People make crazy mistakes when they sense they are in trouble. It’s pretty obvious in the post Jeremiah Wright world that Obama is in trouble with the Jews. He could even be in bigger trouble than we know, from internal polling…. So like a white man appealing to blacks in the old days, he trots out the hoary “Some of my best friends are.. [gay, black, Jewish, Puerto Rican, fill in the blanks]…” argument. Only in this case he went for the brass ring by hitting the Holocaust button into the bargain. But unfortunately, like a desperate man, he missed, hitting his finger up to his knuckle by telling us it was his uncle [sic] who helped liberate Auschwitz when anyone who knows anything about the Holocaust knows the camp was liberated by the Soviets. It’s basic World War II history. His embarrassed campaign then had to back track to explain their harried candidate had meant his great uncle had liberated (sort of) Buchenwald.
Okay. This stuff happens. But Obama still has his Jewish problem. So here’s a simple solution. Why not get to the crux of the matter and apologize to the Jewish community the way any Jew who had spent twenty years in the synagogue of an anti-black rabbi would have to apologize to the African American community if that Jew were running for office? Obama made a big mistake, probably for his own gain. The truth is the only thing that will set him… and the rest of us… free.
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15 Comments
1. CTRepublican:But Obama still has his Jewish problem.
Um, no.
Better luck next time!
May 27, 2008 - 7:14 pm 2. TomTom:I have never understood the Jewish vote in Federal elections, and still do not.Lemminglike. Marx begat Lenin and Stalin, who so loved the Jews, no? For a smart culture with a real, objective basis for paranoia they seem oddly drawn to the Left despite its failures and its obvious threats to their liberty and well-being. The David Horowitzes are amazingly rare among them.
The biggest US defenders of Israel are the Evangelical Prots, not the Jews. And the Evangelicals ain’t hustling to vote up BHO.
Please explain, Roger.
Thanks for linking the Gallup, CTRep.
May 27, 2008 - 7:50 pm 3. Barrett:Roger,
I remain confused as to why any Jew would support Obama (or any of the Democrats).
The left will sell out the Jews and Israel on the day they think they can get away with it. The list of reasons is long. Here is a recent sampling regarding Obama – (1) Jeremiah Wright (either Obama is an anti-Semite, a lying b#st%rd, or unable to judge character), (2) Obama wants to talk to and negotiate with the like of Ahmedinejad (that reflects his naivet’e, blame America first, inability recognize evil, over confidence in himself and more), and (3) Samantha Power, his former foreign policy adviser that recommends spending billions and years to occupy Israel, the West Bank and Gaza to establish a democratic Palestinian state (reflecting his willingness to consider neutering Israel to the benefit of Hamas and Iran – and which also sounds like Iraq by the way). This could go on and on.
Why do Jews think that Obama, the left and the Democrats have any of their interests in mind?
May 27, 2008 - 8:00 pm 4. Roger:Um, not so simple, CTRepublican. THe Obama numbers are not very good. In previous years, Democrats could depend on a much greater percentage of the Jewish vote, usually in the 75% range. If it continues like this, this means arrivderci Florida and trouble in other states.
May 27, 2008 - 9:35 pm 5. firetide:As far as Obama’s advisors are concerned, the way to deal with doubtful or disaffected Jewish voters is not to reassure them, but to bully them. Here’s Zgigniew Brzezinski accusing American Jewish organizations of “McCarthyism”.
http://tinyurl.com/6kc6rh (Telegraph, UK)
The bully’s reach stops short of the voting booth, though, as Obama may learn in Florida or even New York.
May 27, 2008 - 11:23 pm 6. Gary Rosen:Um, yes, CTSoc when Jews normally vote Dem something like 75-80% if not more. But it’s not like the vote in Florida could be close or anything.
May 28, 2008 - 12:02 am 7. Barry Meislin:If Obama wins, we can blame “Jewish support.”
If Obama loses, we can blame the “Israel Lobby.”
What is known in certain circles as a “win-win” situation.
May 28, 2008 - 2:00 am 8. Wellspring:Agree with most of the above.
Roger, you want a good example? Cynthia McKinney. Those of you who aren’t from Georgia probably don’t know that her post-9/11 antics were quite typical of her.
McKinney’s district includes huge African American communities in DeKalb county. It also includes huge Jewish communities, including the area around Emory University.
The last serious Republican challenge to McKinney was in 1996. Newt Gingrich and other GOP leaders believed that if any republican could win in that district, it was John Mitnick. During the campaign, McKinney’s father, Billy, engaged in openly antisemitic rhetoric. It was never widely reported in the press, but in the final days, I heard from people I trust that McKinney’s campaign volunteers were going door to door rallying people to “stop the Jew”.
McKinney won by a landslide. Most jewish voters in her district voted for her or stayed home. The Republicans never tried to seriously oppose her again– even after a string of vicious smears about 9/11, she was unseated in the democratic primary and was not challenged by a major republican. Billy McKinney’s explanation for her defeat? “J-E-W-S”. Of course, next election she came back, largely because many democrats ran vanity campaigns and left the seat open for her.
McKinney is openly, proudly antisemitic. She’s careful about what she gets quoted on, but it’s impossible to ignore the evidence. While Obama has surrounded himself with unsavory advisors, he himself has never said anything even questionable that I’ve heard. His reputation in Chicago among jews I know (and who knew him) is very good, too.
There is a lesson here for Obama. While increasing numbers of Jews are conservative, and while Jews are well-represented among conservative leaders, Jews as a demographic are still overwhelmingly liberal, even in the face of a proven, openly antisemitic democrat. Even if Obama IS secretly antisemitic, even if his rhetoric became antisemitic, even if far more damaging information cames out, Jews would still vote for him in droves. If Obama was bad enough, some MIGHT sit out, and you might see a reduction in volunteer work and fundraising, but I think the experience in Georgia should put any democratic fears to rest.
The irony is that Obama stands to lose more votes from non-jews who are outraged by antisemitism than he is from the jewish community itself.
May 28, 2008 - 5:35 am 9. David Thomson:“The irony is that Obama stands to lose more votes from non-jews who are outraged by antisemitism than he is from the jewish community itself.”
No truer words were ever said. A large number of American Jews indulge in self-hatred. Something is definitely wrong—and must be dealt with as soon as possible. It simply cannot be ignored. We may be living in a era similar to the Weimar Republic of 1930. It is getting very late. Time is running out.
May 28, 2008 - 5:59 am 10. Lem:Obama is trouble.
The rumor is that McCain was a rabbi is a previous life, thus conquering not only the Jewish vote but the re-incarnation vote
Fla has a lock on both.
May 28, 2008 - 8:42 am 11. Sheryl:Also, CTRepublican, you should note that the poll you linked was taken in March and April. It’s now the end of May. Opinions change, particularly when the gaffes keep coming.
May 28, 2008 - 9:46 am 12. Henry Bowman:As the first commenter noted, Obama still does reasonably well with Jews, though not 90% as historically has been the case for Dems. Why would Jews vote for the Obamanation? Simply put, many are Jewicidal, just as much of Europe is, figuratively speaking, suicidal.
May 28, 2008 - 1:46 pm 13. Barbara Skolaut:“Why not get to the crux of the matter and apologize to the Jewish community”
Because he’d be lying through his teeth.
Still, I suppose he should go for it. Many Jews seem to be in deep denial as far as the Democrats are concerned – they’d probably fall for it.
May 29, 2008 - 10:42 am 14. heather:this conundrum, Why do Jews vote for anti-semites? has so many odd permutations, like Why do Jews hate/despise their strongest friends, the Christian Evangelists? and why do so many Jews support the Palestinian ’cause’; and Why is Noam Chomsky so popular? Someone recently wondered if this is the ‘university education effect’, ie, such a high proportion of Jewish Americans are university grads…
I also wonder if it is not a matter of nouveau riche class snobbery: that since WWII, Jewish Americans have reached the highest levels of American society; and this upward movement was extremely rapid, such that most Jews personally remember grandparents who – even though hardworking and admirable – have become a social embarrassment to their descendants {who are now members of the country clubs, or academic nomenklatura.)
It is true that people tend to vote the way their parents did, and Jewish Americans have been strongly Democratic since FDR; however, anti-semitism is rife among parts of that coalition, especially among African Americans, as well as the university intelligentsia.
But my impression is that among many Jewish Americans, to vote Republican would be to join up with what they think is the very lower class, ignorant evangelicals Christians.
What do you think?
May 29, 2008 - 12:04 pm 15. photoncourier.blogspot.com:“Someone recently wondered if this is the ‘university education effect’”…’twas I.
I also that many people pick their political opinions, consciously or otherwise, in order to improve their status among their friends and professional associates. Also, the very nature of a person’s work can have an influence on their thought processes and hence their politics. Five years spent writing ad copy is likely to give you very different ways of thinking than five years repairing cars.
May 29, 2008 - 1:31 pm