Home
In this issue
Feb. 8, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Lofty ideals must be followed with grounded applications

Clifford D. May: Letter from the West Bank
Steve Rothaus: Judge OKs plan for gay man, lesbian couple to be on girl's birth certificate
Gloria Goodale: States consider drone bans: Overreaction or crucial for privacy rights?
Environmental Nutrition Editors: Don't buy the aloe vera juice hype
Michael Craig Miller, M.D.: Harvard Experts: Regular exercise pumps up memory, too
Erik Lacitis: Vanity plates: Some take too much license
The Kosher Gourmet by Susie Middleton: Broccoflower, Carrot and Leek Ragout with Thyme, Orange and Tapenade is a delightful and satisfying melange of veggies, herbs and aromatics
Feb. 6, 2013

Nara Schoenberg: The other in-law problem

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. : A see-no-jihadist for the CIA
Kristen Chick: Ahmadinejad visits Cairo: How sect tempers Islamist ties between Egypt, Iran
Roger Simon: Ed Koch's lucky corner
Heron Marquez Estrada: Robot-building sports on a roll
Patrick G. Dean, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: How to restore body's ability to secrete insulin
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: 3 prostate-protecting diet tips
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen 7 principles for to help you make the best soup ever in a slow cooker
Feb. 4, 2013

Jonathan Tobin: Can Jewish Groups Speak Out on Hagel?

David Wren: Findings of government study, released 3 days before Newtown shooting, at odds with gun-control crusaders
Kristen Chick: Tahrir becomes terrifying, tainted
Curtis Tate and Greg Gordon: US keeps building new highways while letting old ones crumble
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to hear case on arrests, DNA
Harvard Health Letters: Neck and shoulder pain? Know what it means and what to do
Andrea N. Giancoli, M.P.H., R.D.: Eat your way to preventing age-related muscle loss
The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington Baked Pears in Red Wine and Port Wine Glaze: A festive winter dessert
Feb. 1, 2013

Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: Redemption

Clifford D. May Home, bloody, home
Christa Case Bryant andNicholas Blanford Why despite Syria's allies warning of retaliation for Israeli airstrikes, the threats are likely hollow
Rick Armon, Ed Meyer and Phil Trexler Ex-police captain cleared by DNA test is freed after nearly 15 years
Harvard Health Letters: Could it by your thyroid?
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: When 'healthy food' isn't
Sue Zeidler: Coke ad racist? Arab-American groups want to yank Super Bowl ad (INCLUDES VIDEO)
The Kosher Gourmet by Nealey Dozier The secret of this soup is the garnish
January 30, 2013

Allan Chernoff: Celebrating 'Back from the Dead Day'

America isn't a religious country? Don't tell Superbowl fans!
Mark Clayton Cybercrime takedown!
Germany remembers Hitler rise to power
Israel salutes U. N. --- with the one finger salute
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: Get cookin' with heart-healthy fats
Ballot riles Guinness World Records
The Kosher Gourmet by Elizabeth Passarella Potato, Squash and Goat Cheese Gratin
January 28, 2013

Nancy Youssef: And Democracy for all? Two years on, Egypt remains in state of chaos

Fred Weir: Putin: West is fomenting jihadi 'blowback'
Meredith Cohn: Implantable pain disk may help those with cancer
Michael Craig Miller, M.D. : Ask the Harvard Experts: Are there drugs to help control binge eating?
David Ovalle Use of controversial 'brain mapping' technology stymied
Jane Stancill: Professor's logic class has 180,000 friends
David Clark Scott Lego Racism?
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali The celebrated chef introduces us to PANZEROTTI PUGLIESI, cheese-stuffed pastry from Italy's south


Jewish World Review July 31, 2008 / 28 Tamuz 5768

Road show

By Paul Greenberg


Printer Friendly Version
Email this article

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | With apologies to Walter Winchell:


Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America — from border to border and coast to coast, and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press. ... Barack Obama is back from his BOFFO European tour, having wowed 'em in Berlin and Paris and points east, notably Kabul and Baghdad-on-the-Tigris. ... Comparisons with John F. Kennedy and even Ronald Reagan were flying even before this Obamathon began.


Those of us on the dextral side of American politics can only envy our honorable opponents of sinistral bent for the grace and elegance with which the newest star of American politics conducted himself during his road tour. ... Bon Jovi should get such reviews. ... He came, he saw, he wowed. ... If only the Germans and French elected the next American president, Barack Obama could start planning his inauguration/coronation now.


And he offered not just style but propriety, even tradition. Asked by a French reporter to review the failures of the Bush administration, which he's been doing ever since the start of his presidential campaign, the young senator respectfully declined, explaining that we in America have a tradition of not criticizing a sitting president when abroad. ... What's more, he approved of the practice and was going to follow it. It was the kind of comment that made you want to stand up, wave the flag and say: Well done. Who says Barack Obama is no traditionalist?


If the Obama Tour was a triumph, the troubling thought occurs that, like his campaign, it was a triumph of style over substance. ... Talk of his Kennedyesque grace may be all too accurate, for JFK was scarcely inaugurated before he invited his administration's and maybe the 20th century's greatest crisis by appearing weak and uncertain: the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. ... There's no telling where a President Obama's first crisis would emanate from, but Teheran is a good guess. The world is just full of terrible surprises waiting to happen. ... Will Iran's president and demagogue-in-chief, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, see this junior senator's eagerness to negotiate without preconditions as a weakness to be exploited, the way Hitler sensed Chamberlain's?


Neville Chamberlain, too, was eager for direct negotiations, and drew huge crowds at home and abroad roaring their approval of his devotion to peace in his time, aka appeasement. ... In September of 1938, Britain's Queen Mary wept with relief when the prime minister told Commons that he would be going to Germany for a third time to conciliate Herr Hitler, this time to Munich for an international conference that would resolve the crisis. Czechoslovakia's Jan Masaryk, who understood what the announcement meant for his little country, just wept. ... Come to think, only the Israelis were less than wildly enthusiastic when the Obamaplane touched down in the Holy Land on its royal progress.


But there's no denying Barack Obama's shining appeal, his way with words, and how good he looks tieless in a white, unbuttoned shirt fielding questions with a cat-like grace. ... He can shift positions so completely yet smoothly you scarcely notice. ... Even more impressive, he makes anyone who points it out sound petty.


If only the right side of the American political spectrum had a comparable presidential nominee and slender young matinee idol to make its views irresistible. ... But there's hope: If Senator Obama will just continue his political evolution now that his party's primaries are over and he's back in the real world, he may yet prove the conservative candidate in this race. ... He's already pivoted on Iraq, campaign financing, gun control, FISA, and who knows what's next. More to come, no doubt.


Every time you look around, the Democratic candidate is ooching over to starboard. Soon he'll be passing John McCain on the right ... though he did switch the other way on school vouchers, which he's now against, at least when he talks to a teachers' union. ... Barack Obama is the candidate of Change, all right — at least when it comes to his own stands. ... He makes poor, literally old John McCain look like the fuddy-duddy he is for sticking to his same old positions on victory in Iraq, the Second Amendment, education reform, public financing for presidential campaigns. ... He's so unhip he's still against punishing the phone companies for cooperating with the government right after 9/11. ... But who remembers 9/11 any more? Another date that was going to live in infamy hasn't.


The chief effect of a renewed sense of security at home and the sight of victory abroad has been to encourage not gratitude on the part of the American electorate but amnesia. ... Result: George W. Bush is set to leave the White House as the most unpopular president since HST. ... It's the hallmark of American democracy, ingratitude, and has been at least since John Adams, that dull old puritan, got into his carriage and hustled out of Washington without even attending the inauguration of his glamorous successor, T. Jefferson, who represented La Nouvelle Vague in 1800 the way B. Obama does in 2008. ... The American desire for change never changes.


Tune in again tomorrow. Till then, this is your devoted correspondent signing off for Jergen's with lotions of love....

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.

Paul Greenberg Archives

© 2006 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

Insight (Our Columnists)

 Arnold Ahlert
 Mitch Albom
 Jay Ambrose
 Michael Barone
 Barrywood
 Lori Borgman
 Stratfor Briefing
 Mona Charen
 Linda Chavez
 Richard Z. Chesnoff
 Ann Coulter
 Greg Crosby
 Alan Douglas
 Larry Elder
 Suzanne Fields
 Christine Flowers
 Frank J. Gaffney
 Bernie Goldberg
 Jonah Goldberg
 Julia Gorin
 Jonathan Gurwitz
 Paul Greenberg
 Argus Hamilton
 Victor Davis Hanson
 Betsy Hart
 Ron Hart
 Nat Hentoff
 Marybeth Hicks
 A. Barton Hinkle
 Jeff Jacoby
 Paul Johnson
 Jack Kelly
 Ch. Krauthammer
 David Limbaugh
 Kathryn Lopez
 Rich Lowry
 Michelle Malkin
 Jackie Mason
 Ann McFeatters
 Dale McFeatters
 Dana Milbank
 Jeanne Moos
 Dick Morris
 Jim Mullen
 Deroy Murdock
 Judge A. Napolitano
 Bill O'Reilly
 Kathleen Parker
 Star Parker
 Dennis Prager
 Wesley Pruden
 Tom Purcell
 Sharon Randall
 Robert Robb
 Cokie & Steve Roberts
 Heather Robinson
 Debra J. Saunders
 Martin Schram
 Culture Shlock
 David Shribman
 Roger Simon
 Michael Smerconish
 Thomas Sowell
 Ben Stein
 Mark Steyn
 John Stossel
 Cal Thomas
 Dan Thomasson
 Bob Tyrrell
 Diana West
 Dave Weinbaum
 George Will
 Walter Williams
 Byron York
 ZeitGeist
 Mort Zuckerman

'Toons
 Robert Arial
 Chuck Asay
 Baloo
  Lisa Benson
 Chip Bok
 Dry Bones
 John Branch
 John Cole
 J. D. Crowe
 Matt Davies
 John Deering
 Brian Duffy
 Everything's Relative
 Mallard Fillmore
 Glenn Foden
 Jake Fuller
 Bob Gorrel
 Walt Handelsman
 Joe Heller
 David Hitch
 Jerry Holbert
 David Horsey
 Lee Judge
 Steve Kelley
 Jeff Koterba
 Dick Locher
 Chan Lowe
 Jimmy Margulies
 Jack Ohman
 Michael Ramirez
 Rob Rogers
 Drew Sheneman
 Kevin Siers
 Jeff Stahler
 Scott Stantis
 Danna Summers
 Gary Varvel
 Kirk Walters
  Dan Wasserman

Lifestyles
 Mr. Know-It-All
 Ask Doctor K
 Richard Lederer
 Frugal Living
 On Nutrition
 Bookmark These
 Bruce Williams