Every now and then, something happens that gives you a glimpse of what these candidates are really like. A peek behind the curtain, if you will.
I went to an Obama rally yesterday near Cleveland that yielded exactly this kind of detail.
The event at the Landerhaven banquet hall was headlined by Dennis Ross, Bill Clinton’s former Middle East negotiator, who was there to talk about Barack Obama and Israel. (More on this later Monday.)
But the first speaker was Chicagoan Alan Solow, a lifelong Zionist, deeply involved in Jewish causes, and friend of Barack Obama.
Solow explained that he knows Obama from the Hyde Park neighborhood where they both live. He first sat down with Obama in 2003, and “became absolutely convinced he was in it for the right reasons.”
He also became convinced of Obama’s iron-clad support for Israel. “He gets it in his bones,” Solow told some 700 people in attendance. “He has it in his kishkes. I know that. He’s been with my wife, my family, at my home.”
At one point, when discussing the McCain camps’ attempt to link Obama with William Ayres, Solo grew animated.
If you lived in Hyde Park and “knew people in Hyde Park Little Leauge,” he said, “then you know Bill Ayres. This is a guy who coached Little League.”
“I can tell you who [Obama] pals around with,” Solow said. “He pals around with a whole bunch of folks like me.”
Solow told a story:
His son, David, recently had a daughter, Scarlett. When Scarlett was born, Obama phoned and left a long message congratulating David. He spoke about the responsibilities and joys of fatherhood.
Two weeks ago, Obama came to Chicago for a fundraiser. Solow was out of town, but his son went — and took Scarlett along with him.
Later that week, Solow went to Oxford, Mississippi, to watch Obama debate McCain. Solow sat out in the audience — Obama never knew he was there. Afterwards, Solow sent Obama an email, just letting him know he had been there, and that he thought Obama did very well.
Less than five minutes later, Solow got the following email back from Obama:
Alan — Sorry I missed you. But I did see your precious new grandchild at my event in Chicago. Have a sweet holiday.
This, Solow says, indicates — as much as anything else — the depth of Obama’s “Jewish Soul.”
It wasn’t just that Obama wrote him back personally, a few hours after the debate, from his Blackberry.
“[And] it’s not that he told me to have a ‘sweet’ High Holiday,” Solow said. “It’s that he told me he saw my ‘precious new grandchild.’ ”
At this, many of the hundreds of Jews in the audience — a notably older crowd, particularly for an Obama event — applauded, nodding their approval.
Said Solow of Obama: “I like to say he’s going to be the first Jewish president of the United States.”
Tags: Ayres
To the trains, dear ones, and don’t forget to give Mister Soros your valuables.