Obama and Palin: A Match Made(Almost) Made in Heaven
By
Leslie Sacks
Barack Obama is perfectly suited in the running for president. He has the ability to both energize and grow the grassroots base, to motivate voters with his superb eloquence and confidence. As a result, he has broken for all time the racial glass ceiling on viable presidential candidates, an accomplishment for which America should be grateful. He will, based on many current polls, quite likely succeed in his quest for the presidency.
On the other hand, Obama, according to a good portion of the country, is not yet experienced enough, and does not yet have the depth of judgment, to be president. Either way, perhaps the best argument for a McCain presidency is the (consummately American) end of divided government. Given the Democrats' control of both houses of Congress, a Republican president will provide a semblance of proportional representation and help ensure the checks and balances that are so central to our vigorous democracy.
Interestingly, Sarah Palin--the focus of much of Obama's current defensive attention--is an unusual case for America's feminists. Ms. Palin has singlehandedly, in a matter of weeks, made the feminist movement largely defunct. Before then, much of the feminist movement was rooted in the left-wing: pro-abortion and anti-Republican, often animated by an anti-male, anti-religious fervor.
Palin is the opposite: simple, patriotic, both gun-toting and feminine (horrors!). She is from a small town, an outdoorswoman, with a union-card holding husband. She is committed to religion, family values and independence. She is certainly not the Dolce Gabbana-pants wearing, urbane intellectual from Greenwich Village or San Francisco, steeped in all-is-relative Harvard political correctness.
And yet, she has captured the media's imagination and broken the (other) glass ceiling more effectively than any other woman to date. She has done so from primitive Alaska, small town Wasilla, with a family of five, happily married with conservative values - in short, she is an anathema to traditional feminists. That is why they hate and despise her. She stands for everything they are not and yet she has achieved everything they could not. And they will never forgive her for making them irrelevant, passé, an odd historical footnote.
Women have arrived - they are equal, they can and may indeed be Vice-President, lipstick and all. And who knows, maybe one day (God willing!) even president.
Sincerely,
Mr. Leslie J. Sacks
Los Angeles, California 90049
Leslie@LeslieSacks.com
LESLIE'S BLOG: http://LeslieSacks.Blogspot.com
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Israelis have a right to criticize and comment concerning the American political scene. Surely, I have heard enough
Americans commenting over the years about Israel in both a good and a bad context to allow me to ask the question, "Why not the other way?"
Today's American Jewish liberal cares no more for the Israelis than did the Jews, sunning
themselves on Miami Beach, give a hoot for the passengers on the SS St. Louis. The
average liberal American Jew still worships Roosevelt; yet, has no concept of this president's contempt
for the Jewish people and how complacent he was in allowing the Holocaust to reach its
ultimate conclusion.
Most Jewish Americans--certainly the ones one the left--do not have a concept of history and have not learned a thing from what
little they have heard in passing. Sure, there are exceptions and some extraordinary ones at that--for example, National
Review's Yonah Goldberg; but as a people, we are living a scenario taken right out of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide
to the Galaxy. In it there is a creature that is so dumb, if it doesn't see you, it thinks that you do not see it!
In my opinion, the American Evangelicals--regardless of their motives--have shown much more interest and serious concern
over the future of the Jewish State than the average Jewish American. And the interesting thing is that this has been
the case with them since the founding of the American Restoration Movement in the early part of the Nineteenth-Century.
Israel to the average liberal Jewish American is a nice place to visit for a whirlwind 10 day tour sponsored by B'nai Brith. It's nice to come
back to the USA and to say to your bridge club that you picked oranges on some kibbutz; or to say that you went on a special
"fact finding tour" with members from your super liberal Reform Synagogue.
Israel is a special source of Jewish pride and the American Jewish Left does not deserve to share in the benefits of this feeling. They are thieves.
Michael Hyman
San Diego, California
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Yes, Naomi, this is the attitude of American Jews who "care about Israel", yet cannot differentiate between sending postcards and sending a son, husband, father, brother, friend off to fight yet another war OR being targets for another Jew hating maniac.
Fortunately for me, most of my relatives understand this. But we are mostly first generation Americans. I avoid situations where discussions about "abortions and lives" might occur, because my blood boils.
New York is full of Liberal Jews who have not observed or understood that most things have changed during their lifetimes. Even my late father who was a "verbrente Labor Zionist" understood the reality of the USSR and abandonned the idealism of his youth. I of course lived in Israel. My attitudes have surely been shaped by all the years I spent there. You have no idea how deeply embedded liberal politics and cultural relativism are in Jews here.
Yesterday, I went to the anti Ahmadinejad rally. It saddened me to notice that most of the crowd was orthodox, with very few secular NY Jews. I am not orthodox, but I think that the modern orthodox community is the only thing that stands between Jews and our demise both in the Golah and in Israel.
Not very pleasant thoughts erev Rosh Hashana. Still best wishes to you and your family for peace and health.
Sylvia Navon, NYC
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Dear Naomi:
I am not Jewish but I read with concern all your articles. I have a different perspective. I do not look at the "crisis" in the middle east as a purely "Jewish" calamity. This is something I think that you have being trying to make everyone, Jew and non-Jew alike realize.
I forward all your articles to my friends. Their response has been the same as mine. An outcry to our government representatives. Although we live in Canada, and the American Elections would not seem to concern us, we are in fact concerned, as should all of North America, and anyone who declares themselves allies of the U.S.A, or anyone who values freedom. Freedom of rights, freedom to live.
You are doing a wonderful job. There should be more people like you who are willing to suffer the barbs and criticism of their world and people, in order to bring to light the atrocities occuring on a daily basis in both Israel and the Middle East and the significance it has to the whole world.
Never let anyone forget the "Holocaust". Relate every action taken by the Muslim countries against Israel and the Jews to it. Remind them of how they vowed "Never again"! Point out the significance of the number of Jews now living in Israel (6 million) to number exterminated by Hitler.
Keep up the good work. I will keep forwarding your articles to everyone that I know, as they forward them to everyone that they know. From such small sparks great conflagrations can occur.
Sincerely,
Angella O'Hanlon
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Dear Naomi,
You have my permission to write my response to the lady who objected to your politics.
I am a son of a German born Jew, who narrowly escaped Europe's inferno, and emigrated to the United States in 1940.Most of the Zinner family, relatives I would never know were murdered in concentration camps during the inferno that the free world allowed the Nazis to perpetrate.
My father was so grateful to America that, the moment the US entered the war, he enlisted.
When my Mother, who was expecting her first child asked him, "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?YOU ARE AN IMMIGRANT WHO ONLY JUST ARRIVED.YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO.", he replied, WHAT WILL I SAY TO MY CHILDREN WHEN THEY ASK ME WHAT DID I DO WHEN MILLIONS OF OUR PEOPLE WERE BEING MURDERED BY THE GERMANS?
My father was inducted, trained as an officer to interrogate German prisoners, shipped overseas and fought his way across Europe over 4 long years. He was highly decorated with a bronze star medallion for bravery in action. After the war he was offered military commissions that attested to his leadership and talents as an officer. He refused and quietly returned to his family and civilian life in America.
Please ask this lady to explain what she plans to say to her children when they ask what she did when Iran announced to the world, as Hitler did before him, that he would destroy the State of Israel and every Jew within it.
Thank you for sounding the bell. It is 1938 and America is sleeping.
Respectfully,
Bob Zinner.
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Hmmm. Don't know why you sent this, as the comment from the "American" doesn't say much...
Like you, I would never vote for a "a pro-Islamic, soft on terror, ultra peace-now liberal to head the free world." Barack Obama is none of those things. I think you must be reading only anti-Obama false propaganda. I am excited to vote for Obama, and believe he'll be a good president (how did you feel about Bill Clinton? Most of us American Jews liked and voted for him, too.)
McCain, unfortunately, frequently lies and misleads, despite billing his campaign as the "straight talk" express. For example, McCain has repeated over and over that Obama supported "comprehensive sex education for kindergarteners." Well, yeah... the curriculum teaches them to not go with strangers, and other things to try to protect them from being molested by sexual predators... exactly what I do teach my own kindergartener. Yes, you can call that "sex education," but McCain intentionally misleads people into thinking Obama supported teaching them about sexual intercourse, or condoms... completely a lie! If Obama is so scary, you'd think the McCain campaign would find true things to scare us with, instead of having to resort to grossly misleading accusations.
Obama, on the other hand, does not lie about McCain.
I hope you will read Obama's two books, or his website, to get a better picture. I'm sure the sig. majority of American Jews will vote for him, as we have always voted Democratic by at least 60%, usually more, and it's not because we are ignorant! We vote in ways we consider consistent with Jewish values, and in our own best interests, including the safety of Israel.
-Rabbi Janice Garfunkel
Springfield, OH
PS - I do enjoy getting your emails.
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Naomi,
I have great respect for you as an author and have enjoyed being enlightened by many of your emails but you have been a citizen of Israel for many years and really don’t know the politics of the US. I am a liberal Jewish democrat who attends every rally, including yesterday’s, against the UN, against Jew bashing, in support of Israel and on and on. I am beginning to resent much of what you have to say about who I should vote for if I love Israel. My love for Israel can be questioned by no one. However, I believe strongly in woman’s choice, the right of women to work and be paid like men, the preservation of animals so that the endangered species don’t die off (wolves for example). I am not crazy about Obama but there is no way I can vote for another 4 years of the Bush agenda and that is what McCain represents. You seem to base much of your characterizations of Obama on blog myths. No one who is elected president of the US is going to abandon support of Israel. If you think the Bush government has been good for Israel and for the US you are really mistaken. He sent Condoleezza to Israel to work on divisions between Jews and Palestians including the division of Jerusalem. He has sent our economy into the gutter and that affects Israel and the world. McCain will be more of the same. Plus he is an older man (I myself am 71) who has not got a good health history and the thought of Sarah Palin heading the government of my country sends chills up and down my spine. She is ignorant of the world around her. Any speech she makes is written very carefully by the neo-cons and she is a quick study so she presents the words as if they were her own. They aren’t.
Please keep writing about Israel, you are one of the sources among many who keep me up to date. But at the same time, please don’t make generalizations about the US political scene. In one of your recent emails you said that there wouldn’t be any “liberal democrats” at the rally. I was there and I am one of those dreaded liberals.
Ethel Schwartz Bock
New York City
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6 comments:
Sorry the last line of my previous post should have read, Israel is in danger, not only from IRAN.
Hi;
First, as concerned Jewish New Yorker, I can't believe any rational Jewish person would vote for Senator
Barack Obama, especially after seeing a tape of last nights debate, in which Senator Obama passed on several opportunities to come to Israels defense.
I was highly offended..
On the other hand..Senator McCain is out of touch with the needs of the average American worker, and doesn't grasp the anger that most people feel.
Its a very tough decission...
Do we support a candidate will be there for israel, but not for us...
Or do we support a candidate who will be there for us, but doesn't really care if Israel exists or not.
webjunkie, I am not sure you are correct about McCain being out of touch with the average American worker. I think he also knows that many Americans are angry about the economic situation.
I trust John McCain, Sarah Palin, and their economic advisors to have a better handle on how to fix the economy than the socialists that Obama surrounds himself with. Go to John McCain's web site and read some of his issue papers. I think you will agree.
Naomi,
I have read many of your articles second hand, forwarded by my mother (who is quoted above). I had noticed a recent drop in the number of forwards and now I understand why.
Senator Barak Obama should terrify every Jew with any sense. This man has surrounded himself with the most anti-Israel group of supporters and advisors that I have ever heard of.
I wonder how many of Senator Obama’s supporters watched the first presidential debate? He stuttered, stammered, interrupted, spoke over his opponent, and said “Let’s move on” whenever he got stuck. In short, he acted like a spoiled child (or for New York residents, he acted similarly to Elliot Spitzer during the New York Gubernatorial debates. Remember how that turned out).
This was a formal, televised, debate. Yet he is heard calling “that’s not true” while Senator McCain is speaking, even once when Senator McCain was quoting Senator Obama!
Senator Obama has repeatedly acted in ways that would have gotten any other candidate run out of town on a rail by the press, if they weren’t so in love with him.
Do I think that Senator McCain is the perfect candidate? Of course not. But I cannot in all good conscience vote for Senator Obama, a man with such an anti-Israel track record.
Thank you for your time and all of your writings.
Sincerely,
David S Bock
Averill Park, NY
You may be interested in reading this opinion piece:
Publication: Denver Post; Date: Sep 28, 2008; Section: Perspective; Page: 3D
Palin: Put your country first, bow out
KATHLEEN PARKER Washington Post Writers Group
If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.
To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.
Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.
Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick — what a difference a financial crisis makes — and a more complicated picture has emerged.
As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.
Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan’s president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)
Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.
Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate — Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.
Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”
When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”
If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.
What to do? McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.
Only Palin can save McCain, her party and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.
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