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March 19, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: The Divine is in the details
JWisdom.com Stewards of sacrifice with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama is waging war on Israel
March 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Israel's New Enemy: America?
JWisdom.com Love me not? with Rabbi David Aaron (5 minutes)
Jonathan Rosenblum: Washington Throws a Tantrum
March 17, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Orwell, Santayana, and Me
Jonathan Tobin: How Many Lives Is Biden's Pride Worth?
March 16, 2010
Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare
JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes)
Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel
March 15, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children
JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT
March 12, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth
JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades
March 11, 2010
Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash
Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing
March 10, 2010
Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In
JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)
Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded
Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.
March 9, 2010
Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure
JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral
March 8, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?
JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion
March 5, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied
JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause
March 4, 2010
Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?
JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)
Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative
March 3, 2010
JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)
The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub
March 2, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there
Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?
March 1, 2010
JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute
Feb. 26, 2010
Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring
JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost
Feb. 25, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense
JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)
Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives
Feb. 24, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’
Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack
Feb. 23, 2010
Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!
JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)
Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes
Feb. 22, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?
JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)
Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk
Feb. 19, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?
JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State
Feb. 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)
Feb. 17, 2010
JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)
Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah
Feb. 16, 2010
Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet
JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)
Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief
Feb. 15, 2010
Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews
JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES)
Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review August 19, 2005 / 14 Av, 5765

Ohio election may be sign of good things to come for the Dems

By Froma Harrop


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | No loss could be sweeter for Democrats than the recent split-hair defeat of their man in Ohio. The reason for the satisfaction is that Democrats never even considered the possibility that Paul Hackett might actually win. But he almost did, and in the state's very Republican 2nd District, too. Furthermore, the Hackett campaign spent about half as much in the special election as did the Republican, Jean Schmidt.

More news like this, and Democrats can cut their Prozac dose. And there is more news like this — for example, that Bush's approval numbers are hitting bottom and the Republican Congress' are already there.

Hope ascends for Democrats. Could the 2006 congressional elections produce a repeat of 1994 — this time, in their favor? The 1994 election gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. Democrats have plenty of time between now and next year to mess up, but they have an outside chance of taking back the Senate and even the House.

If the right Democrat (Hackett is a Marine just back from Iraq) could perform so well in Ohio's second-most Republican district, imagine the possibilities in the state's less-Republican districts, 10 of which are now in GOP hands. Ohio is not just any state, but the predictor of the nation's mood swings. If Republicans are in trouble there, they're in trouble.

Almost nothing is going well in America right now, according to the people. On the economy, President Bush's approval rating is at 41 percent, the lowest in the Associated Press-Ipsos poll's history. And this comes at a time when certain economic indicators are encouraging. Unemployment, for example, is at a four-year low.

But Americans are not entirely fools. They know this economy is built on self-indulgence. It's been pumped up by government spending paid for with public debt — and by consumer spending, also done with borrowed money. Sooner or later, debts must be paid.

There's no serious energy policy that a) reduces our dependence on foreign oil and b) addresses the threat of global warming. Gasoline prices are rising, and will continue to do so as the billions in China and India trade their bicycles for cars.

Job security, for most, grows bleaker by the year. Those nice income gains reported by the Feds have gone mainly to high-earning families — the type that receive bonuses and stock options.

For people lower down the ladder, uncontrolled immigration continues to depress wages and benefits. Business likes that, and therefore so does the Bush administration. And foreigners in their own countries are also eating what was considered the American lunch. Not only manufacturing, but also accounting, programming and customer-service jobs keep moving elsewhere.

Nothing has been done about soaring health-care costs or the rising numbers of uninsured. Finding health insurance at the job gets harder all the time, and the lucky workers who have it are bearing more of the costs. The situation is no fun for employers, either, who find themselves at a competitive disadvantage with rivals in countries with rational health-care systems.

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Add in the various and assorted rich man's tax cuts, and the Republican future seems a game of Candyland for millionaires and "Survivor" for the sweating classes. And to keep the game more exciting for the working stiffs, the president continues to push to replace the Social Security guarantees with a wager on Wall Street.

Then there is the war in Iraq. Approval for Bush's handling of it is down to 34 percent. Doing it right, apparently, demanded billions more dollars in spending and thousands more troops than this administration was willing to invest.

Bah! Governing is a bore. Let's spend another month demonizing Terri Schiavo's husband. Perhaps the president can explain once again why U.S. Treasury securities would be rock-safe investments for private Social Security accounts but are "just IOUs" when they're in the Social Security Trust Fund. Or he could elaborate on why America's schoolchildren should study "creationism" alongside evolution.

If Democrats can't bat against this crowd, they don't belong in the game. All they need is the New Democrat platform, which is fiscally conservative and respects the values of ordinary Americans. Democrats should be swinging from the heels.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


Froma Harrop is a columnist for The Providence Journal. Comment by clicking here.

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