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February 13, 2012
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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?
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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
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Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
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Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
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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
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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
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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
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
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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
Oct. 3, 2007
/ 21 Tishrei 5768
Empty podiums are bad form for GOP
By
Jonathan Gurwitz
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
What is it, exactly, that the Republican presidential hopefuls are thinking? The NAACP invited all the GOP aspirants to address its convention in July. Only Rep. Tom Tancredo showed up.
Last month, Univision invited the GOP contenders to participate in a debate on the Spanish language network. Only Sen. John McCain had the fortitude to participate.
Last week, Tavis Smiley hosted a presidential debate on PBS that focused on issues of concern to minority communities. Organizers issued invitations to the entire Republican field months in advance. The lecterns for McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson stood empty at Morgan State University, a historically black university in Baltimore.
It's one thing for the Democratic contenders to cower to left-wing agitators and refuse to participate in a debate on Fox News. It's what you'd expect from this group: petty, unprincipled and spineless.
And it gives Republicans an effective talking point for 2008. If the nominee of the Democratic Party is too frail to go into enemy territory and face Brit Hume or Juan Williams, how can they be expected to deal with the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations or Hugo Chávez at the Organization of American States?
But do the Republicans really believe an NAACP convention is enemy territory? Are they too timid to take on Tavis Smiley? Has the nativist element become so powerful in the Republican Party that appearing on Spanish language television is now the kiss of death?
Those are the talking points the Republican nominee has ceded to the Democrats. And it's not as though they were hurting for any.
The all-male, monochromatic and mostly mature GOP team already plays to stereotypes about Republican country club exclusivity. Peggy Noonan, writing in the Wall Street Journal, observed that Romney looks "like someone who's stepped from the shower and been handed a dress shirt by his manservant George." At least he's not, like some of his competitors, humorless.
Those are issues of perception. The dangerous reality is that the Republican Party is writing off minority voters and, in the process, undoing more than two decades of effort and progress.
In 2005, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman did go to the NAACP convention. He didn't just talk. He apologized for Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy" in 1968 that took political advantage of racial polarization. In 2007, the front-runners for the GOP nomination can't be bothered to make an appearance.
It doesn't matter that Republican presidential candidates rarely obtain more than 10 percent of the black vote. Addressing a black audience somewhere, sometime is the right thing to do for someone who wants to be president for all the United States.
Would it really have been that difficult for John McCain to go to Detroit and tell the NAACP, "You have been almost wholly in thrall of the Democratic Party and its social programs that breed dependence on government, and it has not availed you. Four decades after the Great Society, the ills it was intended to remedy still plague the African American community. I offer you an alternative."
Was it too much for Rudy Giuliani to go to Miami and say, "This nation of immigrants has nothing to fear from a new generation of citizens who hail from Latin America, just as it had nothing to fear from the Italian, Irish, Jewish, Polish and German immigrants who came before them. But our national security and respect for the law demand that they come to this country lawfully, as their predecessors did."
The dismissive attitude toward Hispanic voters is particularly incomprehensible. George W. Bush polled more than 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, a key reason he prevailed in battleground states such as Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico, each of which was critical for an Electoral College victory.
The Republican contenders, save McCain, don't seem to care. Neither will Hispanic voters come next November.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
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JWR contributor Jonathan Gurwitz, a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, is a co-founder and twice served as Director General of the Future Leaders of the Alliance program at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. In 1986 he was placed on the Foreign Service Register of the U.S. State Department.
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© 2007, Jonathan Gurwitz
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