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February 10, 2012
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Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
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Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
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Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
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January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Dec. 11, 2007
/ 2 Teves 5768
Obama the messianic
By
Rich Lowry
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Barack Obama found the perfect booster in Oprah Winfrey. Not only can she fill a football stadium with 30,000 adoring people and put a hammerlock on a news cycle, she specializes in the warm-and-fuzzy uplift that is the very foundation of Obama's candidacy.
This was the pontiff of daytime television bestowing secular sainthood on the golden child of latter-day liberalism. "For there is born to you this day a savior." The Oprah-Obama match is made not quite in heaven, but in a haze of inspirational piety with heavy religious overtones.
People had "Oprah for V.P." buttons at this past weekend's rallies. The Queen of All Media surely would never accept such a demotion. But Obama-Winfrey would make a natural ticket. They are both African-Americans with major racial crossover appeal. They are arguably the nation's biggest celebrities in their respective fields of media and politics. And they offer affirming messages of hope and self-help.
In her stump speeches on Obama's behalf, Oprah zeroed in on the heart of the matter: Obama's post-political messianism. In South Carolina, she declared that it isn't enough for candidates to tell the truth, "We need politicians who know how to be the truth." One wonders if in the news reports, it were merely a transcription error that "the truth" wasn't rendered in divinized capital letters.
Michelle Obama spoke in the same terms: "We need a leader who's going to touch our souls. Who's going to make us feel differently about one another. Who's going to remind us that we are one another's keepers. That we are only as strong as the weakest among us."
This isn't merely overpromising. It's a creepy inflation of a political figure into a secular version of the Second Coming. Oprah implied the same thing, quoting a film in which an old, long-suffering woman asks every child she meets in a question fraught with messianic symbolism "Are you the one?" Oprah continued, referring to Obama, "It's a question the entire nation is asking is he the one? South Carolina I do believe he's the one."
Is he really? It's hard enough for a presidential candidate to have a plan to save Social Security and stabilize Iraq, let alone embody the truth and touch our souls. Obama plays into this messianism because it's what gives his candidacy its unique appeal. Otherwise, he has a collection of pedestrian Democratic positions. It's the promise to redeem our politics, "to create a kingdom right here on earth" as he put it at a church event in South Carolina a few weeks ago that accentuates his status as a different kind of candidate.
The American left might be overwhelmingly secular, but it still has religious impulses, which tend to be channeled into their leaders. Democrats want to revere their candidates. This has at least been the case since John F. Kennedy, the martyred president who embodied all that would have been good and true about America if it hadn't taken a catastrophic wrong turn with his death. Obama offers Democrats the opportunity to fall in love all over again.
This is because he is relatively unsullied by politics. Hillary Clinton is not. No one could invest millenarian aspirations in Clinton. She has been attacked, and has attacked in turn too much. She has compromised too much. She has positioned herself with an eye to practical political considerations too much. Her goal isn't to transform politics she's much too realistic for that but to move public policy in a leftward direction that she thinks would help people's lives. This is the stuff of grubby, everyday politics, and there is no wonder Oprah wants nothing to do with it, not with the ideal of an Obama presidency shimmering off in the distance.
Who knows how much Oprah's endorsement will help Obama? This much is certain. If she helps get him elected president and expects politics as usual to dissipate under his glorious dispensation, she will be disappointed.
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© 2007 King Features Syndicate
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