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Oct. 10, 2008
Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The limitations of scientific miracles
Caroline B. Glick:
Lebanon on the brink --- and why it matters
Oct. 8, 2008
Rabbi Berel Wein: The day when the sane talk to themselves
Ana Veciana-Suarez: Many nonobservant Jews are finding religion
Oct. 7, 2008
Gary Rosenblatt: Of politics and prayer
Caroline B. Glick: The ironies of the West's collusion with the Arabs and Iran
Oct. 6, 2008
Rabbi Yitzchok R. Rubin: Mamma to the masses
Jonathan Tobin: Ahmadinejad Isn't Too Impressed
Oct. 3, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The 'living dead' are all around us
Caroline B. Glick:
Olmert's parting blows
Oct. 2, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Often customers looking for our competitor accidentally enter our store. Can we just serve them without comment?
Jonathan Tobin: Jewish pundit quiz on next year's news
Sept. 29, 2008
Rabbi Eli Gewirtz: Lehman Brothers and the Day of Judgment
Rabbi Leiby Burnham: Apples, Honey and You
Sept. 26, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The shofar and the Echo of Sinai
Caroline B. Glick: A road paved on reality
Sept. 24, 2008
Greg Crosby: Home for the Holy Days
Ethel G. Hofman: Rosh Hashanah Favorites: Old-fashioned taste, reduced calories
Sept. 23, 2008
Caroline Glick: Liberalism or lives!?
Michael Ledeen: Dear President Ahmadinejad
Sept. 22, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: I gave a check to a local merchant, but it hasn't been cashed in months. Probably they lost it. Do I have to tell them?
Diana West: We are losing Europe to Islam
Sept. 19, 2008
Rabbi Berel Wein: On harvesting success
Caroline B. Glick: It is time to act
Sept. 18, 2008
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Is camping the panacea to save Jewry from self-destruction?
Craig Gordon: Was SNL hilarity too much for Hillary?
Sept. 17, 2008
Jonathan Tobin: The Whole World Is Watching
The Kosher Gourmet
By Linda Gassenheimer: East meets Southwest in this quick meal: MEXICAN-ASIAN TOSTADOS
Sept. 16, 2008
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. : Into the fire
Everything's Relative : Your Official Jewish Guide to the 2008 USA Presidential Election
Sept. 15, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Enabling risky behavior
Diana West:
A day that will live in ... accommodating Islam
Sept. 11, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The skeleton in my closet
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein: Persecution and systematic destruction of Christians in the Middle East must be stopped
Sept. 10, 2008
Jonathan Tobin: There's Something About Sarah
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: Who needs Chili's when you have these? Recipes for Mexican that taste great and are dietetic!
Our commitment to freedom
Sept. 9, 2008
Daniel Pipes: Must counterinsurgency wars fail?
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.:
Sept. 8, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: How far must one go to help somebody out of a contract?
Barry Rubin: Waiting For Something
Sept. 8, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : How far must one go to help somebody out of a contract?
Barry Rubin: Waiting For Something
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
July 15, 2008
/ 12 Tamuz 5768
When both guys look like losers
By
Wesley Pruden
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
What happens if it turns out that we've nominated two unelectable candidates for president? Do we get our money back?
Logic, common sense and the Constitution insist that either Barack Obama or John McCain must be elected Nov. 4. Right now it's difficult to see how. This could be the big break for Ralph Nader and Bob Barr. Together they could break 1 percent.
The senator from the South Side of Chicago is too grassy green, the man from the Hanoi Hilton is too old. Mr. Obama continues to demonstrate that lean and lithe or not, he may not be ready for prime-time politics. Mr. McCain looks like he may be past his prime. He delights mostly in needling Republicans, and mavericks are clever only the first time. Mr. Obama threatens to desert whoever brung him to the dance, giving conflicting hints as to who he intends to go home with. The late, great Casey Stengel's plaintive benediction on the New York Mets in their inaugural season applies on any given day to both candidates: "Can't anybody here play this game?"
Mr. McCain gained considerable ground in the public-opinion polls over the past fortnight, with Rasmussen (the current hot pollster), Newsweek and Gallup all saying the race is a dead heat. Allowing for "the Bradley effect," that more people will say they're voting for a black man than actually will, Mr. McCain may be ahead by a point or two. A poll in mid-July is hardly worth a nubbin, except to show that events and familiarity have steadily nibbled away at the rock star's once-formidable persona. "Yes we can" has become "maybe we won't." Mr. McCain's great white hope lies in the ancient folk wisdom that most people vote against, not for, and Mr. Obama's inexperience would give Mr. McCain the edge, just. We probably have to get used to the idea that we're permanently polarized.
The McCain campaign put out a list last Tuesday of 17 examples of Obama flip-flops, ranging from a flip on the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq (once demanding it, but not now) to flops on public financing of presidential campaigns, presidential debates, taxes, welfare reform, nuclear power, monitoring of electronic communications, the death penalty, guns, gay "nuptials" and diplomatic relations with Cuba. It's an impressive list. But all politicians flip and flop, dating from the early days of the republic when a right honorable gentleman could be for hanging horse thieves in one town and prescribe Christian mercy down the railroad line, and get away with it. The invention of the telegraph ruined that.
But Mr. Obama's trouble is more fundamental. He's becoming familiar, aging like a French cheese left out overnight, or a groupie who insists on staying around the morning after. Most voters, similar to the man who's been to both Natchez and Mobile, have seen too many big towns and heard too much big talk to be easily taken in. Body-slamming in the mosh pit is said to be fun, but eventually everybody tires of the act on stage and wants to climb out of the pit and go home.
Since he won't reveal who he is, or was, this enables everyone to define Mr. Obama for himself. The cover of the New Yorker magazine this week depicts the Obamas as a mullah-like figure and his moll (Michelle with an AK-47), and the scorched remnants of an American flag in the fireplace. The editors of the magazine insist it's satire aimed at the hayseeds who actually believe the discredited rumors, and satire it no doubt is. But the Obama campaign said it "'taint funny, McGee." The senator could see this cover becoming an icon, reproduced in the millions by Election Day. Sophistication on the Upper East Side runs only to wine, cheese and the occasional beansprout.
Soon Mr. Obama is off to Berlin in pursuit of a Leni Riefenstahl to duplicate spectacle when he stands before the Brandenburg Gate. He will reprise John F. Kennedy's Cold War promise to West Germany that "Ich bin ein Berliner" - "I am a Berliner." Since some polls show that 72 per cent of Germans are itching to vote for Mr. Obama, he'll get his photo-op. But a Berliner is also a jelly doughnut, like a Frankfurter is also a hot dog. If the Obama speech is a dud, he could sell the videotape to Krispy Kreme. He's a man with perfect pitch.
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
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