Jewish Voters Must Say No to Obama

(TCV) – Little more than 24 hours after Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) stepped to the microphones to address the anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-white rage of his ‘spiritual advisor’ and pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, many Jews are taking a second look at the junior Senator and Democratic frontrunner.

By Wednesday the Obama campaign was trying to make Jews understand that his 20-year relationship with a preacher and church that gave an award to Louis Eugene Walcott (sorry, Louis Farrakhan, do all racists change their names?) and who blamed America for everything from the AIDS virus to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 was just a relationship of a man sitting in the pew of a preacher from the “old black school.”

Unfortunately for Obama he did not talk until the controversy was out of control and when that happens it is far too late. As of this writing I know Jewish leaders and Israeli politicians who are willing to say that an Obama Administration would be “the worst for Israel” of all the candidates and that Obama was “unacceptable” to the Jewish population not only in Israel, but the Diaspora abroad.

Jewish voters give their votes anywhere between 25 and 27% to Republicans – the balance of Jewish voters in strongholds like New York and California vote in a huge Democratic bloc. Even more than counting on Jewish votes to get Democrats over the top it is almost equally important to get Jewish money. Obama now has a problem: why would any Jew give money to a man who associates with a pastor and a church that awards anti-Semites and bigots?

It is a bit more difficult to tally Jewish money in politics since there is no record kept of the faith of the voter. But, taking the afternoon to compare the directory of membership at my synagogue with records of political contributions it is clear that Jewish political contributions are equally important to Democrats.

So did Obama go far enough in his flag draped explanation about his relationship with a preacher who is willing to honor an anti-Semite and treat Israel like a dirty word? And why all the flags for a guy who won’t wear a flag on his lapel for fear of looking like he was pandering?

Instead of explaining with a condescending “it’s a black thing” and “we all disagree with our pastors” (no we don’t) not quitting his church he brought out of the woodwork people like the Black Panthers and other black separatists who admire anti-Semitism. They also believe that America is a bastion of evil where whites and especially Jews cause there to be inequity in America not unlike that seen during the 1950s in the south.

With friends like Wright, Farrakhan and the Black Panther Party on his side Obama does not need any enemies. The relationship with Wright puts him in the pantheon of black separatism and worse than that is Obama raised more questions than answers when he gave his address. His campaign called his remarks courageous, but courage would have been taking the anti-Semite to task; not telling us that he is like our crazy uncles.

Truth be told I probably would not have voted for Obama whether or not the highlights of Wright’s hate-filled sermons came to the public record or not, but I was willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt with regard to his judgment. It is that judgment that Obama is using as his only qualification to be Commander-in-Chief and the leader of the free world – a world that has enemies throughout and enemies that would love a person in the White House who did not care if Israel was wiped off the map.

Obama has not explained how in 20 years of sermons, personal contact and experience that he never heard an utterance of an inappropriate or anti-Semitic nature by his own pastor. I’ve not been an adult for 20 years, but in the time I’ve been an adult I would remember well sermons, particularly those during High Holy days, that involved hatred for America or the kind that paint Israel as a demon.

The worst part of Obama’s non-explanation was that he gave it with the hope that it would end the questions concerning his pastor, but it hasn’t. In fact it gave us more to think about. How could a church release a “best-of” DVD of hate and Obama be oblivious to it? How could Wright blame America for everything from AIDS to crack and Obama be oblivious to it? How could Wright be the leader of Obama’s church and be part of his life for 20 years and Obama not be aware that he blamed Israel for the ills of the Middle East – including the fact that Wright and Obama believe that “cynicism” is the reason that there is not peace in the Middle East.

Cynicism? Does Obama, through Wright’s instruction, really believe that the people of Israel want peace so little that it is cynicism rather than the hatred of the Arab governments and people that surround her that keep peace from happening? If Obama misjudges the Middle East in theory – how will he do when he is in the Oval Office and is called upon to judge issues for real?

All Obama did on Tuesday was show just how poor his judgment is. His association with Wright’s church in Chicago may have made him a hero with the black left and helped in a segment of Chicago politics, but for someone that aspired to the highest office in America he should have known better.

Obama knew that Wright was a problem. When he announced his candidacy for the White House – the New York Times reported that Wright was “dis-invited” by an Obama staffer before his announcement. Obama’s knowledge that Wright was a problem a year ago makes it that much more difficult to believe that Obama did not know Wright was a problem ten years ago. That kind of bad judgment cannot be permitted in the White House – particularly when the only thing helping the Jewish vote make a decision is party affiliation.

The Jewish leaders and lay people that I talked to today are just as willing to vote for John McCain, who was at the Western Wall in Jerusalem today, as they would be willing to vote for either of the two Democrats. One unanimous thing that happened today is that I could not find one person in the Jewish leadership willing to say that they support Barack Obama’s run for the White House and it was not lost on Jewish leaders that while McCain was at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem that Obama was trying to damage control for his association with anti-Semitic and anti-American people that he chose to associate with for two decades.

Jewish people need to examine Obama’s record much more closely and if Obama refuses to not only stand up and “renounce” or “repudiate” the comments and awards that he clearly knew were going on around him then the Jewish vote and Jewish money has an obligation to Israel to stay home or to go to McCain.

Barack Obama’s campaign has done little more than trot out supporters who happen to be Jewish elected leaders in order to explain and disassociate him from his preacher and his church. My microphone is open to the Obama campaign and I suggest that they take me or another Jewish broadcaster up on the offer because two days ago I was willing to go quietly if Obama was the Democratic nominee. Today I am unwilling to see him get to the White House and will do everything in my power to see that Jews are not only aware, but outraged, at his conduct and the pretense that he didn’t know anything untoward was happening right under his nose.

Democrat Turmoil And Liberal Dysfunction

(TCV) – Rush Limbaugh has been having a great time lately, fanning the flames of discord and confusion among the Democrats. But the ability to destabilize their party is hardly a dangerous manifestation of omnipotence on the part of the talk radio giant. Such turmoil could not be foisted on the Democrat Party from without, were it not already morally and philosophically rotting from within.

Consider all of the different fronts on which the Democrat Party lately finds itself in a total shambles. Along with the day to day revelations of the barnyard morality pervading the entire top echelon of New York’s state government, every new bit of news coming from the Democrat presidential race suggests an eventual crack up of the party no matter who wins the nomination.

In such a tainted atmosphere, it is highly unlikely that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-CA) will gain much traction to define the debate during this election cycle with her sanctimonious rants about a Republican “culture of corruption.” And more of the same is likely to come.

The latest controversy du jour is that of Barack Obama and his “former” pastor Jeremiah Wright, who has openly preached racism and hatred for America throughout his career. Yet Obama initially claimed that, while remaining a member of Wright’s church for two decades, he had not been in the pews to hear such venomous sermonizing.

In essence, he offered his own version of the “I smoked it but did not inhale” defense. Upon facing irrefutable evidence to the contrary, he has since resorted to the “inappropriate relationship” posture. His timing for this strategy is particularly bad, considering the candidate against whom he is competing for the Democrat Party nomination.

Moreover, were his claims of innocence even remotely believable, it would not speak well of the seemingly bright Illinois Senator to be so oblivious after twenty years to this malignant elephant in the room. Perhaps, having been married only fifteen years, he has not yet been made aware of the similarly angry anti-American sentiments held by his wife Michelle. And in light of all this, one has to seriously wonder as a matter of national security just how long it might take him to notice the threats posed to this country by the Islamists.

Interestingly, he seems to exhibit a slightly deeper degree of discernment, and a markedly faster reaction time, when assessing any comment from his political opposition that contains even the slightest suggestion of disparagement against his own ethnicity or culture. In this, he bears far more commonality than contrast with Hillary, whose “steel trap” memory can suddenly degenerate to “I do not recall,” the instant the topic shifts to any of the innumerable Clinton scandals.

It is extremely telling that, with all of the critical and potentially dangerous issues facing the nation, the bulk of energy between these two Democrat campaigns has degenerated to a series of estrogen/melanin wars. Nevertheless, in its current condition, America can glimpse the reality of liberalism.

Mrs. Bill Clinton has her own set of problems. While Obama has clearly benefited at times from the “race/victim” card, which he invokes at any affront so slight as even the mention of his middle name, Hillary Clinton is no less a caricature of every liberal feminist absurdity with her strategically timed crying episodes and reflections on the alleged difficulties facing her as a candidate strictly, we are told, because she is a woman.

Meanwhile, the Democrat Party machinery, behind closed doors, is no doubt panicking over the fact that according to its own thinking, Americans may not rally around either candidate, based on their competing minority subgroup statuses, in numbers sufficient to garner even a delegate majority within the party, let along a general election win. And having exploited the divisions in society for so many years along class, gender, and racial lines, the Democrats have set the stage for huge fractures and defections no matter who is selected as the nominee in the end.

America might indeed face widespread race riots in the event that the nomination is snatched from Obama’s grasp. But even that may pale in comparison the dire spectacle that America may witness if Hillary loses, and her sputtering feminist minions react with comparable outrage, many of them having reached the stage in life where bra burning could be construed as a “hate crime.”

Having proven himself to be the quintessential angry black separatist in sheep’s clothing, or at least someone who comfortably remains under the tutelage of that variety of “spiritual headship,” Obama is no more likely to appeal to a mainstream America that wants race to take its proper role in distant “back seat” behind character, than can Hillary distance herself from the sputtering ranks of embittered feminists.

In simple terms, this election has become extremely difficult for the Democrats to navigate. As a result of the candidates who have risen to the forefront, it is perhaps the first campaign where the different liberal subgroups are driving their respective races on a truly ideological basis.

In the past, the Democrat political sect has resulted from a conglomeration of disparate special interest groups, each of which is ultimately indifferent to the others, but all of whom can collectively benefit from the party’s successes.

It was in their common interests to further their agenda by thwarting those stodgy conservatives, who continually resist attempts to reinvent society’s morality and traditions according to the latest liberal fads. But of even greater importance is that with liberals in power, their various special interests, no matter how dissimilar in philosophy, can count on access to the public trough.

Thus, a totally mixed bag of anti-Christian, anti-American, anti-capitalist causes can, in normal years, rally to the party candidate and expect a continuation of their lifeline of federal funding. But with the ascendancy of pseudo feminist extraordinaire Hillary Clinton, and African American separatist sympathizer/national uniter Barack Obama, liberals are being forced into camps that overlap extensively when it comes to their usage of public funding, but contrast severely on their emotional appeal to the different “victim” groups.

On display here is the ugly reality of liberalism that for too long has remained hidden from real America, much like the appalling varieties of vermin which are present even in the best manicured gardens, but go unnoticed until somebody turns over a rock.

Ultimately, the similarities between the liberalism of Clinton and the liberalism of Obama, as reflected in their personal lives as well as their public lives, far outweigh any differences. And it is this grim truth about both potential Democrat nominees that should seriously concern America.

Were either compelled to face a real conservative in the general election, this race would already be over.