[Haveil Havalim is out here.]
While I should be writing my Yom Kippur day derashah…
All right, I just hung up after my third call from an Obama campaign staffer - third in the past five days, that is. That, and I had a visit to my door yesterday, from a polite woman who immediately apologized when I explained it was my Sabbath. And I’ve been invited to an Obama Jewish Community Leadership Committee of the Lehigh Valley meeting for tomorrow night, with a fellow named Daniel Shapiro, billed as Senior Policy Advisor for Senator Barack Obama. (Can't make it - I'm too busy not writing my derashot, as you can see...)
No McCainers have called yet, though; rather surprising for a swing state like Pennsylvania, and the third-largest region therein. And, yes, I’m one of those supervoters the campaigns target. Where are they?!
Obama’s grassroots support here is strong, while McCain’s is invisible.
Of course, this little piece of anecdotal evidence doesn’t mean anything in the greater scheme of electoral politics, but it does cement my personal sense that this election is over; if they're not contesting Pennsylvania, what are they going to contest? Arizona??
The other piece of evidence is the way that McCain/Palin have resorted to Bill Ayers and similar personal attacks. If that’s the best you have, then the Republican campaign chest is as bankrupt as AIG and Lehman Brothers. This campaign could and should be won on issues and policies, whether Iraq and Afghanistan and North Korea and Iran or Wall Street and Healthcare and Energy Policy and the Environment, not on Bill Ayers.
So even if America is, by nature, a country of people who favor small government, limited taxation and government spending, and less regulation in every area, - and I believe it is - I still think we’re going to see a serious vote in favor of Obama/Biden, because of eight years of GWB and because of the Republican camp’s failure to present serious policies to clean up the current domestic and foreign mess.
I think we’re looking at a landslide, a spread on the order of 55%-45% or more nationwide. The pollsters with their six-to-eight-point spreads are actually erring conservatively.
I don’t know whether to be happy or sad about this. I am glad Sarah Palin won’t be Vice President; she’s fun to watch, but I’m not particularly into electing people for the sake of entertainment, even if it is “just” the Vice Presidency. Four years of Dan Quayle in the national news was enough, thank you, and even returning SNL to the ranks of the funny is just not enough to justify it.
I’m Mordechai Torczyner, and I am not endorsing any candidate.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
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...even returning SNL to the ranks of the funny is just not enough to justify it.
ReplyDeleteOh, but I think it is.... it was really funny.
Obama gets the grass-roots thing -- he always did -- and so far he's figured out how to make it work for him, financially and otherwise. Regardless of the issues, there is something encouraging about the style. But style alone does not a president make.
גמר חתימה טובה
ALN-
ReplyDeleteCertainly true that style doesn't a president make - but I'm pretty sure it does a president elect.
Listened to a very disturbing piece on NPR this morning on the way to work, where they were interviewing folks in Southwestern Virginia (I used to live in "occupied Charlottesville").
ReplyDeleteA woman was explaining that she didn't think she was a "racist, or whatever you'd call it," but that she did think that Obama, as a, you know, "black man," would take care of "those people" and what they want, and not remember that they were just HIS people and not all of America.
Wow - I guess racism is still alive and well in the U.S. and will be playing a part in this election. I can only imagine the kind of comments when we (eventually) run a Jewish candidate.
Tzipporah-
ReplyDeleteDon't hold your breath...
Racism may exist but I am not convinced that it still maintains as large a role as it once did.
ReplyDeleteThis year we watched a black man and a woman fight for the nomination. That is a pretty good indication that we have made progress.
May not be as far as we want, but...
Skin color won't be the reason Obama is not elected. If that happens, of course.
Jack-
ReplyDeleteWe're certainly in a different place from where we were four years ago. At the same time, I keep remembering Warren Buffett's brilliant warning, something along the lines of: It takes twenty years to build a reputation, and five minutes to demolish it.
All we need is one dumb racist group to rear its ugly head, and we're back where we started from in terms of the very important public perception.
All we need is one dumb racist group to rear its ugly head, and we're back where we started from in terms of the very important public perception.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of truth to that. But I'd also argue that our response to such a thing makes a difference also.