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July 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person

Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya

July 1, 2009

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

June 30, 2009

Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent?

Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief

June 29, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor'

Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas

June 26, 2009

Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain

Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law

June 25, 2009

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 24, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity

The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun

June 23, 2009

Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin

Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect

June 22, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm

N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews?

June 19, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity

June 18, 2009

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 17, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and …

June 16, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel

Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity …

June 15, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine'

Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed

June 12, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner

June 11, 2009

Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President

Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers

Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos

June 10, 2009

Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste

June 9, 2009

Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president?

June 8, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper?

Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past

Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic?

June 5, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams

Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth

June 4, 2009

Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock

The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette

June 3, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed?

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action

June 2, 2009

Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review January 18, 2008 / 11 Shevat 5768

So far, we've got a lot of losers

By Wesley Pruden


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | So far we've got a nice collection of distinguished losers. We've had three winners and a dozen losers, more if you count Dennis Kucinich. A couple of them are threatening to break away from the pack. It's just not clear who they are.


Barack Obama wins in Iowa, and takes a drubbing in New Hampshire. Mike Huckabee embarrasses the Republican establishment in Iowa and runs far behind in New Hampshire, reviving John McCain, who was roadkill on the highway to the White House only a fortnight ago. The results are so confusing, in fact, that one young correspondent for National Public Radio reports breathlessly that Mitt Romney, who led in Michigan, is trying to "extend his winning streak in South Carolina." The candidates are so bereft of the "big mo' " that one victory makes a "winning streak."


The Democratic promise to unify the splintered country is a rebuke of George W. Bush, who has been busy collecting swords and scrolls from the Saudis. Candidates with big talk about unity never identify the convictions and positions they're ready to abandon in the search for common ground. There's no hint that Barack Obama, who has made "unification" the guiding star of his campaign, will adopt any of the Republican positions for the sake of "unity." Like all special pleaders for vague and windy notions, what he means is that if everybody adopts his convictions and views, we'll be unified.


Scott Rasmussen, one of the most reliable pollsters, argues that what we really need — in addition to phony unity and other high-minded good stuff — is a blowout election. This would establish a new benchmark for who we are, as a nation and perhaps even a culture, and where we want to go. We haven't had a victory like that since Ronald Reagan decisively whipped Jimmy Carter in 1980, and confirmed that it wasn't merely a fluke victory over a weak and ineffectual incumbent president with a blowout of Walter Mondale four years later, winning all but one state. He could have won all 50. Michael Deaver and his pollsters told him that Minnesota, the only Mondale state, was within his grasp and one more airport stop at Minneapolis on the eve of the election would win it. The Gipper, whose generous heart was a good part of his charm, said no, he wouldn't humiliate his opponent in his home state. Mr. Mondale won by only a handful of votes.


Barack Obama, campaigning yesterday in Nevada, no doubt infuriated his partisans by citing the Gipper as one of the rare culture-changing presidents. "Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not," he said. "We wanted clarity, we wanted optimism, we wanted a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing."


A Democratic victory by either Mr. Obama or Hillary Clinton would, however, change the habits if not the culture of America. We've never elected a woman, and we've never elected an "ethnic," loosely defined. The roster of our first 43 presidents is a roster mostly of white, Anglo-Saxon Episcopalians, small-c conservatives and evolutionaries, not revolutionaries.


Hillary, a senator at the start of her second term with no administrative experience, emphasizes the Senate connection. She might boast of her prowess at finding missing records; if national-security papers, drafts of legislation, memoranda of confidential conversations with world leaders should be misplaced, she could always look for them lying around on a coffee table or the sofa in the family quarters. Such things have turned up there before.


Mr. Obama picked up another Senate endorsement yesterday, from Patrick Leahy of Vermont, one of the most liberal men in the Senate. He follows John Kerry's endorsement last week. "We need a president who can reintroduce America to the world, and actually reintroduce America to ourselves," he said. But that's wrong. America, the last best hope anywhere, needs no introduction to anyone. Making the country over, to make it acceptable to its critics, losers all, would be a futile exercise in self-flagellation, satisfying only the flagellantes. What we need is a president who tries to satisfy only the people who elect our presidents.

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JWR contributor Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

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