Althouse: "The fate of the world for the next four years. It’s all going to boil down to a few old Jews in Century Village."

May 22, 2008

"The fate of the world for the next four years. It’s all going to boil down to a few old Jews in Century Village."

Rabbi Ruvi New predicts.

29 comments:

rhhardin said...: If the fate of the world depends on a few retired Jews in Florida, it's because the rest of the country is tied. You could just as well say the fate of the world depends on a few IT professionals in Columbus Ohio. Any group is the tie-breaker, when everybody else is tied.; 5/22/08, 9:05 AM
George M. Spencer said...: "Lebanon's feuding factions reached a breakthrough deal yesterday that ends the country's 18-month political stalemate, but it also gives the militant Hezbollah group and its allies veto over any government decision.

The deal, reached with the help of Arab mediators, was immediately praised by Iran and Syria, which back Hezbollah. But it appears certain to accelerate fears in the West over Hezbollah's new power."

I don't know whether this is 1938 and Lebanon is Czechoslovakia, or it's 1939 and Lebanon is Poland.

While Israel Slept....; 5/22/08, 9:07 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: If RRhardin is correct, voter ID for voters at the polls is paramount to a fair outcome.

But I say it will be a blowout - won't even be close - like the Preakness- one horse will pull away and never look back.

The Dems will be chastised for running such a green & empty suit or the Republicans will be admonished for spending like Titus does during Nordstrom's annual sale.; 5/22/08, 9:26 AM
Palladian said...: "Joyce Rozen of Pompano Beach said she believed that the Obama campaign was deliberately keeping Michelle Obama out of sight — one of many false rumors floating around Florida."

False rumors? Maybe so, but what proof does the NYT offer to prove that is a "false" rumor? Are they flak-ing for the Obama campaign?

Oh, right...; 5/22/08, 9:37 AM
former law student said...: It's so funny, because Obama is totally in the tank for Israel. Do these elderly Floridians think that Obama's billionaire backers like the Crowns and the Pritzkers are stupid? Or are these alte cockers simply racists?; 5/22/08, 9:39 AM
Richard Dolan said...: The more striking fact is that, in this cycle as in every cycle since, well, forever, Jewish voters will still tilt (by a lopsided margin) for Obama as the Dem nominee. McCain will do better than the average Rep nominee (he may get 40%), but that comparison is starting from a low base.

The highest percentage of the Jewish vote ever obtained by a Rep nominee was Eisenhower in '56 (he got about 40%) and Reagan in '80 (he got 39%; in '84 it went down to 31%). Dem nominees have often racked up margins in the 80-20 and 90-10 range. (All figures are from the Jewish Virtual Library.) So a 40% share for McCain would be an historic high, and should put him comfortably over the top in Florida. If McCain is ever in trouble in Florida, he has no hope of winning.; 5/22/08, 9:39 AM
Anonymous said...: You're on drugs if you think McCain is going to get 40% of the Jewish vote.

Obama is comfortably ahead amongst Jewish voters and McCain is nowhere near 40%.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1209627043154

And when Jews find out Obama isn't Muslim, those numbers will go higher. And most Jews do NOT vote based on a candidate's view on Israel.; 5/22/08, 10:03 AM
paul a'barge said...: NYTimes: ...believed that the Obama campaign was deliberately keeping Michelle Obama out of sight — one of many false rumors floating around...

false rumors?

You just can't make this stuff up.

Of course the mutt is hiding his wife, the most loose cannon in recent American politics.; 5/22/08, 10:12 AM
TJ said...: "the mutt"??

Classy.; 5/22/08, 10:47 AM
former law student said...: Of course the mutt is hiding his wife, the most loose cannon in recent American politics.

Yeah they're really keeping Michelle under wraps. Sometimes she gets two or even four days in a row off between campaign events:

- Associated Press - May 19, 2008 5:04 PM ET
While Barack Obama campaigned elsewhere, Michelle Obama reached out to voters in Hopkinsville and visited the Cancer Care and Renal Center at Kosair's Childrens Hospital in Louisville, where she read books to several young patients. She was planning to wrap up the day in Lexington.

- WBKO Posted: 6:28 PM May 19, 2008

Michelle Obama stopped in South Central Kentucky today, but she wasn't leading a campaign rally for husband and presidential candidate, Barack Obama.

Instead of campaigning, she was engaged in a more intimate and personal setting.

Mrs. Obama's stop today was at the Pioneer Club in Hopkinsville, where she met with roughly a dozen military spouses.

- By The Associated Press
Published: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 11:09 AM EDT
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., arrives for a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Tuesday, May 20, 2008, with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia.

- Associated Press - May 20, 2008 7:55 PM ET
SANTA FE (AP) - Michelle Obama will visit New Mexico next week to raise money for her husband's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.; 5/22/08, 11:11 AM
donostiarra said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/22/08, 11:35 AM
vbspurs said...: Sheesh, what an amateurish piece of writing that was by Kantor.

Just about the only salient quote is this:

“You watch George Bush for a day, and you know where he stands,” said Rabbi Jonathan Berkun of the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center.

Exactly. And not just what he stands for, but what he is.

That's the big question mark with Obama, and the sadness of being someone like us -- children of mixed backgrounds.

(Albeit mine are both white Christians from the same continent. I have it easier)

No matter how you explain that you love your country, you're seen as "Other", with stereotypes being flung your way due to your ethnicity.

Of course, it doesn't help if send out mixed signals about patriotism and intentions.

Cheers,
Victoria; 5/22/08, 12:09 PM
vbspurs said...: Hey donostiarra, I was just about to agree with your post, but you deleted it!; 5/22/08, 12:21 PM
john said...: "It’s all going to boil down to a few old Jews.."

I am sorry, but I cannot get past the repulsiveness of that sentence. My mind races from images of Germany to New Guinea, and it makes me ill.

I never got to the article.; 5/22/08, 1:55 PM
rcocean said...: "I am sorry, but I cannot get past the repulsiveness of that sentence. My mind races from images of Germany to New Guinea, and it makes me ill.

I never got to the article."

Why? Don't you like "Old Jews"?
I love Old Jews, especially Morty and Helen Seinfeld.; 5/22/08, 2:33 PM
john said...: rcocean -

It's not the Jews, its the boiling part.; 5/22/08, 2:47 PM
George M. Spencer said...: "Little has been said about Sen. Obama’s relationship with Rev. Michael Pfleger, a Catholic pastor at St. Sabina, also on the South Side of Chicago. In 2004, Obama told the Chicago Sun Times that Pfleger was one of his three spiritual mentors.

Pfleger’s name became more widely recognizable two years ago when Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed a Farrakhan aide to serve on a hate-crimes commission. When the appointee, Sister Claudette, refused to denounce Farrakhan’s racist and anti-Semitic remarks, three Jewish members on the commission resigned - a situation that prompted Pfleger to respond, “good riddance.”

No less reprehensible than Reverends Wright and Pfleger is the Obama campaign’s national co-chairman, retired Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill “Tony” McPeak, who has made numerous anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments. While the general has a long blame-Israel-first record, the most repugnant remark came during a 2003 interview, when he blamed the Jewish-American community for the failure of the peace process between Israel and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat."

--NRO; 5/22/08, 3:12 PM
ricpic said...: Apparently being of mixed background, whatever that means in Vicky's case, since she states that both her parents are white Christians from the same continent, but in any case being of mixed background gives one a leg up in the I'm better than you sweepstakes, which Vicky never fails to assert.

Cheers,
ricpic; 5/22/08, 4:04 PM
ricpic said...: Victoria, or, the genteel gentile assassin. A truly superior snake.; 5/22/08, 4:09 PM
vbspurs said...: It's not the Jews, its the boiling part.

John, don't worry. I am very sensitive to any anti-semitic rhetoric, and I would've said so if I had felt it in this article.

Not that there are not self-hating Jews, but the author is Jodi Kantor. :)

Cheers,
Victoria; 5/22/08, 5:15 PM
KCFleming said...: And here I had thought that the fate of the world for the next four years was all going to boil down to a few old superdelegates in the DNC.

Either way, geezers rule.; 5/22/08, 5:25 PM
The Drill SGT said...: the NYT was propaganda as usual these days. Note this strawman

Al Qaeda is backing him, said Helena Lefkowicz of Fort Lauderdale (Incorrect.)

No, not Al Qaeda, but clearly Hamas, which was not mentioned:

"We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the elections," Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, said in an exclusive interview with WND and with the John Batchelor Show on WABC Radio in New York.

"I hope Mr. Obama and the Democrats will change the political discourse. ... I do believe [Obama] is like John Kennedy, a great man with a great principal. And he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community, but not with humiliation and arrogance," Yousuf said, speaking from Gaza.

Yousuf, the Hamas figure usually responsible for coordinating meetings with foreign officials, told WND earlier that Carter's planned meeting this week with Hamas would help the terror organization "engage with the world community."; 5/22/08, 5:30 PM
M. Simon said...: Some of Obama's questionable friends re: Israel

Samantha Power
Edward Said
Rashid Khalidi
Ali Abunimah
Imam Hassan Qazwini
General Tony McPeak
Robert Malley
Susan Rice
Anthony Lake
William C. Ayers
Bernadine Dohrn
Raila Odinga
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Jodie Evans
The Black Panthers
Lawrence Lessig
Sam Graham-Felsen
Joseph Cirincione
Cornell West; 5/22/08, 8:56 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Rev Wright doesn't make the list?; 5/22/08, 8:58 PM
William said...: Edward Said is dead. Michael Moore and Jane Fonda can pick up the slack.; 5/22/08, 9:34 PM
somefeller said...: If the fate of the world depends on a few retired Jews in Florida, it's because the rest of the country is tied.

Very true. If a small American subculture has to act as the tiebreaker group in this election, retired Jews in Florida seems like a good one to me. I'm pretty comfortable letting a group that generally has a lot of education and life experience be the one that breaks the tie. Though hopefully it won't be that close an election.; 5/22/08, 9:40 PM
vbspurs said...: Does he know Juan Cole? Any ties to Noam Chomsky? Harvard ain't that far from MIT...; 5/22/08, 10:08 PM
somefeller said...: Does he know Juan Cole? Any ties to Noam Chomsky? Harvard ain't that far from MIT...

Physically, that's true. Culturally, it may as well be on the other side of the moon.; 5/22/08, 10:12 PM
Fen said...: If a small American subculture has to act as the tiebreaker group in this election, retired Jews in Florida seems like a good one to me. I'm pretty comfortable letting a group that generally has a lot of education and life experience be the one that breaks the tie.

Gah. Retired Floridians? Hopefully not the ones who were so confused by the butterfly ballot that they voted for Buchanan.; 5/23/08, 6:15 AM