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March 19, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: The Divine is in the details
JWisdom.com Stewards of sacrifice with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama is waging war on Israel
March 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Israel's New Enemy: America?
JWisdom.com Love me not? with Rabbi David Aaron (5 minutes)
Jonathan Rosenblum: Washington Throws a Tantrum
March 17, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Orwell, Santayana, and Me
Jonathan Tobin: How Many Lives Is Biden's Pride Worth?
March 16, 2010
Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare
JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes)
Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel
March 15, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children
JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT
March 12, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth
JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades
March 11, 2010
Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash
Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing
March 10, 2010
Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In
JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)
Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded
Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.
March 9, 2010
Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure
JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral
March 8, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?
JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion
March 5, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied
JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause
March 4, 2010
Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?
JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)
Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative
March 3, 2010
JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)
The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub
March 2, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there
Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?
March 1, 2010
JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute
Feb. 26, 2010
Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring
JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost
Feb. 25, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense
JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)
Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives
Feb. 24, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’
Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack
Feb. 23, 2010
Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!
JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)
Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes
Feb. 22, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?
JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)
Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk
Feb. 19, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?
JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State
Feb. 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)
Feb. 17, 2010
JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)
Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah
Feb. 16, 2010
Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet
JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)
Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief
Feb. 15, 2010
Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews
JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES)
Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review Nov. 6, 2009 / 19 Mar-Cheshvan 5770

Blueprint for GOP Victories

By Linda Chavez


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Democrats are having a hard time explaining away their big losses on Tuesday. First, the White House let it be known that President Obama wasn't actually watching election returns, choosing instead to tune into HBO's puerile documentary about his own presidential campaign. Talk about ego; the man just can't get enough of himself.

By evening's end, Democratic lawmakers and pundits were already taking to the airwaves to proclaim the importance of their win in one upstate New York congressional district — one in which the Republican candidate dropped out just three days before the election and a virtual unknown Conservative Party candidate managed to win 45 percent of the vote. Never mind Democrats' losses in New Jersey, where a sitting Democratic governor outspent his opponent by three to one, or Virginia, where Republicans not only took all three statewide races by double-digit margins but ousted Democrat incumbents in state legislative races as well.

Any way you look at it, Democrats had an awful night, which should cause all of them, including President Obama, deep concern. Clearly a great many voters are having second thoughts about the direction Democrats have chosen.

If last year's election signaled Americans wanted a change from the direction in which Republicans had taken the country, then Tuesday's election suggests that voters think Democrats swerved too far left and it's now time for another course correction. They fear Democrats have pushed bigger government, higher spending and taxes, and mounting debt, at the very time that Americans are tightening their own belts and trying to pay down their personal debts.

But as impressive as the GOP wins were, Republicans can't afford to get cocky. One thing came through loud and clear Election Day: Voters' No. 1 concern remains the economy. That doesn't mean Republicans shouldn't stick to principles on social issues. But it does mean that if they want to win back Independents, they'd be wise to focus their campaigns on issues that unite, not divide — or worse, alienate — likely allies.

Governor-elect Bob McDonnell did that well in Virginia. He is as conservative as they come on social issues, but he chose not to make them the core of his campaign message, instead focusing on Virginia's growing tax burden. The irony was that the Washington Post tried its best to paint McDonnell as a right-wing kook in front-page articles and myriad editorials, but the attacks never stuck because McDonnell wisely chose to stay on message.

Much can happen between now and next year's congressional election. The economy could improve; but given Democrats' plans to expand government services and raise taxes to pay for them, it's unlikely we'll see a quick rebound in jobs anytime soon. What the Republicans need now is a coherent message to the American people — and some messengers capable of delivering it in an appealing way.

Many of the voters the GOP lost in 2006 and 2008 realized that Republicans from President Bush to members of Congress were fiscally irresponsible. They were no better at reigning in government spending than the Democrats. Discretionary spending in the Bush years actually went up faster than in the Clinton years, according to a study by George Mason University economist Veronique de Rugy. And Congressional pork spiked in 2005 when Republicans were still in control, with almost 14,000 pork-barrel earmarks included in legislation that year.

Some of those spending increases were due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and homeland security at home — but discretionary domestic spending also went up nearly 21 percent in Bush's first term. By contrast, such spending went down by almost 10 percent in President Reagan's first term and remained nearly flat in his second term.

But Bush's profligate spending is nothing compared to what the Democrats are doing now and hope to do in the future. If Republicans stick to reminding Americans that the Democrats' unprecedented spending spree will result in higher taxes and fewer jobs, they will make big gains in 2010.

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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