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February 13, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
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)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
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
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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
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
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
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
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
June 16, 2008
/ 13 Sivan 5768
Moment of truth
By
Paul Greenberg
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
There is no test of character quite like running for public office. For in any political race of consequence, there always comes that moment of truth when the candidate must decide just how far he will go to curry favor with the voters. How much principle, or just simple dignity, is he willing to sacrifice?
That's the moment aficionados of moral drama look for. It reveals so much. About character, about the awful wanting to win, about the person's moral priorities versus the candidate's sheer ambition.
In the quadrennial passion that is an American presidential election, there will always be those who conceive of their candidate as perfect in every way. Listen to the messianic nominating speeches at national conventions. Hear the roar of the adoring crowd. Remember the wave of Obamamania that swept the country earlier this year? People get swept away.
It's natural enough. There is something in the human condition that wants to worship something better than ourselves, that demands The Hero, and if there isn't one available, we'll invent one. We can see a Sir Galahad in a ward-heeler.
In our calmer moments, we know it is unrealistic to look for saints in politics, which is very much of this world. ("One always picks the easy fight/ One praises fools, one smothers light/ One shifts from left to right/ Politics, the art of the possible." "Evita") Compromise is at the calculating heart of politics, and needs to be.
But it is also possible to compromise overmuch. The aspiring politician is always in danger of losing his way in that treacherous place where ambition and morality collide. At a certain moment, principle may be sacrificed, integrity lost. And such moments tend to recur in a pressure-filled presidential contest.
Barack Obama passed such a test earlier in this campaign. With style and grace. That's when some embarrassing videos of his long-time pastor and mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, surfaced. They were full of racist nonsense: AIDS is a government plot to destroy the black race, God Damn America, and so tiringly on. It was a test: How was Barack Obama, the Reverend's loyal congregant of 20 years, going to react?
Sen. Obama rose to the occasion, or rather above it. He deplored what his preacher had said, but he would not turn his back on the man who had brought him into the church, officiated at his wedding, and baptized his children. He might hate the sin, but he would love the sinner. Good Christian doctrine all around. He would not disown his church or his pastor, any more than he would his family. As he put it in a speech that soon became known as The Speech:
"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. These people are a part of me."
Well and loyally said.
But we are not tested just once. It wasn't long before another demagogue in a clerical collar, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, showed up at Barack Obama's church to deliver his own rant. This time it was an ugly, jeering attack on Hillary Clinton as the embodiment of white entitlement. How the guest speaker strutted and fretted his brief hour on the stage, full of sound and fury signifying nothing, appealing to the basest prejudices of his listeners, stoking their anger, stroking their hatreds like a virtuoso. This from a priest. In a church.
That must have been the breaking point. Barack Obama's political career had prospered mightily by his association with his church. It gave him a power base in the African American community. But by now his church membership had become not a political asset but an ever growing liability. He announced he was leaving the church.
So much for his not abandoning his church, his family, his community. His classic speech back in the spring had become inoperative. The political cost of sticking by his earlier eloquence had become too high. It was time to cut his losses. Politics happens.
I can understand the senator's temptation. I think of not just the partisan gibberish I've heard from the pulpit of my own temple over the years, but the moral affronts. (Three Cheers for Abortion!) What contempt for what I'd always understood to be of the essence of Jewish teaching Choose Life.
So, yes, I can understand how tempting it would be to walk away, give up, find a new congregation. Then I think of what a sage named Hillel said long ago: Do not separate yourself from the community. Resist the temptation. Stay and fight. Bear witness. Take your stand within the community, not apart from it. What good is a cloistered virtue that shrinks from any challenge? A uniformity of belief may be comfortable, without challenge or risk, but it's also debilitating. Belief unquestioned does not grow; it atrophies. So I choose to stay. Of course I'm not a politician, and Barack Obama has a lot more to lose by staying with his church.
This was but one early test of the candidate's principles, one more moment of truth in a long campaign that will surely be full of them. Others will arise. Such is politics. Such is life.
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.
JWR contributor Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Send your comments by clicking here.
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© 2006 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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