Our First Jewish President

Congratulations.

I have heard and read a great deal of moronic musings and missives in praise of this guy from pious progressives but this takes the cake or Obama's waffle which we will not let him finish (oh, sorry, another "non-traditional" racist comment no doubt).

Tell me Howard, when you get your wish and we have our first "Jewish President", will any less than positive comment about Him be acceptable? Is this how the new censorship is going to work?

If President Obama-witz gets 1/10th of a fraction of the bile thown at him that anyone even slightly connected to the Bush Administration was subjected to for eight years, what punishments should a good "progressive" impose for such racist Jew hating speech against a virtual Jew like Obama.

Personally, I am planning to vote for our first Latino president, Juan McCain (he was born in Panama you know) so don't you say anything against him.

Of course, Obama does have a rather complicated family tree and considering that Democrat presidential hopefuls like John Kerry and Wesley Clarke "suddenly" discovered their Jewish roots, anything is possible. In Obama's case, considering his fans in the anti-semitic anti-zionist left-wing communities, if his bar mitzvah photos in Indonesia, the most populous muslim nation in the world surface, hopefully he will have the chutzpa to keep it quiet until after the election. 

OK, so it turns out Rob doesn't have a sense of humor.  Very funny comment by Howard Schweber, though.  But Rob, it was INTENDED to be funny, not insightful.  When the Sedar says to multiply the acts of the Lord, then procedes to argue that there were 50 plagues, does that piss you off, too?  This is silly.  That's the intent.

If anyone thought, after the African-American community outside of New York deserted Hillary Clinton in droves once Obama showed he could win, that Bill Clinton was the first Black President, they should have learned differently.

If Obama wins we will have our first African-American in the White House... his wife.  He hardly knew his black father, and was raised by white people.  This is 'Black Like Me' ... an old book from the Civil Rights era, writ large.

There is one really good reason to not vote for Barack Obama, even if you agree with his policies.  The guy has a stunning lack of experience.  He has no tract record to speak of, except for the very skilled way he has run his massive campaign.  However, the addition of Sarah Palin to the McCain ticket has done a lot to weaken that argument.  Another really good reason to vote for McCain would be that you honestly prefer his policies.

However, most of the reasons I'm hearing from people I know are not fit for republication.  And I will be voting for Obama... albeit, while shaking my head that the Dems could have had Richardson or Biden, and they picked this newbie.  I might have voted for McCain if he didn't have the tract record of the last eight years.  But I think what he learned from the 2000 election was that he couldn't win if he was himself, and the devoted that time to becoming a right wing hack.

If I had had this choice in 2000, I'd have voted for McCain.  

McCain....a right wing hack? Only if.

They call him a maverick for a reason. He wags his finger at his own party, works with the other side and now refuses to campaign hard enough to win the election. You can call McCain all kinds of things but a right-wing hack in not one of them.

As for left-wing hacks, the Obama/Biden ticket is a perfect storm.

The reason why Obama is getting so much grief over Ayers and Wright is not because he is an extremist freak like they are but because he was a go-along-get-along Chicago pol 20 years ago who did what he had to in order to promote himself.

The moment he gets elected his first and foremost job will be to get re-elected.

Biden's job in the Senate was simply that for nearly forty years in that cauldren of political competition...Delaware.

It is hilarious that you reject two proven reformers like McCain/Palin for two proven hacks like Obama/Biden.

2+2= 6.5 for some people I guess.

JewcyTodd asked this earlier, to David Friedman. Is there anything that can change during the next four years if Obama is elected (or that he could do or not do) that would make you change your opinion of him? Or if the economy, international relations, and/or American education improve, will it "have happened anyway" under a McCain/Palin Presidency?

Also. I think it's "track" record.

If Obama wins he will be just about the Whitest President we've ever had. 

Seriously.

Most Caucasians are about as conscious of their Whiteness as fish are of water. Except for White Jews. On some level we know that we're passing in America. All those Cohens who became Quinns to get into restricted apartments have had an effect on us.

But Obama, now, he's had his nose rubbed in it. He hasn't spent much time in Africa, but any time he was around his father's family I can guarantee they let him know what he was "Mzungu" - a White European. My wife's family lived in East Africa for many years. Her father is a Black American. Her mother is from China. It was a bit of a surprise to Jim to find out that he was White after all these years.

As a kid growing up in Indonesia Obama was a White Christian. All Americans are White Christians there even if they're Black.

After Indonesia he lived in Hawaii and went to Punaho. Now, race is different in Hawaii than it is on the Mainland. Since everyone is a minority and since the haoles don't run everything there isn't as much premium on pale skin. What's more, people there mix their genes up a lot. "Racial purity" is about as common there as celibacy in a bonobo troop. Jokes that would get you knifed here are something everyone laughs at there.

What's most important is self-identification, your family and where you go to school. Barry lived with his haole grandmother. All his family was haole. And he went to Punaho School. Going to Punaho doesn't mean you're White, but it does say a lot of things about your class and status. The old missionary families go there. Important Chinese businessmen send their kids there. Barry Obama went there.

So you see, Obama won't be our first Black President. He'll be the first President in history who spent all his formative years being reminded that he was White. Should be interesting. 

Obama's experience is in teaching constitutional law, raising more money through individual contributions by voters than any other candidate in history, and using the internet and related technologies to more adeptly reach out to voters than any of his competitors. One would think that experience to be more relevant than a political title or running a corrupt frozen fiefdom more corruptly than one's predecessors. And one would think that to be especially so in an era as rife with polarization, abuse of office and financial mismanagement as this one. But alas. Old prejudices die hard.

The office of the presidency is as symbolic as it is functional. And when one elevates the idea of experience, alone, into mere positive symbolism - which is a relic of bygone thinking, then perhaps we need to rethink what constitutes functional success in each of these offices in the first place. Longevity in holding office is a pretty pathetic benchmark. Acceding to executive office and reconfiguring your position there to better fit under the definition "autocracy" is even worse.

Obama's nomination and likely landslide win in November will be a slap in the face against every one of these dysfunctional notions which have turned our republic into a joke.