Home
In this issue
Nov. 25, 2009
Daniel Pipes: Islamism 2.0
JWisdom.com: No God … No You! Know God, Know You! with Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (8 minutes)
Nov. 24, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran : The Atheists' unintended gift
JWisdom.com: You are a Philanthropist with Aliza Bulow (5 minutes)
Nov. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com: Actually, it really is all about you with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff
Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 3, 2009 / 9 Shevat 5769

Looking for change in unlikely places

By Wesley Pruden


Printer Friendly Version
Email this article

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Change is good. Everyone says so. But easier said than done. Just ask Barack Obama, who sold the prospect of "change" with the fervor of a patent-medicine salesman on the back roads of beyond. Alas, presidents, unlike medicine-show men, can't move on to suckers in the next town.


When the president offers change to a surly foreign enemy, he gets insults. He went on Arab television - nothing wrong with that, and he blew off the New York Times while doing it - and delivered an artless half-grovel to the Muslims that America loves them as much as it loves monsignors and Methodists. "To the Muslim world," he told his interviewers, "we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect." He wants to "restore" America's relations with the Islamic world to what they were in the good old days "as recently as 20 or 30 years ago." (But the Iranians shouldn't get any ideas, please, about reprising the taking of American hostages, which is what they were doing in Tehran 30 years ago.)


Before the president could resume the upright position, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran told him there will be no settling for a dime-store friendship or cheap talk about unclenched fists, even from an American with a Muslim middle name, roots in a grade school in Indonesia and with a dotty Aunt Zuni in a Boston attic. Islam deserves nothing short of a full grovel, with an apology for American "crimes" and misdemeanors. He expects "deep and fundamental changes" in America, and why haven't Americans done anything about his earlier suggestion they convert to Islam? No more Christmases, white or otherwise, and no more Easter Parades. Passover must be passed over, permanently. No more ham sandwiches at Subway. (Sheep's eyes, anyone?)


Back at home, "change" continues to be as elusive as ever. The Democrats think they've died and gone to the heaven without virgins, festooning spendthrift Son of Bailout with dozens of bridges to Nowhere. Nowhere will soon be the easiest destination to reach anywhere. Nancy Pelosi and her San Francisco Democrats, with an assist from her sidekick Harry Reid, will use the bailout (and bailouts to come) to remake America into the liberal utopia they've been dreaming of. So no change there. The Democrats are as mired in their expensive ruts as they ever were in the Great Society that banished poverty forever.


The Republicans, so far, aren't buying Son of Bailout, but with Republicans you never know. No change there, either. They're insisting that nothing short of a complete overhaul, eliminating all the wasteful dreamy-eyed bits, will persuade Republican senators to stand up straight and do their duty. This is the test of Mr. Obama's oft-told tale of his determination to restore "a bipartisan spirit" to the business of Washington, where Republican and Democrat, liberal and conservative, male and female, will live only by the Great Obama Nonpartisan Do-Right Rule: "Do it our way lest we do it all over you."


"I think it may be time," says Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, "for the president to kind of get ahold of these Democrats in the Senate and the House, who have rather significant majorities, and shake them a little bit and say, 'Look, let's do this the right way.' I can't believe that the president isn't embarrassed about the products that have been produced so far."


Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second Republican banana in the Senate, was blunt, too: "When I say start from scratch, what I mean is that the basic approach of this bill, we believe, is wrong." The "basic approach" of the House bill, which earned no Republican votes, would cost $819 billion; the Senate version, which might get a few Republican votes because some Republican senators came all the way to Washington just to sound retreat, would cost $900 billion, and counting. Hey, it's only your money, and it might work.


Everyone agrees that the condition of the economy is grave, the hour late and somebody has to do something. But not "something" even if it's wrong. The president seems to understand that the responsibility for the "something wrong" will be his, particularly if it's medicine with a Democratic label and the recession falls into the Hoover-like depression we were told could never happen again. Presidents get the credit, but presidents get the blame. "Life," in JFK's memorable proverb for politics, "is unfair." Not even Barack Obama can change that

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 Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

Wesley Pruden Archives

© 2007 Wesley Pruden

Insight (Our Columnists)

 Arnold Ahlert
 Mitch Albom
 Michael Barone
  Dave Barry
 Tony Blankley
 Andy Borowitz
 David Broder
 Stratfor Briefing
 Mona Charen
 Linda Chavez
 Ann Coulter
 Greg Crosby
 Larry Elder
 Suzanne Fields
 John Fund
 Frank J. Gaffney
 Lloyd Garver
 Jonah Goldberg
 Julia Gorin
 Jonathan Gurwitz
 Paul Greenberg
 Lewis Grossberger
 Victor Davis Hanson
 Betsy Hart
 Nat Hentoff
 David Horowitz
 Laura Ingraham
 Cheri Jacobus
Jeff Jacoby
 Paul Johnson
 Jack Kelly
 Ed Koch
 Ch. Krauthammer
 Michael Ledeen
 John Leo
 David Limbaugh
 Kathryn Lopez
 Rich Lowry
 Michelle Malkin
 Jackie Mason
 Dick Morris
 Bill O'Reilly
 Jim Mullen
 Clarence Page
 Kathleen Parker
 Dennis Prager
 Wesley Pruden
 Tom Purcell
 Jonathan Rauch
 Celia Rivenbark
 Robert Robb
 Cokie & Steve Roberts
 Pat Sajak
 Debra J. Saunders
 Culture Shlock
 Roger Simon
 Michael Smerconish
 Thomas Sowell
 Mark Steyn
 John Stossel
 Cal Thomas
 Bob Tyrrell
 Diana West
 Dave Weinbaum
 George Will
 Walter Williams
 Byron York
 Mort Zuckerman

'Toons
 Robert Arial
 Chuck Asay
 Baloo
 Chip Bok
 Dry Bones
  Lisa Benson
 John Branch
 Gary Brookins
 John Cole
 J. D. Crowe
 John Deering
 Brian Duffy
 Everything's Relative
 Mallard Fillmore
 Jake Fuller
 Bob Gorrel
 Joe Heller
 David Hitch
 Jerry Holber
 Steve Kelley
 Jeff Koterba
 Dick Locher
 Chan Lowe
 Ranan R. Lurie
 Jimmy Margulies
 Rick McKee
 Michael Ramirez
 Kevin Siers
 Jeff Stahler
 Ed Stein
 Danna Summers
 John Trever
 Gary Varvel
 Kirk Walters

Lifestyles
 How 2
 Lori Borgman
 The Savvy Consumer
 Elder matters
 Fixit
 Dr. Peter Gott
 GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
 Richard Lederer
 Tech Maven
 Every Monday Matters
 Nutrition Myths
 Bookmark These
 Bruce Williams
 How Stuff Works