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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 Feb. 29, 2008 / 23 Adar I 5768

Weighing words for straight talk

By Wesley Pruden


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | By If John McCain has a hard time figuring out how to run against a black man, he can take consolation from Barack Obama's dilemma. It won't be easy for him to campaign against a white man while remaining "black" enough to satisfy the 'hood.


Talking about race in America is perilous. Offenses are taken when none are intended. Much goes unspoken, but keenly felt. Slights quickly become snubs; nuance is taken for evasion. Casual conversation becomes deadly when every word must be weighed. Every sentence must be carefully parsed in an age where the precise use of language is held in low regard. The successful candidate this year may turn out to be the most eloquent apologizer-in-chief.


John McCain felt he had to apologize this week after one of his supporters, a radio talk-show host, insisted on calling Barack Hussein Obama by his full legal name, reminding everyone that some of the senator's roots are in Islam as well as in Africa. Mr. Obama was pressed to "reject" the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan after he remarked that he has "consistently denounced" anti-Jewish Farrakhan rants and rages. He "distanced" himself again from his pastor and mentor, who champions Minister Farrakhan as "a great man" and reveals himself to be someone who doesn't like white people very much.


When Mr. Obama was asked about the Farrakhan endorsement at their final debate Tuesday night, he snapped at Tim Russert, the interrogator: "Tim, I have to say I don't see a difference between denouncing and rejecting. If the word 'reject' that Senator Clinton feels is stronger than the word 'denounce,' then I'm happy to concede the point and I would reject and denounce." Mr. Obama, as anyone might, prefaced his answers with several "ahs," "ummms" and "uhs," not exactly stammering but clearly demonstrating how uncomfortable he was and eager to get back to questions about health care, the war in Iraq, NAFTA and who hates George W. Bush the most.


Where will it all stop, and when can we get on with a debate for grown-ups? Certainly not before November, and therein lies the peril. Both nominees can decry it, but there's not much either can do to eliminate that peril while banging away at each other over genuine issues, neither pulling legitimate punches nor drowning everyone in mush and gruel.



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Shelby Steele suggests in his new book, "A Bound Man," that the senator, bound by the tangled web of race, can't succeed because by relieving whites of their guilt he will inevitably disappoint blacks who want him to sharply confront whites for the sins and shortcomings of yesteryear.


Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Britain — where American politics is regarded as the game anyone can play — argues that not only will Barack Obama fail to bridge the racial divide but will actually deepen it. "If Obama can succeed," he writes in Prospect magazine, "then maybe [guilt-ridden whites] can imagine that Martin Luther King's post-racial nirvana has arrived. A vote for Obama is a pain-free negation of their own racism ... so long as they don't have to live next door to him."


His diagnosis gets more depressing. "Obama may be helping to postpone the arrival of a post-racial America, and I think he knows it. If he wins, the cynicism may be worth it to him and his party. In the end, he is a politician and a very good one. His job is to win elections." The more "the bargainer" soothes middle-class whites, the more he irritates blacks who cotton to "challengers" like Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan, who wield power only as long as they can persuade their followers to remain "victims" of what Mr. Obama's pastor scorns as "the United States of White America."


John McCain, no doubt relieved that he won't have to run against a woman, has to weigh words and parse his respect to a black man while resisting paralysis to avoid offense, giving in to the temptation to play hug-me and kissy-face with Democrats. Republicans have done it before.

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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