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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 June 13, 2008 / 10 Sivan, 5768

Obama flunks another test

By Linda Chavez


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It wasn't exactly the news the Obama campaign hoped to make this week: "Obama Aide Quits Under Fire for His Business Ties." But that was the headline in The New York Times, with variations in other major papers. The aide in question was the head of Barack Obama's vice presidential search committee, Jim Johnson, described by the Washington Post as "a consummate Washington insider." But the insider is now out, and the flap raises new questions about Obama's judgment. Why is it that Obama surrounds himself with people who carry so much baggage?


You would think that a candidate who has railed against the subprime mortgage business and blamed certain companies by name would steer clear of anyone with ties to that industry or those companies. Yet Obama picked Johnson to head up his vice presidential search committee even though Johnson had previously been CEO of Fannie Mae, the troubled institution that guarantees most home mortgages. Now, it turns out, Johnson received millions of dollars in loans with lower-than-market interest rates from one of Fannie Mae's partners, Countrywide Financial — a company Obama has heavily criticized.


During the Pennsylvania primary, Obama said, "Countrywide Financial was one of the folks, one of the institutions that was pumping up the subprime lending market and inducing people to take out these subprime loans. These are the folks who are responsible for infecting the economy and helping to create a home foreclosure crisis. Two million people may end up losing their homes." Obama also blamed Countrywide's top two executives, who, he said, paid themselves $19 million in bonuses as part of the sale of their company.


But when reporters revealed that Johnson had received preferential treatment from Countrywide, Obama's response was, "I am not vetting my VP search committee for their mortgages," and then went on to blame those who raised questions. "This is a game that can be played. Everybody you know who is tangentially related to our campaign I think is going to have a whole host of relationships. I would have to hire the vetter to vet the vetters," he said.


Johnson's departure doesn't end the controversy around Obama's VP search committee, however. One of the other members of the committee, Eric Holder, has his own problems. Holder was the No. 2 man in the Clinton Justice Department and played an important role in a controversial, last-minute presidential pardon of financier Marc Rich. Rich spent nearly two decades as a fugitive dodging charges for federal tax evasion and trading with Iran while that country held U.S. citizens as prisoners. These pardons have been the subject of federal investigations and congressional hearings, tarnishing Holder's reputation.


Yet, Obama picked Johnson and Holder — along with Caroline Kennedy — to help him make the most critical decision of his political career. (Even the choice of Kennedy is a bit odd — her major qualifications for the role appear to be her famous family name and her gender.) So what are we to think? Either he's been careless — or worse, he's a hypocrite, holding others to standards that he has no intention of requiring his own people to meet.


Carelessness at this stage of a presidential campaign may not be fatal — and hypocrisy is an occupational hazard in politics. Still, there are legitimate questions about Obama's judgment when it comes to picking his associates. He's made disastrous choices in pastors (the Rev. Jeremiah Wright), some political patrons (convicted money launderer Tony Rezko and former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers), and staff.


One of the most important jobs of any president is to make appointments — and Obama's record so far doesn't inspire confidence. He's already botched the process for selecting his vice president. The next test will be whether, even with his flawed committee, Obama can come up with a vice presidential pick who is beyond reproach. He can't afford to flunk this one.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


JWR contributor Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity. Her latest book is "Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)

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© 2006, Creators Syndicate

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