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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 26, 2008 / 20 Adar I 5768

A visual whisper campaign

By Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The latest silly story in the campaign scrum involves a photo of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama in Somali garb — a photo apparently distributed by opponent Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign. No doubt, people who consider themselves far more thoughtful than the average news consumer regard such stories with a shudder as they pronounce with much self-satisfaction that the cheesy media should concentrate on comparing the health care proposals of the candidates.


Don't expect such high-mindedness here. This episode tells Americans a lot about two people who would be president, who essentially agree on major political issues but have drastically different ways of getting what they want. Their approach is important because the American people may be married for four or eight years to the tone a President Obama or a President Clinton set.


Besides, this story has pictures. The spat started after Clinton berated Obama for distorting her position on NAFTA. How is it even possible to distort Clinton's position on NAFTA? Now Clinton says she wants a trade-agreement timeout. But it's hard to trust what she says on NAFTA. After championing the measure among Democrats, President Bill Clinton signed NAFTA into law during years that are included in Hillary Clinton's much-touted 35 years of experience. As the New York Times reported, Hillary Clinton now says the trade agreement "was negotiated" under the George H.W. Bush administration — airbrushing out the Clinton signature.


So it's hard to see how Team Obama could distort her distorted position. Saturday, Clinton denounced Obama's "tactics" and "behavior in this campaign" for releasing campaign material that charged her with supporting NAFTA. "Shame on you," quoth Clinton.


Monday, the Obama-with-a-turban photo surfaced online on the Drudge Report. Matt Drudge credited Camp Clinton. Camp Clinton denied distributing the photo. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told Politico.com that the photo represented "shameful offensive fear-mongering." Clintonista Maggie Williams riposted, by releasing this statement: "If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.


"This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry."


I want to credit Democrats for being consistent. For years they've been the overly sensitive party — quick to see any treatment that singles out a Democrat as sexist or racist. Pundits made much ado when Hillary got teary-eyed in New Hampshire? Sexism. Voters demand that the federal government enforce immigration laws? Racism. The media scrutinize Clinton's record more than Obama's record? Sexism.


(Obama refers to Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's "half century of service to this country." Age-ism. Oops. Take that back. The Republican can't be a victim.)


Hillary Clinton has made a career out of being a victim and her staffers have honed playing the victim card. That's why you see articles about whether the media are tolerant of sexism, but not racism.


I have to figure that Clintonia is rolling the dice. Her campaign is flailing. Being nice didn't bump Clinton's numbers. Along comes a photo that is just a photo of Obama visiting Africa and dressing like the locals, as both tourists and politicians are wont to do. And also a reminder that Obama might seem too exotic to some voters. It's the wordless way of whispering: Is America ready for a black president?


The real question is: Does America want four years of a shameless victim in chief?

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