July 24, 2008 Rabbi Berel Wein: On the road again --- and again and again Richard Z. Chesnoff: Mideast Refugees --- Failure vs. Success JWisdom:: Word power is about more than vocabulary by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky July 23, 2008 Jonathan Tobin: The Mufti of Jerusalem's Nazi ideology lives on among contemporary Islamists The Kosher Gourmet by Joe Gray: Smoked paprika turkey meatballs simmered in red wine and tomato sauce JWisdom:: 'Routine' doesn't need to mean ‘rote’ By Rabbi David Aaron July 22, 2008 Yossi Klein Halevi: Dear Barack Obama Elliot B. Gertel: Eli Stone: Self-indulgent, arrogant corporate attorney as modern-day prophet JWisdom:: Three Weeks - Nine Days - One Purpose by Rabbi Mordechai Becher July 21, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Spending your kids' money Mitch Albom: A grim exchange illustrates a key difference JWisdom:: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Hammered on the Anvil --- Severed by the Sickle by Rabbi Nosson Scherman July 18, 2008 Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: The Sanctification and Importance of Time Caroline B. Glick: US wants it absolutely clear it has no intention of attacking Iran's nuclear installations Mona Charen: What can you say about a people who welcome a child murderer as a hero? JWisdom:: Living a dog's life, dawg? by Rabbi Dovid Gross July 17, 2008 Steven Emerson: Deals with devils Libby Lazewnik: One Step at a Time JWisdom:: Leader the follower? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky July 16, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Poaching humans The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Meaty pasta salad with summer berries perfect for warm evenings JWisdom:: Keeping A Secret by Rabbi Mordechai Becher July 15, 2008 Dennis Prager: False Equation: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage and Opposing Interracial Marriage Joel Greenberg: Researchers look to Israeli circumcision program to help combat AIDS 'Alternatives' to Logic Won't Work JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part V: Why Judaism ISN'T Spiritual by Rabbi David Aaron July 14, 2008 Jonathan Rosenblum: A warning from Canada to those who value life Jonathan Tobin: 'Alternatives' to Logic Won't Work JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism, Part II July 11, 2008 Rabbi Francis Nataf: It's hard to be humble when you're great Caroline B. Glick: A tale of two hostages JWisdom:: Profane for Prophet by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky July 8, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Duty to save gullible from themselves? Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Islamists have the West just where they want us JWisdom:: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 3: The Fully Loaded Human Being by Rabbi Dovid Gross July 3, 2008 Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!) Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron JWisdom:: The Moses Method by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky July 2, 2008 Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else! JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life July 1, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end? Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient? JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism June 30, 2008 Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew? JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child June 26, 2008 Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy June 25, 2008 Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky June 25, 2008 Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch? JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III June 24, 2008 Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!? Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence June 23, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma Jeff Jacoby: A world without children JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction June 20, 2008 Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky June 19, 2008 Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub June 18, 2008 Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher June 17, 2008 Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron June 16, 2008 Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home? Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace' JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire March 22, 2007 J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !) Oct. 29, 2003 Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review April 8, 2008 / 3 Nissan 5768 John McCain Was One Lucky Guy in Primary Race With Romney By Michael Barone http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | John McCain was one lucky guy. That has been my conclusion as we watched him beat Mike Huckabee in South Carolina January 19 by 33 percent to 30 percent, beat Mitt Romney in Florida January 29 by 36 percent to 31 percent, and then make a huge delegate sweep by winning all the winner-take-all states on Super Tuesday, February 5, including Missouri by a 33 percent-to-32 percent-to-29 percent margin over Huckabee and Romney. In California, which awarded 11 delegates to the statewide winner and three each to the winner in each congressional district, McCain beat Romney statewide 42 percent to 35 percent and carried 48 of 53 congressional districts (it appeared to be 50 of 53 before California finally counted all the votes). Using Dave Leip's Election Atlas and the Green Papers, I calculated the delegate count if McCain's share of the vote had been exactly 3 percent less in each primary on January 19 and 26 and February 5 and if Romney's share of the vote had been exactly 3 percent more. After all, those results would have been just about as plausible, given the way the campaign and polling were going, as the actual results. This 3 percent switch wouldn't have affected the delegate count in South Carolina, where McCain would still have beaten Huckabee 30.15 percent to 29.84 percent. And it wouldn't have affected it in most of the Super Tuesday primaries. It might have moved a couple of delegates in Massachusetts and Tennessee. (In Massachusetts, Leip has McCain carrying and winning 2-to-1 delegate advantages in the First, Fourth, Eighth, and Ninth Congressional Districts; the official state report to which he links has McCain carrying only the Eighth District, and by a margin that vanishes if you switch 3 percent of the vote from McCain to Romney. I can't find the Tennessee results by congressional district.) But the 3 percent switch has a huge effect on the delegate count in four states. A 3 percent switch would have left Romney leading Huckabee by 33.92 percent to 33.17 percent and ahead of McCain in Georgia. This would have given him 33 additional delegates for winning statewide, yet (astonishingly) no additional delegates from any congressional district, at least as I read the two websites cited. In Florida, a 3 percent switch transforms McCain's 36 percent-to-31 percent victory to a 34 percent-to-33 percent victory for Romney. Florida was allotted 57 delegates on a winner-take-all basis, and that would have switched all 57 from McCain to Romney. Missouri on Super Tuesday was the closest three-way race, with Romney by a narrow margin in third place. But the 3 percent switch puts Romney in the lead, with 32.27 percent of the votes to 31.53 percent for Huckabee and 29.95 percent for McCain. In this scenario, Missouri's 58 winner-take-all delegation would have gone to Romney rather than to McCain. Then there's California. A 3 percent switch wouldn't have given Romney the statewide lead and the 11 delegates awarded to the statewide winner. But it would have increased the number of congressional districts he carried from five to 18. Instead of 15 delegates, he would have had 54. Let's put the results down in a table. From a 255-delegate lead for McCain in these states to a 77-delegate lead for Romney. A 3 percent switch can make a big difference in winner-take-all systems. After Super Tuesday, McCain had 516 delegates by one delegate count, with 207 to Romney and 142 for Huckabee. (I don't regard these numbers as definitive, but they're probably not very far off.) The 3 percent switch would have changed this to 362 for McCain, 385 for Romney, and 109 for Huckabee. Instead of McCain taking a huge delegate lead out of Super Tuesday, he'd have been a little behind. When you're behind as Romney was after Super Tuesday, you could see that even in a winner-take-all system, you'd have to win practically everything to overcome McCain's lead. Since Romney was in a position where he'd have to mostly self-finance any further campaigning, he was being asked to bet something like $30 million on very unfavorable odds. Romney made his fortune reading numbers, and he probably realized, if only intuitively, that something like a 3 percent switch would have left him in a very different position. In that case, there was no way he would have gotten out of the race. The Potomac primary was coming up February 12. Romney could hope that with Huckabee still in the race (He had no reason to get out: His campaign cost him virtually nothing, and he was enjoying it), Romney might have carried Virginia (63 delegates winner-take-all) and maybe Maryland (34 delegates winner-take-all), even if one concedes D.C. (16 delegates winner-take-all) to McCain. Wins in the two states and a loss in D.C. would have given Romney 482 delegates to McCain's 378 — a triple-digit margin. (I'm ignoring the caucus states here, but Romney generally did better in caucuses than in primaries.) Momentum might have carried Romney to a win February 19 in Wisconsin. One or two weeks of TV time would eat up considerably less than $30 million, and if Romney had been ahead after Wisconsin, he might have found conservative money coming in for him in time to contest Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont on March 4. And if he had still been ahead after these contests, would McCain have stayed in until the Pennsylvania primary on April 22? (Some readers may remember that the Republican National Committee deprived Florida of half its 114 delegates because it scheduled its primary too early, and that if Florida had had 114 delegates, it would have elected them mostly by winner-take-all in each of its 25 congressional districts. If a 3 percent switch had occurred, would Romney then have called for the full Florida delegation to be seated, as Hillary Clinton has done? Absolutely not. McCain carried 20 of the 25 districts, and even a 3 percent switch would have given Romney only 12 districts to McCain's 13. That means that in a 114-delegate delegation, Romney would have had 75 delegates and McCain 39. That's a smaller delegate lead than Romney would have gotten out of a 57-0 split.) It didn't take Romney long to read the numbers. A 516-to-207 delegate count meant he had to get out, as he did, quite gracefully, at the CPAC convention February 7, two days after Super Tuesday. A 3 percent switch would have given us an entirely different Republican race and might have made Mitt Romney the Republican nominee. A nominee who was, before Super Tuesday, notably weaker in polls against Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama than John McCain was then and is now. John McCain is one lucky guy. 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. BARONE'S LATEST The New Americans   Now, more than ever, the melting pot must be used to keep America great. Barone attacks multiculturalism and anti-American apologists--but he also rejects proposals for building a wall to keep immigrants out, or rounding up millions of illegals to send back home. Rather, the melting pot must be allowed to work (as it has for centuries) to teach new Americans the values, history, and unique spirit of America so they, too, can enjoy the American dream.. Sales help fund JWR. JWR contributor Michael Barone is a columnist at U.S. News & World Report. Comment by clicking here. Michael Barone Archives © 2006, US News & World Report

Mitch Albom  Michael Barone   Dave Barry  Tony Blankley  Andy Borowitz  David Broder  Stratfor Briefing  Mona Charen  Linda Chavez  Ann Coulter  Greg Crosby  Rod Dreher  Larry Elder  Suzanne Fields  John Fund  Frank J. Gaffney  Lloyd Garver  Jonah Goldberg  Michael Goodwin  Julia Gorin  Jonathan Gurwitz  Paul Greenberg  Victor Davis Hanson  Betsy Hart  Nat Hentoff  David Horowitz  Laura Ingraham  Jeff Jacoby  Paul Johnson  Jack Kelly  James Klurfeld  Ed Koch  Ch. Krauthammer  Jonathan Last  Michael Ledeen  John Leo  David Limbaugh  Kathryn Lopez  Rich Lowry  Michelle Malkin  Jackie Mason  The Medicine Men  Dick Morris  Bill O'Reilly  Clarence Page  Kathleen Parker  Dennis Prager  Wesley Pruden  Tom Purcell  Jonathan Rauch  Celia Rivenbark  Robert Robb  Cokie & Steve Roberts  Pat Sajak  Debra J. Saunders  Culture Shlock  Roger Simon  Michael Smerconish  Thomas Sowell  Mark Steyn  John Stossel  Cal Thomas  Jonathan Tobin  Bob Tyrrell  Diana West  Dave Weinbaum  George Will  Walter Williams  Mort Zuckerman  Robert Arial  Chuck Asay  Chip Bok  Dry Bones   Lisa Benson  John Branch  Gary Brookins  John Cole  Paul Combs  J. D. Crowe  John Deering  Brian Duffy  Everything's Relative  Mallard Fillmore  Jake Fuller  Bob Gorrel  Joe Heller  David Hitch  Jerry Holber  Steve Kelley  Jeff Koterba  Dick Locher  Chan Lowe  Ranan R. Lurie  Jimmy Margulies  Rick McKee  Michael Ramirez  Jeff Stahler  Danna Summers  John Trever  Gary Varvel  Kirk Walters  How 2  Know-It-All  Lori Borgman  The Savvy Consumer  Elder matters  Fixit  Dr. Peter Gott  Marybeth Hicks  GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko  Richard Lederer  Tech Maven  Nutrition Myths  Supermarket Shopper  Bruce Williams  How Stuff Works