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Dec. 3, 2008

Steven Emerson: Yes, the terrorists are winning

Don Terry: Lifetime, no see

Dec. 2, 2008

Melanie Phillips: The Mumbai atrocity is a wake-up call for a frighteningly unprepared world

Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report: Strategic Motivations for the Mumbai Attack

Dec. 1, 2008

Max Freidlander, as told to Jacklyn C. Wadler: India Inkings

Mark Steyn: Whodunit!?

Nov. 28, 2008

Rabbi Ahron Rapps: An evil seed that didn't have to be

Melanie Phillips: Carpe diem --- or can we all relax now?

Nov. 26, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet the Orthodox Jew who laid groundwork for scientific development of ordnance that undergirds America's current world leadership

Andrea Simantov: Shades of life

Nov. 25, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Getting Emotional For Influence

The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman : Thanksiving feast!

Nov. 24, 2008

Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: 'I just Became a grandchild!'

Barry Rubin: Don't flatter your enemies, protect your friends

Nov. 21, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Money matters?

Caroline B. Glick: Civilization walks the plank

Nov. 20, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bronfman's blindness

The Kosher Gourmet By Linda Gassenheimer: Portobellos add a hearty flavor to pasta with pesto

Nov, 19, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Spread the wealth? Jewish tradition and income equality

Elliot B. Gertel: 'Mad Men': Tackling prejudices or reinforcing them?

Nov, 18, 2008

Dr. Debby Schwarz Hirschhorn: The End of the Age of Reason

Jonathan Tobin: Does Barack + Bibi = Disaster?

Nov, 17, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The End of the Age of Reason

Diana West: Gulling Americans into making terror legit?

Nov, 14, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The Power of Spiritual Inertia

Caroline B. Glick: The perils ahead

Nov, 13, 2008

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: How Bush and Obama together could change the Middle East dynamic

The Kosher Gourmet by JeanMarie Brownson: Sweet and savory, crispy and meltingly tender bestilla

Nov, 12, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Tyrannical Co-Workers

Michael Doyle: High Court to consider today donated monuments that may have religious messages in public parks

Nov, 11, 2008

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Will Obama stop government officials considering institutionalizing financial jihad?

Jonathan Tobin: They Will Decide Their Own Fate

Nov, 10, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: $8 billion, modern-day Tower of Babel being built?

Barry Rubin: A letter to the president-elect from a Middle East realist

Nov, 7, 2008

Rabbi Francis Nataf: Of Children and Immortality

Caroline B. Glick: Livni's Obama strategy

Nov, 6, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: How I tricked a classroom of apathetic students into grasping the fallacy of moral relativism

The Kosher Gourmet By Gina Kim: Tips for making the perfect soup --- includes recipes

Nov, 5, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Destitute Debtors

Bruce Weinstein: 'Religulos': Bad title,even worse movie

Nov, 4, 2008

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law

Frida Ghitis: A surprise for Obama in the Middle East

Nov, 3, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Who says Jews are Smart?

Jonathan Tobin: Was He Wrong About Everything?

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 August 6, 2008 / 5 Menachem-Av 5768

Is Obama just too special to be elected president?

By Michael Graham


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Since the day Obama claimed the Democratic nomination, pundits and political pros have been waiting for him to take a significant lead in the polls. Here we are in August, and not only has Obama failed to get the Democrat's traditional summertime bump, he's tied with John McCain in the latest Gallup and Rasmussen polls.


In a lousy year for Republicans, against a GOP nominee who combines the youthful effervescence of Wilford Brimley with the soaring oratory of a life insurance seminar, Obama is actually losing ground.


Why?


Obama, sadly, blames race. It's all about evil Republicans, he claims, trying to scare voters by telling them "I don't look like those guys on the dollar bills" and "Did I mention he's black?"


The mainstream media blame the "vicious" and "negative" attack ads of the McCain campaign. The McCain campaign thinks i t's all about oil, gas prices and Obama's position on offshore drilling - whatever that may be at the moment.


But it was during a conversation with my radio listeners about Obama's birthday trip to Boston yesterday that I got a glimpse into the Chosen One's real problem. We were looking for the perfect gift for "The man who is everything" and I was suggesting the traditional items for someone of Obama's stature - gold, frankincense and myrrh. I was taken aback by the number of listeners who said the Democratic standard-bearer should get nothing because of a People magazine article about the Obama family's policy of not giving Christmas or birthday presents to their own two daughters.


I didn't bring that fact up. My listeners did, and it bothered them.


Now there's nothing necessarily wrong with parents not giving their kids birthday or holiday gifts, but it is, well, unusual. Do you know any parents like this? I don't. Then there was that speech in Berlin that was supposed to give Obama a big bounce. But his numbers went down instead.


Did Obama give a bad speech? No. But there was something just plain weird about watching a guy who wanted votes from Americans rallying 200,000 Germans in Berlin. It's not wrong. It's not unpatriotic. But no other presidential candidate in history has ever done anything like it.


And as sill y as it may sound, the Wall Street Journal just ran a story on supersized voters uncomfortable with the fact that Obama is so skinny. "He needs to put some meat on his bones," one voter said. Then again, this is the Obama who asked Iowa farmers, "Have you seen what they charge for arugula lately?"


Even his own daughter, revealing to "Access Hollywood" that her dad doesn't like ice cream, added: "Everybody should like ice cream."


Thanks to the strange trajectory of my life, from the tobacco fields of South Carolina to a radio studio in Boston, I've met people from all kinds of strange and colorful backgrounds. And I can honestly say I don't know anybody like Barack Obama.


His political career began at the home of an anti-American terrorist. His pastor for 20 years was the delusional, hate-spewing Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He barely won his own party's nomination, but his campaign designed its own presidential seal and has "President" printed across the back of his seat on his campaign jet.


And when he told congressional Democrats "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions," it might be true - but what kind of person would say that about himself? Would you?


Every day, it seems, Barack Obama does or says something that reminds "typical American people" (pardon the paraphrase) that he is different from us in ways that have nothing to do with what he looks like.

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 Michael Graham is a talk show host at 96.9 FM TALK in Boston and author of the highly acclaimed "Redneck Nation: How the South Really Won the War." To comment, please click here.



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