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Dec. 2, 2008
Melanie Phillips: The Mumbai atrocity is a wake-up call for a frighteningly unprepared world
Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report: Strategic Motivations for the Mumbai Attack
Dec. 1, 2008
Max Freidlander, as told to Jacklyn C. Wadler: India Inkings
Mark Steyn: Whodunit!?
Nov. 28, 2008
Rabbi Ahron Rapps: An evil seed that didn't have to be
Melanie Phillips: Carpe diem --- or can we all relax now?
Nov. 26, 2008
Michael Feldberg: Meet the Orthodox Jew who laid groundwork for scientific development of ordnance that undergirds America's current world leadership
Andrea Simantov:
Shades of life
Nov. 25, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Getting Emotional For Influence
The Kosher Gourmet
by Ethel G. Hofman : Thanksiving feast!
Nov. 24, 2008
Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: 'I just Became a grandchild!'
Barry Rubin: Don't flatter your enemies, protect your friends
Nov. 21, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Money matters?
Caroline B. Glick:
Civilization walks the plank
Nov. 20, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bronfman's blindness
The Kosher Gourmet
By Linda Gassenheimer: Portobellos add a hearty flavor to pasta with pesto
Nov, 19, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Spread the wealth? Jewish tradition and income equality
Elliot B. Gertel:
'Mad Men': Tackling prejudices or reinforcing them?
Nov, 18, 2008
Dr. Debby Schwarz Hirschhorn: The End of the Age of Reason
Jonathan Tobin: Does Barack + Bibi = Disaster?
Nov, 17, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The End of the Age of Reason
Diana West: Gulling Americans into making terror legit?
Nov, 14, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The Power of Spiritual Inertia
Caroline B. Glick: The perils ahead
Nov, 13, 2008
Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: How Bush and Obama together could change the Middle East dynamic
The Kosher Gourmet
by JeanMarie Brownson: Sweet and savory, crispy and meltingly tender bestilla
Nov, 12, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Tyrannical Co-Workers
Michael Doyle: High Court to consider today donated monuments that may have religious messages in public parks
Nov, 11, 2008
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Will Obama stop government officials considering institutionalizing financial jihad?
Jonathan Tobin: They Will Decide Their Own Fate
Nov, 10, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: $8 billion, modern-day Tower of Babel being built?
Barry Rubin: A letter to the president-elect from a Middle East realist
Nov, 7, 2008
Rabbi Francis Nataf: Of Children and Immortality
Caroline B. Glick: Livni's Obama strategy
Nov, 6, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: How I tricked a classroom of apathetic students into grasping the fallacy of moral relativism
The Kosher Gourmet
By Gina Kim: Tips for making the perfect soup --- includes recipes
Nov, 5, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Destitute Debtors
Bruce Weinstein: 'Religulos': Bad title,even worse movie
Nov, 4, 2008
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law
Frida Ghitis: A surprise for Obama in the Middle East
Nov, 3, 2008
Jonathan Rosenblum: Who says Jews are Smart?
Jonathan Tobin:
Was He Wrong About Everything?
March 22, 2007
J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)
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Jewish World Review
Sept. 27, 2005
/ 23 Elul, 5765
Bush's pain, McCain's gain
By
Rich Lowry
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Katrina has indeed altered our political landscape: For the
first time in years, conservatives have listened to Arizona Sen.
John McCain talk about a high-profile domestic issue and have nodded
their heads vigorously. The maverick Republican made his reputation
by bucking his own party, especially its conservative base, and,
after his failed 2000 nomination bid, seemed to want to make a
career out of it. Democrats fantasized about a Kerry-McCain ticket
in 2004, as McCain occupied his own little world of resentment at
how the 2000 nomination had supposedly been stolen from him and of a
"progressive" Republicanism at times difficult to distinguish from
Democratic orthodoxy.
After Katrina and the countless billions of dollars that began
pouring toward the Gulf Coast, conservatives clamored for spending
offsets elsewhere in the budget, and there was McCain right there
with them, excoriating pork-barrel spending (as he always has) and
calling for repeal of the massive new Medicare prescription-drug
entitlement. In a major battle between conservatives in Congress who
want to cut spending and the party's leadership, which is to put
it mildly unenthusiastic about the prospect, McCain is with the
conservative rebels.
This is so important because, if he runs, McCain is probably the
front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. But
he's an odd front-runner, a front-runner whose campaign is almost
certainly doomed unless he handles conservatives better than he did
in 2000. McCain will come out of the gate with formidable assets,
among them near-universal name recognition, media adulation and
credibility as a serious candidate. But if he again lets another
major candidate get to his right on nearly everything as he let
President Bush in 2000 his campaign will again attract
independents, but not the Republicans who are by definition
necessary to win the Republican nomination.
So McCain is in a different game from other potential
candidates. They need money, media attention and insider buzz.
McCain needs the right to stop loathing him, and he seems to realize
it.
When McCain went out on the campaign trail with Bush whom he
held in contempt for years after 2000 and gave him bearhugs, it
was clear that the senator's presidential ambitions hadn't died. It
is hard to believe that those hugs were heart-felt. Indeed, McCain's
campaign will strain his capacities for insincerity. If a second
marriage is the triumph of hope over experience, a second McCain
presidential campaign, to be successful, will have to be the triumph
of experience over the candidate's own predilections.
McCain's natural constituency is the bookers on "Hardball With
Chris Matthews," or any other public-affairs show; he is
"controversial," while usually managing to say what the media wants
to hear. In 2000, it became clear his grand goal was to blow up the
current Republican coalition and craft something new, although it
was left vague what exactly. He has never demonstrated great
affection for social conservatives, whom he blasted in 2000. But he
can work around these things. He recently endorsed teaching
Intelligent Design in schools, although he probably has as much
sympathy for this critique of evolution as The New York Times
editorial board does.
McCain will be the strongest performing Republican against
Hillary Clinton in early opinion polls; if anything, he is more
aggressive on the War on Terror than Bush is; he will have a strong
theme of returning to a cleaner Republicanism after the ethical
lapses of the current congressional majority. And all of this will
be wrapped in his appealing thematic mix of patriotism, sacrifice
and duty.
The problem for McCain is that he has such a richly layered
history of apostasy, including on conservative gospel like the Bush
tax cuts. Some of it is of recent vintage, for instance the
enforcement-less immigration bill he is co-sponsoring with Ted
Kennedy. A strong conservative candidate who unites the right can
take him down. But for that candidate, the less conservatives nod
their heads at anything McCain has to say, the better.
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Rich Lowry Archives
© 2005 King Features Syndicate
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