Archive for September, 2008

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My Obama Minute: Contribution

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

I gave a small contribution to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, after receiving an email from Al Gore noting that House Democrats are currently matching gifts, two-to-one. You can do the same at www.dccc.org.

I’m in Washington, DC for an extremely important policy conference, hosted by the National Jewish Democratic Council. Joe Biden is the keynote speaker, tonight at 5 p.m. Then, at 6:45, I’ll be attending a panel discussion handicapping the 2008 races. So check back late tonight or tomorrow morning for key polling updates.

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My Morning With Dad

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

Woke up this morning, and Obama was on my mind.

Largely, I think, because I read this AP article (“Poll: Racial Views Steer Some White Dems Away From Obama“), right before going to bed last night. Here’s the nut:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them “lazy,” “violent,” responsible for their own troubles.

The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points.

Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He’s an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation’s oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents.

The story gets more depressing from there, and includes this lovely sentiment from my home state:

“We still don’t like black people,” said John Clouse, 57, reflecting the sentiments of his pals gathered at a coffee shop in Somerset, Ohio.

I woke up this morning pissed off at John Clouse and his pals.

I was also upset about Nicholas Kristof’s column in the Times (“The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama“), which noted that 13 percent of registered voters now think Obama is a Muslim, up from 10 percent in March.

More ominously, a rising share — now 16 percent — say they aren’t sure about his religion because they’ve heard “different things” about it.

When I’ve traveled around the country, particularly to my childhood home in rural Oregon, I’ve been struck by the number of people who ask something like: That Obama — is he really a Christian? Isn’t he a Muslim or something? Didn’t he take his oath of office on the Koran?

In conservative Christian circles and on Christian radio stations, there are even widespread theories that Mr. Obama just may be the Antichrist. Seriously.

This article, too, only got worse. (Neurotic Democrats shouldn’t read this stuff before going to bed):

Mr. McCain himself is not popular with evangelicals. But they will vote for him if they think the other guy may be on Satan’s side.

In fact, of course, Mr. Obama took his oath on the Bible, not — as the rumors have it — on the Koran. He is far more active in church than John McCain is.

And then I came down and found my Dad at the kitchen table, smoking a cigarette, working on the Times crossword puzzle. (I stayed with my parents at my childhood home in Central Jersey last night; I’m heading down to the National Jewish Democratic Council policy conference in DC in a few hours.)

Dad, I said. I’m feeling pretty bummed about this survey I read last night. Apparently, 40 percent of Americans likely won’t vote for Obama because he’s black.  It could cost us this election.

“Those people weren’t going to vote for Obama anyway,” he said.

Okay, but apparently more and more people think Obama’s a Muslim. Obama’s more influenced by his Christianity — and seems more connected to it — than McCain!

“Who’s telling you that Americans are informed?” he asked. “We voted for Bush for two terms.”

Then he paused, taking a drag of his cigarette. “But — we survived,” he said. “We’re still here.”

Isn’t it different this time? With everything we have at stake, from economic meltdown to the results of cowboy diplomacy overseas to global warming — don’t we have so much more at stake this time around?

“Of course it’s different,” he said. The question is: “Are we mature enough to vote for a half-black, half-white man for president?”

“We’re making progress,” Dad said. “The fact that he’s on the ticket means progress.”

“We had a depression, once, Josh — things were much worse than what we’re doing now. Hopefully, we won’t get there this time.” He paused before adding: “The country will surivive.”

“The other thing,” he added, ”is that Americans are not really happy about electing people of intellect. Stevenson lost twice.” (To another war hero — Eisenhower.) “He was probably our brightest candidate. We have also elected an elitist, though. JFK was definitely an elitist.”

“I mean, you never know. My all-time favorite choice for president was Johnson. I figured he knew how to wring Congress’s neck, that he could get great legislation. Turns out, it’s a two-edged sword. He got great social legislation from Southern Democrats” (including, of course, the Civil Rights Bill of 1964) “But he also pushed the War in Vietnam. It was an unexpected twist.”

“Don’t forget, Obama’s got good people working for him. He’s a lot better candidate than Kerry, or even Gore for that matter. His speaking ability, his youthfulness.”

A key, he said, is getting that energized youth vote out to the polls.

“It’s your country, Josh,” he said. “Get them out to vote.”

My Dad is 78. He was born in August 1930, in the middle of the Great Depression, just three years before Hitler came to power. He reads a ton of history – he particularly enjoys books about the Founders. He will periodically drop something in casual conversation about Washington or Jefferson, and the problems they faced in their day.

He has wisdom that make the latest blips in the polls seem pretty insignificant. Talking to him about politics is soothing. The inconceivable idea that’s been haunting me of late – that Obama could lose, because he’s black — is somehow, at least, endurable. We’d survive.

My Dad’s a retired cardiologist who helped thousands of patients over the years, from a private practice in New Brunswick. He used to come home from work every day, and I’d say, “What’d you do at work today, Dad?” and he’d say: “Stamped out disease, saved a few lives.” It was a humble response, coming from him. He was being funny. You never really stopped to think about what the words meant.  But he was a beloved physician, known by many in town simply as “doc.” I imagine he always managed to do for his patients what he did for me this morning.

“Josh, just get out there and do your thing,” Dad said. “That’s all you can do.”

I know, Dad. Thanks — thanks — for reminding me.

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Posted in Media, Obama | 6 Comments »

My Obama Minute: Killer Voter Registration Tool

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

My sister got married this weekend in Princeton, NJ. It was one helluva wedding, and the party was pure my sister, pure Jersey.

(Thus the Neurotic Democrat’s four-day hiatus.)

By my count, James the DJ played 6 Springsteen songs over the course of the night, starting with Brilliant Disguise; moving to Glory Days (the first big sing-along) followed immediately by Rosalita. Later, he played Jersey Girl and Born to Run.

Toward the end of the night, bride, cousins, sisters, family and friends were singing every word to every song. We formed a circle and put our arms around each other like we were back in our college dorm rooms. We dipped and weaved, pumping our fists in the air, emphatically making every last one of Bruce’s points. We played air sax and air guitar and air piano, E Streeters, one and all.

So use it Rosie! we insisted. That’s what it’s there for!

At midnight, the DJ called it quits — turning the music off and putting the lights up – only to surprise us a moment later with an encore of his own: Thunder Road.

It’s a town full of losers, we said, punctuating the night … and I’m pulling out of here to wiiiiiiiiiiin!

Come to think of it, sometimeswhen I think of this election, that’s exactly how I feel.

Woke this morning with a killer sore throat and a married little sister. Go sis!

All of which is to say that My Obama Minute today was, actually, about a minute. But it was a very cool minute.

After receiving an email from the Obama campaign, I logged on to www.voteforchange.com . I’d recommend you do the same. Essentially this is a quick and very easy tool — you can email it around to friends and family — that lets you know whether you are currently registered to vote, and, if you are not, you can register, right away, no fuss.

It literally took me under a minute using the site to find out that I was currently registered in Akron, OH. And it immediately gave me all the information I need to vote in Ohio, including what forms of ID are acceptable and my polling hours.

Apparently, the Obama team has already registered 200,000 people this way. Their goal is one million — so they need your help.

Send this link to everyone you know. Right away. I’m serious. Tell them it will only take a minute. It’s one more way we can win this election.

So that some day we’ll look back on this and it will all seem funny.

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Are We Being Smug?

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

Say this for Times columnist David Brooks: He has the uncanny ability to make me think.

As a cursory perusal of his recent columns will attest, he is firmly in McCain’s camp. But in his column yesterday, he made a strong case that Sarah Palin lacks “prudence,” which he defines as: “the ability to grasp the unique pattern of a specific situation …  the ability to absorb the vast flow of information and still discern the essential current of events — the things that go together and the things that will never go together … the ability to engage in complex deliberations and feel which arguments have the most weight.”

Still, he argues, she has tremendous appeal for many conservatives as a common-sense, practical populist. There is a serious argument to be made, he writes, for electing leaders who are “rough and rooted” like Palin. Moreover, he writes:

Her followers take pride in the way she has aroused fear, hatred and panic in the minds of the liberal elite. The feminists declare that she’s not a real woman because she doesn’t hew to their rigid categories. People who’ve never been in a Wal-Mart think she is parochial because she has never summered in Tuscany.

Look at the condescension and snobbery oozing from elite quarters, her backers say. Look at the endless string of vicious, one-sided attacks in the news media. This is what elites produce. This is why regular people need to take control.

Is there anything to this condescension charge, which has lately been leveled at us from so many quarters? Are we feminist supporters of Barack Obama truly being smug — as the conservative punditry charges? Is it our barely-concealed moral indignation, registered by our Republican friends in bars and supermarkets and emails from coast to coast, that has swung the tide toward McCain-Palin?

It’s a good question.

Before I answer it, though, I should state for the record, that my wife and I do shop at Wal-Mart. And Target, particularly when we need Triple Paste for the kids’ diaper rash, or bulk items like toilet paper (which, I’ve heard, even those who summer in Tuscany are wont to use). Periodically, we even shop at T.J. Maxx, though — I must confess — I do prefer Banana Republic and Macy’s at the mall. If that makes me an oozing, snobby elitist, well, then, guilty as charged, I guess.

Though I should note that the weather has turned here in Akron — it’s been lovely and cold in the mornings; fall at its best — and when I recently went to look at my stash of jeans, I noticed that all of them had worn holes in the crotch, and were just generally ratty-looking, hems frayed, in part because I actually don’t go clothes shopping very often any more, in part because I don’t like it, and, in part because we have two children under four, so who the hell has time to shop? (By the way — you want to see condescending? Watch my 3-and-a-half-year-old, who doesn’t willingly share, tell my 19-month-old, who does whatever the hell he wants, that his new Batman toy: “Isn’t for little kids.”)

While I’m in the mood for confession, I should note, I haven’t actually summered in Tuscany, either. Growing up, I summered with my Mom, Dad, and sisters in a pop-up camper, at Buck Pond in Upstate New York. (When you wake up in the middle of the forest after a night of torrential rain and see a puddle so vast, your father immediately dubs it “Lake Rolnick,” can you really call it “summering” in the first place?). We collected water in a big jug from a nearby spigot, took our clothes to a Laundromat, and whittled sticks for the sheer love of it. When not camping, we spent a lot of time at our beach house on Long Beach Island, N.J., a bastion of exclusivity not, I’m sure, unlike Brookside Country Club in Canton, OH, where, my pro-Obama dentist told me yesterday, more than 100 Ohio Republicans just paid $25,000 a pop to have dinner with Sarah Palin.

This summer, we spent most of our time away from Akron at Lake Chautauqua, in Western, N.Y., a gated facility that is unquestionably a festering sore of superiority — but don’t tell that to my 3-and-a-half year old, because I taught him to fish at a small pier there, with a Spiderman Zebco and a cup of earthworms that we bought at the Wal-Mart near Jamestown. (Before entering the Wal-Mart, we played for a half-an hour in the Little Tikes playhouse they’d situated on the sidewalk outside. My son found a screw on the sidewalk and was pretending it was money, passing it to me through the play store window. We elitists start our kids off young.) That afternoon, my son caught (no joke) five yellow perch and a sunny, all of which we released, just like the fanciest, Orvis-clad fly-fisherman.

(I think this was the same day, by the way, that I went to K-Mart to buy my wife two packages of replacement underwear — in her haste packing for herself and both kids [I know, right? What was she thinking! She should have had the nanny pack!] – she’d forgotten to bring them. Warning for all men who have never attempted this before: If you wish to retain your dignity, ask your wife ahead of time exactly what style she wants. It’s not easy. There are 72 kinds of women’s underwear. Have her also specify color, size, and quantity, and then commit this to memory before walking into the store.)

I have no doubt that, at times, our anger at what our country has become does come out in conversations with our Republican friends. (Oh — there it is! Coming our right now!)  If I’d have to venture a guess as to why, I’d say it’s because we thought that this time around — after eight devastating years of Republican leadership; a plummeting economy (thanks in part to GOP de-regulation); a morally repugnant, strategically boneheaded, and economically devastating war for which the Administration continues to present false rationales; and a sitting president with approval ratings in the low 30s – most of us were on the same page. We weren’t going to hand the keys back to the party that brought us here.  Maybe, as we’ve seen that party take the lead in the latest polls, as we’ve seen excitement and support coalesce behind an unkown, Karl Rovian, loyalty-over-competence-style vp candidate, we’ve had a little trouble containing ourselves.

I’ll say this – David Brooks is right about one thing. Regular people do need to take control!

David — believe me when I tell you — and I’m truly sorry if this sounds smug: We’re trying.

MY OBAMA MINUTE: I held my first house party yesterday, at the request of the Ohio Democratic Party, which asked me to convene a group of Jewish Obama supporters in Akron. I started making phone calls inviting people just a few days ago — I was still making calls up to a few hours before the meeting — and yet 35 people showed up and crammed into my living room.

Matt Ratner, who is leading the Jewish outreach effort in Ohio, spoke about Barack Obama’s strong support for Israel, and staunch support from the Jewish community in Chicago, including from pro-Israel stalwarts Lestern Crown and Penny Pritzker. He passed out Jewish community talking points, which note that Obama was the primary sponsor of the “Iran Sanctions Enabling Act” (he drafted the act after consulting former Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu), to contain Iran and prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. The fact sheet showed clearly that Obama was aligned with the majority of the American Jewish community on issues including a woman’s right to choose, health care, and separation of church and state.

After Ratner spoke, people asked questions on a variety of topics, including one woman who wanted clarification about Obama’s position on Jerusalem (Two principles: Jerusalem must remain the Jewish capital, never again divided by barbed wire — and those two principles should apply when the parites work out “final status” details at the negotiating table). This event was not a fundraiser — it was organizing and informing the Jewish community at the grassroots, encouraged in every aspect by the Obama campaign. Before we adjourned, we discussed how we could broaden our outreach as Jewish Team Leaders for Obama.

It was an incredible meeting, made so by the engaged, passionate people who showed up — most of whom I really didn’t know. For the hour-plus that we spoke about Obama and the Jewish community, everyone was rapt. There were people there in there 20s, right up through senior citizens. And there was a kind of intensity in that room that you don’t often see. We heard every word. People nodded in agreement, or raised their hands with questions. There was laughter and good humor, but, overall, there was a deep sense of commitment and seriousness, and concern for the future of the country we all love.

If that room was in any sense a microcosm of the effort Obama supporters will be putting forth nationwide in the campaign’s final 48 days, then I’d say we’re in great shape.

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Posted in Israel, Jewish Interest, Media | 2 Comments »

Are Some Chabad Rabbis Playing Favorites?

Monday, September 15th, 2008

I want to state this up front: I love Chabad. But in this election, some Chabad rabbis have crossed a line, giving the distinct impression that they are backing John McCain for president.

As individuals, of course, rabbis have the right to support whomever they choose. The problem starts when the lines are blurred, and individual support for McCain begins to seem like a Chabad imprimatur on the candidate.

First, some personal history. I have fond memories of evenings spent at the Chabad House at Rutgers University, as a student in the early 1990s. When I was the editor of Moment magazine, I assigned an article on Chabad’s world-wide movement, and the positive impact it was having on Judaism. That article turned into a book, “The Rebbe’s Army,” by Sue Fishkoff, which chronicles the impressive work of the shaliachs, or emissaries, here and around the world.

When I moved to Ohio two years ago, I began studying Torah — for the first time in my life — once a week with the local Chabad rabbi. What I loved, from the start, was just how welcoming and non-judgmental he was. No question I asked was foolish, un-informed, or beneath him. I never once felt that he had an ulterior motive — that he wanted me to be “more Jewish.” In fact, he has never tired of telling me that God is more impressed with Jews like me — who are spiritually striving — than with Jews like him, who are born into an observant lifestyle. As he sees it, following Jewish law and ritual, for him, was never a choice. I appreciate his encouragement, even as I know there’s no need for the comparison.

It is partly because of his approach that, last year, I decided to stop eating pork and shellfish. Last month, in his office, I put tefillin on for the first time — a raw, emotional experience. A week later, I did it again.

It’s because I both connect with Chabad, personally, and appreciate the important work the rabbis are doing worldwide, that I am so deeply concerned about what looks to me like GOP politicking by some Chabad rabbis.

For those who don’t know, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency broke the story last week that, last month, about 40 Chabad emissaries held a conference call with John McCain, at McCain’s request. During the call, McCain asked for their endorsement.

Here, from the ChabadInfo Web site, are McCain’s closing remarks:

“I believe this is going to a be tough race. We have for the first time gone ahead in the polls. But I think we are the underdog… We’ve got a lot of work to do.

I’d be grateful for your support, it would mean a great deal to me. I believe that I can be the kind of President that is the President of every American and I will put my country first. And I want to promise you that I will put my country first and I understand the meaning of freedom and I will do everything in my power to make sure that the USA and our closest friend and ally remain secure and peaceful and prosperous and I thank you for this opportunity Rabbi Shemtov and thank you very much.”

Now, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the Washington head of American Friends of Lubavitch, has consistently said Chabad makes no political endorsements; he has also said the emissaries would offer Obama the same forum. As the JTA writes:

Shemtov said he had “several” discussions with the Obama campaign about a similar event and the only reason it hasn’t happened yet is because of “scheduling challenges.”

“If between one event and an an equivalent event there is a lapse of time beyond our control, that can hardly be considered partisanship,” Shemtov said. “Especially in this particular case, we were clear with both campaigns that whatever would be done withone we would be willing to do with the other.”

As I learned from a Democratic operative with ties to the Jewish community, though, the Chabad emissaries didn’t reach out to the Obama camp in meaningful way until after the story broke that the rabbis had facilitated the call in which McCain asked for their endorsement. And even then, despite prior advice given to them, the Chabad rabbis never bothered to write the Obama campaign with an official reqeust. That would have been the clearest indication that they genuinely wanted to make these appearances “educational,” rather than political. “They should play it fair,” the operative said. “Don’t do it witha wink and a nod and think you can get away with it.”

The fact is, this is not the first time questions have been raised with regard to some Chabad rabbis getting involved, politically, for the GOP.

In October 2004, for instance, Rabbi Shlomo Ciment of Boynton Beach penned a missive, which he sent out to congregants, after spending a day he described as a “whirlwind tour on behalf of the re-election campaign of President George Bush and Vice President Cheney.”

According to a copy of his letter that I obtained (bold is original; Italics are mine), the rabbi, after stating that he was not speaking for Chabad and that his views were his own, went on to write:

Allow me to be clear; I am not, nor do I ever endeavor to be a political operative in any form. What has me engaged now, in my opinion, is a matter of life and death! … After the 15 hour day, I can unequivocally state that from now until November 2, this rabbi will be passionately cajoling his congregation, his community, his colleagues, and all who care to listen that President Bush must receive four more years …

Frightening anecdotal polls and statistics were discussed. John Kerry’s scary promise of revisiting the days of the need for an “even handed” approach to the “Palestinian cause” and his persistent theme of bringing back the coalition of the United Nations to fight the causes of good in this world were unmasked for their ridiculousness and utter danger to the Jewish people. …

Who fearlessly stood up on 9/11 and delivered America’s message “you will be hearing from us” and has consistently and unfalteringly delivered that message in Afghanistan and Iraq. Who has put all regimes of terror, not just with words but with effective muscle, on notice? Who has stood with determined and unchanged policy and forceful leadership? Who has stood with iron clad resolve to bring justice, freedom and liberty to all who seek it?

On the “flip flop” side, who has answered all of these legendary and heroic efforts with meek comments and the self denial reality of the threats on our lives, by promising to expend our resources, and go back to building the libraries, firehouses and roads in the US? …

Poignant stories of The President’s stunning character were shared. His unquestioning love of Israel clearly borne out with heartwarming personal stories, some never before published, were told by these distinguished individuals who enjoy experiencing the inner depths of the President’s heart through their very close personal relationships with him.

What struck me the most, though, were the tears. This was not a day of political campaigning. This was a day of heartfelt tears. Tears of anguish. Tears of truth. Tears of hope. Tears which cut right through any semblance or hint of political posturing. It was individual Jews who spoke from the heart to their fellow Jew’s heart.

That’s not politics, that’s saving lives. Our entire Torah, and everything it represents, is predicated and preceded by the sanctity of human life. We are our brother’s keeper. It is up to us to save our’s and our brother’s lives. ….

In this world of terror and destruction we have no one but on G-d A-lmighty Himself on whom to rely for salvation. He has granted us the greatest gift, humanity, Israel and the Jewish people have ever had in the White House, President George W. Bush. He has granted this blessed country with unmatched resources, unlike humankind has ever known. Let us be the wise people for which we are known. Stand up and vote and make sure that all who you know vote for Bush-Cheney 04.

Flash-forward to 2008, and that same Chabad has an article on its Web site this time around, about how Joe Lieberman was stumping for McCain in Palm Beach county during the primary. (Subhead: “He focuses on Jewish support in the Primary.”)

When McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, Lubavitch.com, the offical Chabad site, almost immediately had a piece online discussing her terrific virtues; it wasn’t until a few individuals complained that they put up something nice about Joe Biden — weeks after Obama had tapped him.

And the Lubavitch news service web site is currently promoting this story, headlined: “John Voight endorses John McCain for President on the Telethon”:

The State of California might be a bastion for Democrats but that didn’t stop actor Jon Voight from letting Chabad of California telethon viewers know that his choice for President is Senator John McCain and he hopes they will do the same. Voight’s announcement, that came shortly before 9:00pm on the east coast, was greeted with loud applause from members of the studio audience. This is the 18th year that Voight has appeared on the telethon.

Why is this important? It’s not so much for me that Chabad-Lubavitch is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit, and, as such, is prohibited from making political endorsements. It’s that, taken together, the actions of individual rabbis begin to look like an official Chabad hecshsher on the Republican candidate.

Obama is, unfortunately, already swimming upstream in the Jewish community, in part because of all the lies and smears that have been directed against him in the past year. And Chabad matters. According to “The Rebbe’s Army,” there are as many as 30,000 Lubavitchers in this country, with large communities in Los Angeles, Miami, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Chicago. (Note the three swing states.) And, judging by my own experience, their influence far exceeds their numbers.

Incidentally, when I told my Chabad rabbi about this, and showed him the JTA article, he was appalled. He said the the late Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (who many Lubavtichers believe was the Messiah) expressely forbade politicking of this type, because of its divisiveness. My rabbi has always described himself as a one-issue voter — Israel — but he said that he actually has an issue that is even more important to him — the unity of the Jewish people — and these activities, he says, run completely counter to that central Chabad mission. He is so angry, he is now leaning toward Barack Obama.

I asked my friend, a Jewish professional, what he hopes to see for the rest of this campaign.

“Do not do electioneering in Chabad houses for the next 8 weeks,” the operative said. “They should not be propagating GOP politics in Chabad Houses. Individuals — fine. But not from the pulpit and not using the Chabad House.

“They should play it straight,” the operative said. “Now and forever more.”

Amen.

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Posted in Jewish Interest, McCain | 5 Comments »

The Palin-22

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

One of the things I find most difficult to stomach this election cycle is the Palin-22, which essentially goes something like this:

Sarah Palin lies. (For example, she proudly proclaims that she opposed the bridge to nowhere; or, she casts herself as an ardent foe of earmarks.) The media and/or Obama campaign expose her lies. (She was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it; she sought and received millions and millions of dollars in earmarks, first as the mayor of Wasilla, then as governor of Alaska.) Subsequently, more voters support Sarah Palin, more stridently. (Hey — stop attacking our gal!)

There’s something similar, though perhaps less pronounced, going on for John McCain. Terrific article in this morning’s New York Times about McCain’s distortions. Here is the nut:

First the McCain campaign twisted Mr. Obama’s words to suggest that he had compared Gov.Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, to a pig after Mr. Obama said, in questioning Mr. McCain’s claim to be the change agent in the race, “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig.” (Mr. McCain once used the same expression to describe Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health plan.)

Then he falsely claimed that Mr. Obama supported “comprehensive sex education” for kindergartners (he supported teaching them to be alert for inappropriate advances from adults).

Those attacks followed weeks in which Mr. McCain repeatedly, and incorrectly, asserted that Mr. Obama would raise taxes on the middle class, even though analysts say he would cut taxes on the middle class more than Mr. McCain would, and misrepresented Mr. Obama’s positions on energy and health care.

A McCain advertisement called “Fact Check” was itself found to be “less than honest” by FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan group. The group complained that the McCain campaign had cited its work debunking various Internet rumors about Ms. Palin and implied in the advertisement that the rumors had originated with Mr. Obama.

And, yet, the more the media writes about these distortions, the more McCain’s poll numbers seem to rise.

Sure, the Obama campaign has also had some distortions. But the nonpartisan watchdog groups that track this stuff say McCain and his campaign are far worse offenders. Even some Republicans are saying McCain, formerly of the Straight Talk Express, has just gone way overboard. Sen. Orrin Hatch, of all people, was quoted in the Times article, saying McCain’s recent claims about Obama’s lipstick comment were “ridiculous”

It seems to come down to this, though: Exposing the truth makes it more likely that the guy who distorts the truth will win the election. Not exposing the truth makes it more likely the guy distorting the truth will win the election.

What’s a Neurotic Democrat to do?

POSTSCRIPT: Here’s Frank Rich’s answer, from today’s NY Times:

How do you run against that flashy flimflam? You don’t. Karl Rove for once gave the Democrats a real tip rather than a bum steer when he wrote last weekthat if Obama wants to win, “he needs to remember he’s running against John McCain for president,” not Palin for vice president. Obama should keep stepping up the blitz on McCain’s flip-flops, confusion, ignorance and blurriness on major issues (from education to an exit date from Iraq), rather than her gaffes and résumé. If he focuses voters on the 2008 McCain, the Palin question will take care of itself.

I should say, I’ve just done my morning rounds of the Sunday Times, and can’t remember a moment when the reporting and columnists pointed with more urgency to the same conclusion. There is a frightening front page article that everyone should read, which reports in great detail how Palin governed Alaska through cronyism and fear. Here’s the nut:

An examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls local opponents “haters” — contrasts with her carefully crafted public image. Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.

Doesn’t this sound like the worst of George Bush, all over again? In his column, Frank Rich notes that the quote from Palin’s acceptance speech (“We grow good people in our towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity”) comes from right-wing Heart columnist Westbrook Pegler, a “rabid McCarthyite” who “tirelessly advanced the theory that American Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe (‘geese,’ he called them) were all likely Communists.”

And while Times columnists are not supposed to make endorsements, Thomas Friedman comes as close to that line as anyone I’ve read in a long time. His anger at the McCain campaign for promoting a fear-based culture war as this country founders is palpable. Here’s the nut:

A Washington Post editorial on Thursday put it well: “On a day when the Congressional Budget Office warned of looming deficits and a grim economic outlook, when the stock market faltered even in the wake of the government’s rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, when President Bush discussed the road ahead in Iraq and Afghanistan, on what did the campaign of Senator John McCain spend its energy? A conference call to denounce Senator Barack Obama for using the phrase ‘lipstick on a pig’ and a new television ad accusing the Democrat of wanting to teach kindergartners about sex before they learn to read.”

Some McCain supporters criticize Obama for not having the steel in his belly to use force in the dangerous world we live in today. Well I know this: In order to use force, you have to have force. In order to exercise leverage, you have to have leverage.

I don’t know how much steel is in Obama’s belly, but I do know that the issues he is focusing on in this campaign — improving education and health care, dealing with the deficit and forging a real energy policy based on building a whole new energy infrastructure — are the only way we can put steel back into America’s spine. McCain, alas, has abandoned those issues for the culture-war strategy.

Who cares how much steel John McCain has in his gut when the steel that today holds up our bridges, railroads, nuclear reactors and other infrastructure is rusting? McCain talks about how he would build dozens of nuclear power plants. Oh, really? They go for $10 billion a pop. Where is the money going to come from? From lowering taxes? From banning abortions? From borrowing more from China? From having Sarah Palin “reform” Washington — as if she has any more clue how to do that than the first 100 names in the D.C. phonebook?

Sorry, but there is no sustainable political/military power without economic power, and talking about one without the other is nonsense. Unless we make America the country most able to innovate, compete and win in the age of globalization, our leverage in the world will continue to slowly erode. Those are the issues this election needs to be about, because that is what the next four years need to be about.

I sense an urgency, at least in the pages of the Times, that I have not sensed in a long time. Of course, the Palin-22 means that all of this reporting, ultimately, helps Palin-for-president. Um — I mean, vice president.

MY OBAMA MINUTE: I spent all afternoon yesterday — five hours — working with my cousin Molly, moving my blog to a new site, to give me more functionality. You can find me now at www.neuroticdemocrat.com. That should be easier to remember, if, as my father-in-law notes, you can spell “neurotic.” One more thing for ND to worry about. I also — in part to promote this blog — finally set up Facebook, Linked-In, and Twitter accounts. All of which should help me — and, by extension, everyone else who posts on this blog — to promote our Obama advocacy. So, a thousand thanks to Molly, for driving all the way from Ann Arbor to help with this effort, and to my wife, for watching the kids all day (shut in by the rain) while we worked, and to my father-in-law, for the Kona that got me through.

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Why I Like John McCain

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

I know. Some of you are probably wondering if my blog has been overtaken by GOP hackers.

But, following the lead of our candidates — who are appearing together today, in a spirit of solidarity on the seventh anniversary of 9/11 — I’ve decided to take this moment as an opportunity, and put partisanship aside.

Thousands of people died on that day seven years ago, and multiple thousands have died since — Americans and Iraqis alike — because of it, and most of us would agree that something precious — something that has to do with our optimism and hope for a better world — was snatched from every single one of us on 9/11. A pause is appropriate, and, frankly, welcome.

First, a story. My friend in Chicago, who I mentioned in Right Tactics, Wrong Strategy, actually reminded me of this a few months back:

I first met John McCain when I was a cub reporter, working for Congressional Quarterly’s Web site, and for CQ’s Congressional Monitor — a daily recap of Hill activity — back in the mid 90′s. I was assigned to cover Senate floor votes, which meant that I had access to a small room, just off the Senate floor, that lawmakers generally walked through after voting.

One day, I was working on a story on deadline, when John McCain came off the floor and into that room. I was relatively new — I’d never met him before — and I wanted to get his perspective for my piece.

Excuse me, I said. Senator McCain?

I introduced myself, explaining what I was working on. He said he would be glad to help me. Only, just as we started speaking, a staffer corralled him. The Senator told me he needed to talk with this staffer, and would be right back to continue our discussion.

I stood, waiting, looking over my notes. Just as the Senator was finishing up a few feet away, two other reporters approached him — from the New York Times and Washington Post — seeking interviews. I have to say, my memory of them is that they were self-important and pompous, though, that may be colored by the years.

In any event, what I remember clearly, is Sen. McCain’s response to them: I’ve promised Josh an exclusive interview, he said. I’ll be with you in a moment.

He didn’t really owe me an exclusive. He was just being kind. And he was saying that rank — pecking order — meant less to him than what was right. Even if it meant he wouldn’t get his name in the papers of record the next day. And I have to say, it meant more to me than a hundred Senator interviews.

I really liked Senator McCain — and for a long time, I imagined that he might be the first Republican I could vote for.

I like that he bucked his party and reached across party lines to work with Ted Kennedy, a hated figure to many on the Right, on immigration reform, advancing the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. (It was never acted on, and Republicans ultimately prevented a compromise bill from coming to a vote.)

I like that he again scorned his party — and went against his own political interests — reaching across party lines to work with Russ Feingold, another progressive lion of the Senate, to pass the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, which attempted to curtail soft money in campaigns and thwart issue ads.

I love that he led the Gang of 14 — the bipartisan group of Senators that stopped Republican Bill Frist from using the so called “nuclear option,” which would have let Republicans cut off Democratic filibusters by a majority vote — preventing the Democratic minority from exercising its constitutional prerogative to block Bush court appointees. (Effectively, the nuclear option would have meant that Republicans could ignore years of accepted Senate procedure and, for the first time in history, run roughshod over the Democrats — by taking away their right to filibuster. It was a reprehensible stone cold political play that Democrats had never threatened to use on their stonewalling Republican peers, when the GOP was in the minority.)

I like that McCain did eventually criticize the conduct of the Iraq war, when Bush was still stoically pretending nothing was wrong. (Though I disagree strongly with McCain’s judgments that got us into the fight in the first place. See again: Right Tactics, Wrong Strategy.) I’m also very thankful that against a strong political tide, McCain pushed for the surge in Iraq, which has vastly improved the situation on the ground, and made Obama’s exit strategy much more actionable.

Having said all this, I should add that I sincerely hope this convinces none of you to vote for John McCain.

The truth is, the John McCain that I felt I knew, even up to a few years ago, is not the John McCain I see running for president today. I don’t recognize the Senator who showed me that kindness all those years ago in the Senator who angrily attacks Obama as an un-American opportunist, who puts political ambition over country; the Senator who let his running mate’s acceptance speech be used as a crude cudgel against community organizers; the Senator who ignored a Wall St. Journal reporter’s question because he didn’t like the article she’d written the day before. I don’t recognize that John McCain in the Senator who, when it was time to make his first big decision, reached out not to the middle — not toward me — but to a running mate who is further to the right on most social issues than even our current Administration.

While I admire his working with Kennedy on immigration, I truly wish he hadn’t retreated, in the face of right wing pressures within his own party, to his current position, which is, essentially: First, build a wall along the Tex-Mex border. And while I sincerely appreciate his work with the Gang of 14 and campaign finance reform, those aren’t the issues that get me up in the morning these days: I want a president who understood from the start that the Iraq War was a mistake, and understands the pressing imperative of restoring America as a respected global leader; a president who believes that in this time of great economic hardship, environmental degradation, over-reliance on fossil fuels, and educational decline vis-a-vis the rest of the world, that government can play an important, sensible — fiscally responsible — role in lifting people up. And, yes — a president who can inspire us to take personal responsibility and lift ourselves and our communities up, as well.

So I remain a committed, unwavering, passionate supporter of Barack Obama.

But I also think that it’s crucial, as this campaign’s last 54 days wind down, that we — not just our candidates — find ways to reach out to people who disagree with us and talk to them. Really hear them. Try to understand why it is they hold the views they do; what motivates them to support their candidate. I’ve done this a bit more in the last week, and heard interesting takes from people I disagree with, but respect and admire. Just last night, on a conference call with some friends, a Republican friend of mine who served in the military in Saudi Arabia told me that while America must never torture, he feels frustrated by people who don’t recognize that we can be at a disadvantage, in the battlefield, because we hold ourselves to a much higher standard than the terrorists we are fighting. And he reiterated that at the end of the day, the world and the Middle East are much better off without Saddam Hussein.

My friend and I did not agree on everything. Hearing him out, though, reminded me again that there are serious, well-intentioned, critical-thinkers on both sides of the political divide. You forget this some
times when your insides are boiling, watching the latest attack ad, or watching pundits shout at each other on CNN.

If I truly want our leadership to get beyond the hyperpartisanship of the last eight years, I need to be able to do the same thing with that family across the street that just put the “John McCain” sign up on their lawn.

I remember, after 9-11, when the planes first started flying again. The security lines at BWI airport were farcical — they stretched the entire length of the terminal. I was nervous as hell. We all were. But I had fallen in love with an amazing woman who lived in Boston — I lived in Washington, DC — and I was not going to be kept away. I remember, distinctly, sitting on a Southwest flight, wondering what I would do if a terrorist stood up, at 30,000 feet, with a boxcutter in hand. I was heartened by the big dude in front of me, who didn’t have the look of a terrorist. Nice to know he’d be on my side.

And then the pilot came on the PA. And he asked us to look to our left, and look to our right, and introduce ourselves to our row mates. Shake hands. Tell them something about us. You might be surprised at what you learn, he said, and we laughed — and then we did exactly as he said. The tension was relieved. We got to know one another a bit. We took off on time.

So, take this day. If you’re on Obama supporter and there is something you admire in McCain, post it on this blog. And if you are a McCain supporter but find something compelling in Obama, share it with us. Think about those weeks, just after 9-11, when instead of focusing instantly, reflexively on our differences, no matter how small, we looked deeper and found that really — who knew? — we all have so very much in common.

MY OBAMA MINUTE: Was more like 3 and a half hours yesterday. I had lunch with a friend, who is helping me organize the Jewish community here for Obama. Then my mother-in-law and I went to Obama headquarters, and from there to Akron University, where we spent 90 minutes registering voters. We didn’t ask whether they were Obama or McCain — though our hope, of course, is that the university is Obama’s natural demographic. Moveon.org had been registering folks on campus all day — many of the folks we asked had been asked a number of times already — but we were still able to register five people to vote. You might say: Only five people. Or, you might just as well point out, as Judaism teaches, that each one is the whole world.

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