Obama for Our Future
This is the time for the handoff of leadership to a new generation. As with the Kennedy in 1960, this is a pivotal moment. Like JFK, Obama represents a hitherto excluded demographic. Forty-eight years ago we elected a Roman Catholic amid the fears and smears that he would not be loyal or a "real American who thinks like us."
Electing Obama will not put racism behind us or heal all our divisions. This is not a messianic moment, but it could be truly historic and say both to the world and ourselves that we have come a very long way towards healing.
Obama has been on the racial divide and has worked with people of all faiths and ethnicities. He's succeeded by dint of grace and intelligence from Honolulu to Occidental, from cerebral Columbia and Harvard to the hurly-burley of Chicago politics. He's a statesman with cool, reason and integrity.
Imagine the media frenzy that would ensue if David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan endorsed John McCain for president. Yet Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement of Barack Obama has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media.
Speaking to a convention of the Nation of Islam, Farrakhan not only declared his support for Obama, but also told his followers that Obama was the “Messiah.”
Yes,terrorist love Obama, as does the liberal media.
Mark my words,if he wins we as a nation we will regret the day. Like his preacher said G.D. America,that's
integrity,yes indeed it is. The "Messiah" will lead the
enemy in without a fight!
As Jewish person, aren't you concerned about the company he keeps? And in terms of putting the racial divide behind us, why not elect P. Diddy then?
I have reasons to support Obama other than the surface issues of racial healing or his cool. Even beyond his obvious intelligence and success in various environments, I rely on something nearer and more personal.
Of course, I do not think him perfect or the Messiah. I would prefer some other policies, some other friends and certainly a different (former) minister. He is responsible for his policy errors of omission and commission. He is not responsible for his fans and endorsers. No, I am no fan of Farrakhan. And Jesse Jackson does not add to Obama's bona fides.
But here's the thing from my Chicago sources--all of whom are also Jewish: Our relatives in Chicago who know him also like him and trust him on Israel. Our relatives, Holocaust survivors and children of survivors, are not filled with self-hate and all give to Israel. Those whom I know who know him personally and have seen him interact with the Jewish Community I take seriously as both sources and percipient witnesses.
When my students at American Jewish University ask me which candidate would be better for Israel, I am somewhat modest. Having voted for people any number of times and been fooled, having seen my Republican friends vote for W on the promise of fiscal responsibility, no nation building and a humble foreign policy, I understand that politics, as life, is an incomplete information problem.
My own calculation is that Obama, because of the distrust of some elements of the Jewish Community, might be politically incapable of saying No to Israel, while McCain might be in a position to demand harder concessions of Israel. I do not know this. I remain modest and humble, but also hopeful.
Howard: You say that terrorists love Obama. I'm not sure where you got your polling numbers from. But I can also tell you that our allies around the world love Obama.
You mock Obama as "the Messiah. But a lot of the mess we've gotten into is because of OUR OWN MESSIAH-LIKE arrogance about how we'll do what we want, even if our own allies come to hate us.
We need to get over that, sir.