything else.