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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 25, 2008 / 18 Shevat 5768

A campaign for the Gelded Age

By Wesley Pruden


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Life in the Gelded Age won't ever be exciting for the red-blooded among us — the meat-eating men and women who sup on ham, ram and lamb and dine on bull, beef and bear — but the manly thing to do is make the best of it.


We finally get the makings of a first-rate presidential campaign, with the marketing men, consultants and focus groups shoved aside, and if you believe what you read in the newspapers and see on television, everyone is in a panic to find a fainting couch. Adjectives like "unprecedented" and "novel" and "raw" are drafted to describe the back-and-forth between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.


Actually, there are precedents aplenty. You could find meaner stuff in an election for president of the Ladies Aid Society at the Methodist church. Politics, particularly presidential politics, always has been a smash-mouth game of tackle football, with neither pads nor helmets. Bill Clinton says this is his last campaign unless he runs for school board in the distant future; if he does the Volvo-and-beansprout folk are warned to avert their eyes.


So far this year we haven't seen anybody's mouth smashed. Ed Rollins, the campaign manager for Mike Huckabee, a Baptist pastor who confronted meaner deacons than anyone he has seen in South Carolina, threatened to reduce Mitt Romney's dental work to ruins. But he insists he was only speaking "metaphorically." We're even a little confused about who's actually running. It's Clinton vs. Obama, but not necessarily between the senators. Bill has taken over for his missus, and now Michelle Obama has taken up the fight for her senator. "The one thing that is clear is that when power is confronted with real change, they will say anything," she told an audience at the Lazy Goat Grill in Greenville, S.C. What? Politicians will say anything? Candidates will distort each other's records? Well, duh. Even goats know better.


Hillary offered a stout defense of Bill for saying that Mr. Obama had put a "hit job" on him. She was eager to lob lady-like pies and cream puffs. "We're in a very heated campaign and people are coming out and saying all kinds of things," she said. "I'm out there every day making a positive case and I have a lot of wonderful people, including my husband, who are out there making the case for me."


As charge-and-countercharge goes, this is cream of broccoli soup. Once upon a time not so long ago only a hearty beef stew or a robust bowl of red could warm a wintry afternoon on the trail. Bill Clinton, who learned politics in Arkansas, where the Marquis of Queensbury was just another French wussy, does not try to hide his glee. He never thought his campaign for a third term could be so much fun.


Like nearly all pols, the Clintons no less than Barack Obama retreat with yelps to play the victim when tough stuff is aimed at them. But when the issue is in doubt, or it's time to move in for the kill, the ex-prez will revert to original form, and run for president as if running for governor. In his final campaign for governor in the land of the magic huckleberry, Bill dispatched Hillary to break up his opponent's announcement press conference, to pester with pointed questions and generally make a spectacle of herself. The next morning it was Hillary on the front page, crowding the hapless opponent off the stage, page and out of the story. He never recovered.


It's clear that the Clinton strategy is to accentuate the Obama negatives, such as they may turn out to be. Emphasizing the senator's Muslim middle name — Hussein — is infuriating, but it's accurate and hardly an insult. The senator is still in a lather because Bill Clinton called his record on opposition to the Iraq war "a fairy tale." Whatever it was it wasn't worthy of Hans Christian Andersen, but the description quickly became "racist." Overnight our first black president became our first formerly black president. The ghost of the Gipper still hangs about, frightening the ladies and scaring Democratic horses. "The fact that Hillary has praised Ronald Reagan ... just underscores that she will say or do anything to get elected," an Obama flack declared. Oh dear. The shame of it all.

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

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

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