Having dug Bibi’s grave and prepared a thousand funeral speeches, the American media must be surprised to find him very much alive. What a shame, to not be able to write election results in other countries the way it’s done here! What a shame that braying the word “racist” a million times didn’t sway Israeli voters the way it terrifies white Americans into voting for a candidate solely on the racist basis of that candidate’s skin color! What a shame that Israelis would prefer to determine their own foreign and domestic policies instead of listening to Mr. Obama’s sanctified words!
During the presidency of George W. Bush, I often heard how the world despised and hated “us”, with “us” meaning “anybody who agrees with George W. Bush”. At the time, I wasn’t entirely unwilling to discredit or ignore that statement. I don’t much approve of military adventurism that cripples or kills tens of thousands of young Americans. Were I the President, we’d have left Mr. Hussein alone and we’d have saturation-bombed any place that bragged about hiding Al-Qaeda until somebody turned Mr. Bin Laden over.
I’m now wondering if hatred was not superior to, or at least equal to, the amused contempt with which everybody from Vladimir Putin to Xi Jinping to the average Israeli voter views Mr. Obama. Nobody expects Mr. Obama to loom particularly large on the world stage any more. With the Prime Minister’s re-election, it’s now patently obvious that American opinion doesn’t even count in a nation that receives billions of dollars’ worth of American aid every year.
Our media is already spinning up the “racist” nature of the victory, but that word — racist — is now approximately as effective as antibiotics in a field hospital. The more you use it inappropriately, the less effect it has. And if someone out there can tell me how Bibi’s exhortation for non-Arab Israelis to get out and vote is any more racist than the media-ordained 97% support of Mr. Obama among African-American voters regardless of party affiliation or personal situation, I’d sure like to hear it.
Bibi’s brother Yonatan died leading his men during the Raid on Entebbe. Fact.
Beautiful words Jack. Sometimes all you have is truth and logic on your side, and sometimes that is enough. Me thinks history will be far kinder to the Prime Minister than to the President, at least if it’s written honestly.
Dewey beats Truman…
I used to wonder how “court Jews” could betray their own community in order to advance their own personal interests. Watching lefty American Jews, particularly those who are influential voices on the left, gnash their teeth and wail over Netanyahu and Likud’s success gives insight into the hof Juden.
I have my differences with Bibi but his love for his country and the Jewish people is obvious, something that I don’t think I can say for our own executive about his own country and it’s people (or about Jewish people either).
Speaking of Pres. Obama, the White House went out of its way to not congratulate Netanhayu personally, instead congratulating the Israeli people. The following headlines indicate which heads of state have been personally congratulated by Mr. Obama:
Obama congratulates Turkey’s Erdogan on presidential win
Obama calls new Egyptian president (Sisi) to congratulate him: White House
Obama breaks three decades of silence with call to Iranian president
Obama Calls to Congratulate Putin
President Obama on Sunday made a congratulatory call to Afghanistan’s newly elected president, Ashraf Ghani, and the runner-up, Abdullah Abdullah, who have agreed to a power-sharing deal.
Report: Obama Congratulates Top Chinese Communist on New Position
Obama congratulates Morsi on winning Egyptian presidency
Obama congratulates Saudi king on selecting new heir
Obama’s currently busy working a deal with the Iranians on the side. Any public congratulation of Bibi would throw cold water on his talks. Now, whether those negotiations yield a halt to Iran’s nuclear bomb ambitions remain to be seen. Let’s hope other governments involved insist upon Reagan’s Trust but Verify approach.
Bibi, in his Congressional address, isn’t so confident Obama is playing hardball, though. And this has convinced enough Congresspeople to refuse to lift any sanctions against Iran unless the president returns with a solid no-nukes deal, and the means to enforce it.
Absolutely no wonder why the administration cannot give Bibi an attaboy. Time may prove the PM was absolutely correct and it’ll be the IDF cleaning up the mess, in which case, the American people will owe Bibi their gratitude. Wonder what the administration’s headlines will read then?
I’m not a fan of Obama’s performance since being elected, but I voted for him twice and don’t regret doing so either time. In my opinion, he was, by far, the lesser of the two evils on offer in ’12 and marginally better in ’08. The GOP hasn’t come up with a decent centrist presidential candidate in decades, and the Tea Party / far right / evangelicals seem dead set against letting one survive past the convention anytime soon.
Sorry, got off on a non-race-related tangent there. None of the liberal people I know voted for Obama because he’s black, but then again, I don’t know THAT many black people, so my sample polling size is admittedly small. What I do know, however, is that unless you’re wealthy, white, and male, the perception is that you’re voting against your own best interests if you vote Republican. Can’t say I disagree, but then again, I’m wealthy, white, and male, so what do I know?
The last far right candidate was named Reagan and he won 49 states. We are worlds apart if you believe McCain & Romney are right wingers.
I think his point holds. Both of the recent republican contenders were forced far to the right by their primary challengers and voters. I liked both candidates in their previous incarnations but found them unelectable by the time it actually mattered. My libertatian side findsj it far harder to get in bed with the republican coalition than the democrat alternative.
I am by no means a ticket voter for context.
As to bibi vs Obama… Are you really saying that Obama is the one interfering in foreign elections? I saw the usual mild preference for a candidate on one side but a full court press which broke tradition on the other. Long term, I think what happened here imperils or future relationship with Israel, which I support. I also think it is manifestly in our interests to end our cold war with Iran, and in Israel’s interest as well. I’m not cheering about what happened at all.
The state department used taxpayer dollars to fund OneVoice, a group that campaigned against Netanyahu.
Amen, Jack.
That’s an appropriate photo selection too. And here are some stats -
Bibi:
-born: 1949
-married, 3 kids
-education: MIT (B.S .Architecture, M.S. Management), Harvard (M.S. Political Science)
-Israel Defense Force (special forces) : 1969-70, 73 Yom Kippur War
-management consultant 1976-1980, 1999-2000
-Israeli Ambasador to UN 1984-1988
-Knesset minister 1988-1996
-Prime Minister of Israel 1996 -1999
-business consultant 1999-2000
-minister of finance 2003-2005
-Prime Minister of Israel 2009-present
Barack:
-born: 1961
-married, 2 kids
-education: Occidental (undergrad), Columbia (B.S. political science), Harvard (M.S Law)
-Community Organizer 1985-1988
-Lawyer 1989-1990
-Harvard Law Review president 1991
-Fellow at University of Chicago Law School (lecturer) 1992-1996, 1996-2004
-Illinois State Senator 2005-2008
-U.S. Sentator from Illinois (2005-2008)
-President of the U.S. (2009-present)
Back at 2011 joint press conference , here is Bibi’s equivalent of a political , a deserved slap, an “all over yo face, bitch!” after Barack demanded for Israel to return to pre-1967 borders. Did I mention Bibi was on a debate team in high school?
Exit Question: Now, why can’t we elect a competent leader like Bibi to run the most powerful entity in the world?
Romney is/was at least as competent of an individual as Bibi, but the media decided they’d rather confirm their sociology prof’s ideas of postcolonialist amends-making rather than have an adult elected.
Obama’s resume would look not much different Jack Baruth’s, absent affirmative action.
“Obama’s resume would look not much different Jack Baruth’s”
Put Pres. Obama and Jack in identical cars on a road course and I’d put my money on JB. Plus, Jack’s a better writer, though both of them do tend to write about themselves. Outside of his two (two?) autobiographies and getting elected to public office, has Mr. Obama actually accomplished anything of note? My guess is that like a lot of moderately smart people who end up going to law school, he doesn’t have a sound grasp of anything technical or mechanical.
I’m not saying that Mr. Obama (or Mrs. Clinton) isn’t smart enough to be able to configure a server, something that I’m pretty sure JB can do, I’m saying that he thinks he’s too smart to be bothered with such things.
I doubt that the president knows how to solder and if he saw the phrase “TIG welding” I bet he’d think it had something to do with Russian warplanes. Do you think Mr. Obama or any of the members of his cabinet could squarely frame a 2X4 wall, even if you spotted them the hint that it has something to do with diagonals? At least Jimmy Carter could drive a nail without bending it (but then Carter had some formal engineering training while in the Navy’s nuke service). I’ll concede that the president probably knows what a Phillips screwdriver is, but do you think he knows what a Torx screwdriver looks like? If you gave him a panel of plywood, a carpenter’s square and a circular saw, could he cut out something that was actually square?
1. Receiving contempt from Putin - the leader of one of the most corrupt governments in the world - indicates that we must be doing something right.
2. I don’t think that Bibi is terribly bothered by the lack of a hearty “congratulations!” from the Obama administration. Given that Netanyahu recently gave an address to the U.S. House that undercut an ongoing US foreign policy initiative, he probably wasn’t too surprised by this turn of events.
3. Perhaps Israel should put on its proverbial big-boy-pants and defend itself solely with its own money, instead of relying on a significant chunk of US foreign aid. They are already the sole nuclear-armed state in the region; they’ll figure it out.
1. Mr. Obama fawns over Mr. Putin and receives contempt in return. As Ronnie noted, this administration congratuated Mr. Putin on his election.
2. You’re right, of course.
3. They did that already — in 1967. Every time Israel makes its own defense decisions, the West spend decades trying to get them to give up the resulting gains. However, despite the fact that the United States was complicit in the Holocaust and despite the fact that Mr. Obama would probably not be terribly bothered by the death of every Jew in Israel, the country remains the only ally the United States has in its region and the only source of effective intelligence information about that region. It is shortsighted to flirt with mullahs and dictators as Mr. Obama continually does.
The professionals that make up US military-security complex understand completely what Israel is: an FOB (Forward Operating Base) in hostile territory. Obama and every other president plays politics in the region, and play off Israel in a number of ways. But in the end, when the SHTF, there’s only one ally in the region with the expertise, firepower, and willingness to use it that will hold down the fort till the B1Bs arrive on scene. Presidents play angles. Professionals play for keeps.
Complicit is a strong term. FDR didn’t exactly act nobly, and he was silent about the Final Solution while it was going on, but I wouldn’t say he was complicit. The neglect wasn’t benign and there was the SS St. Louis incident, but it’s a long ways from that to complicit.
I still don’t completely understand how Jews of my parents’ generation revere FDR. Harry Truman was a mensch compared to FDR.
I think what Jack may be referring to are other powerful interests within the US who were complicit with the Nazis. Note that Henry Ford’s engines powered the ally’s vehicles, but were also licensed for use by the Wehrmacht. And that leading up to and during WWII, powerful businessmen and financiers, including George Herbert Walker and Prescott Bush invested heavily in German corporations central to Nazi war efforts — some of whom eventually used slave labor, aka concentration camps.
“Mr. Obama would probably not be terribly bothered by the death of every Jew in Israel”
Common, Jack, that’s a bit too strong.
I’m one of thr 3% guess… I didn’t vote for him either time. Thing is, hype means nothing for me. Voting democrat is voting against my job. I’m not a fan of war, but the war machine pays my bills, so I do what I must. Kind of like I hate Walmart as a company but when you got mouths to feed, the bottom line is “how much are groceries gonna cost?”
I understand why blacks voted for Obama though. We’ve been portrayed as rapists and murderers and criminals of all sorts (protip: none of those are color dependent) for so long, been judged unfit for jobs and opportunities solely by appearances for so long, that this one oppoprtunity to “stick it to whitey” by making the White House not-so-white brought out normally apathetic non-voters in droves.
I’m not being an apologist by any means. I just know how a lot of blacks were thinking. And the amount of panicked butthurt from a large part of our population (“we got a a n****r for President! Secede! Secede!) kinda shows some justification of their thinking.
Obama getting elected put the naked emperor in front of a mirror. We can’t pretend racism (from all sides) isn’t lying just below the skin anymore. We can’t look in the other direction anymore. You said in another article that his Presidency elevated racism to a level we hadn’t seen in decades. I counter that it was always there but Obamas presidency forced everyone to see it
I’d have rather seen Jesse Jackson become President. As much as I don’t like the guy’s history, it would have sent a stronger post-racial message to have a black guy become President who was educated in America among other African-Americans, as opposed to a half-Nigerian who enjoyed privilege his entire life.
I would have loved for Colin Powell to be the country’s first black president. I think he could have done a great job. But with this whack tea party movement going on, he’d never make candidacy in this day and age.
I don’t think there would have been much Tea Partyesque dissent if Colin Powell were running in primaries, or if McCain had announced him as his running mate (I suspect they would have won). Reason being, his resume shows a man who was raised in America, served America, appreciates America for what it is and the opportunities available. He’s civic minded, service minded, traditionally minded. He’s got decades of track record with increasing responsibilities and he’s a high performer.
Obama should have set off alarms. He’s black looking but shares almost nothing in common with Black America. He was raised mostly by his white communist grandparents and educated in various foreign schools. His undergrad was spent as a race agitator, which is why he’s not remembered in class. His main intellectual influences have been Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers. He has generally shown contempt for America, and yet owes his entire career to that core late-20th-century American idea: Affirmative Action. Were it not for AA/if he were white, Obama might have become a mid level State dept bureaucrat (which seems to be what his mother was grooming him for) or an unremarkable law prof at a mediocre state school. I doubt highly that he would have been admitted to Harvard or even Columbia for that matter.
While I respect this blog’s non-automotive musings have a conservative leaning, I couldn’t resist the urge to post. I think these arguments are misguided and unfair to Obama.
-The whole Bibi episode was entirely not of Obama’s doing. Considerer that this was essentially a Republican/Likud campaign stunt, arranged by Boehner as well as a Israeli ambassador who was a former Republican political operative, and involving a Bibi who was a pupil of Newt, AND conducted at the expense of not just Obama, but the entire executive branch national security and diplomacy apparatus. Blaming Obama for “interfering with Israeli politics” is hilariously wrong. That Obama refrained from commenting shows remarkable restraint on his part. I think a more valid criticism would be of Boehner and friends interfering on the behalf of Likud at the expense of Labor.
-Blaming Obama for privilege? Compared with the backgrounds of Romney, the entire Bush clan, and even McCain (Pentagon royalty), Obama is salt of the earth in comparison. Considering he was raised by a single mother who most certainly did NOT have unlimited means, as well as his job as a Chicago community organizer, as opposed to, say, a Bain capital mergers and acquisitions shark…blaming Obama of privilege smacks of Republican political spin.
-I, for one, am glad serious attention is being paid to Iran. I think the best hope for stability in the region is a detente and deradicalization of the Iranian regime. To puff out chests and do the typical bombastic “bomb bomb Iran” without thinking of more serious solutions really is irresponsible.
I agree that the invitation was probably the height of disingenuity but it also highlights the fact that not since Mr. Carter have we had a President who generated such strong opposition on foreign policy matters.
The questions I’d ask about Mr. Obama’s privilege:
* Could a Black person with Mitt Romney’s background run for President? Absolutely. Jesse Jackson and Alan Keyes both came from less privilege.
* Could a white person with Mr. Obama’s background make it to law school, the Senate, or the White House? I’d suggest that he or she could not. At every stage of Mr. Obama’s career the color of his skin has been his primary recommendation. His resume was the weakest among the Democratic candidates of 2008 by a long way. It’s possible he would have made a great President had he just waited ten years to get started on the job.
I don’t like the idea that this blog comes off as conservative — I don’t think of myself as a conservative. Maybe a populist. I’m going to write about that
I don’t normally comment on your political posts, because we disagree most of the time, but here you’ve said something which contradicts my existence, so I have to speak up.
” Could a white person with Mr. Obama’s background make it to law school, the Senate, or the White House?”
Yes.
I am pretty much such a person, and I attended the same law school the president did, which is what set him up for a political career. (I’m not interested in running for office but could have arranged my life to do so had it been my preference.) Like Obama, I was raised by a single mother of limited means but an excellent education. Like Obama, I had a father who lived abroad (although my father was a bit more involved). Like Obama, I spent a decent portion of my youth in another country and went to school for two years there, but always identified as, and felt, American. Like Obama, I took an indirect route to law school, although my particular choice of employment was very different.
I’ve always identified a bit with Obama because I see some of myself in him, not just in background but also in parts of his personality.
All solid points and I always like to see actual real-world examples of stuff. With that said — how much of your tuition did you pay, compared to Mr. Obama? What were your job prospects like, compared to Mr. Obama’s?
I have no idea how much of his tuition Obama paid. I was not eligible for need-based financial aid because I had substantial savings going into law school, so I paid some of the tuition in cash and took out loans for the rest.
Obama’s job prospects would have been better than mine because he was editor-in-chief of the law review and also got somewhat (although not dramatically) better grades than I did. But everyone who graduates from that school without a major screwup has no problem getting a job. Like Obama, I joined a major white-shoe firm on graduation. Unlike him, I’ve stayed in firm practice (although for three different firms) since graduation.
dal, have you read Obama’s law review articles? Do you suspect he would have been granted the position if he were an unremarkable white guy from Iowa?
As president of the law review he didn’t have time to do a lot of writing, but he was generally well-regarded by the rest of the law review staff. He got the job by winning an election.
A white guy from Iowa with the right grades, LSAT, and achievements would have a big advantage in getting *into* a place like HLS. They always have too many qualified applicants from the East Coast and California and not enough from anywhere else, and they like geographical diversity. I think part of the reason I got in is that I’m from Washington state. But he’d be at a disadvantage once there, because there is a social network before you even start that incorporates the people who attended Ivy League undergrad schools and even the biggest-name prep schools. It’s hard for outsiders to break into that network. So Obama prepared himself well for HLS when he got into Columbia.
But for me, the notion that Obama is some kind of affirmative-action case is thoroughly dispelled by his HLS grades. He got very good grades there — top 15% or so of the class, in a place where the bottom 10% are very smart people — and race does not factor into the grading because it’s blind. And getting grades like that while also serving as president of the law review, which is more than a full-time job, is a tremendous achievement.
Jack
The opposition, I’d argue, is domestic in nature, and what I see is a win at all costs ethos coming to dominate the republican strategic thinking. If anything I think Israel was taken advantage of by our partisan politics, as they are now on deck for a possible, and well deserved, blowback. I hate that.
As to the rasicm angle, Americans are uniquely conscious of that, not so much everyone else. My foreign friends are so far more likely to be overtly rasict than Americans I meet that it’s not even close. Europeans, Israelis, south Americans, Africans, Asians and Russians, none of them share our sensibilities about equality of the races.
‘If you’re young and not a liberal, you don’t have a heart. If you don’t become conservative as you grow older, you don’t have a brain”.
I fit into neither of the major political party’s. I’m a fiscal conservative, that believes marijuana should be decriminalized, a vehement supporter of the second amendment that doesn’t give a rats ass who you sleep with, a believer in not giving aid to countries that repeatedly call for action against the US, but will be the first in line to donate when a natural disaster strikes them. I don’t care if you worship God, Allah, Buddah or a 3 toed sloth, just don’t harangue me to convert to YOUR belief. I support “hand up”, but not “hand out” help for those in need, think that racism is as prevalent in minority community’s as it is in the majority community.
Sadly, neither major political party is gonna be able to cover all the “we gotta have” that one side or the other screeches MUST happen. The best you can hope for is someone that has the best interests of EVERYBODY at heart.
You will never get that from a career politician. And the guy, or gal, who is best for the job will get buried by the $$$ being thrown out by special interest groups. I spent 3 years as a registered lobbyist for a non profit and seen more than I ever wanted to of politics on the state level. I concluded that Mark Twain was correct in his statement; “2 things you never want to see being made, sausage and laws.”
Mr. Obama was raised, in good part, by his grandparents. His grandmother was a bank vice president. He attended a private school that has a larger endowment than Cranbrook, the suburban Detroit school that Mitt Romney attended.
He and his wife have leveraged their intelligence (I’m guessing IQs in the range of 125 or so) and a political climate including affirmative action into being part of the American elite. Their daughters will have the skids greased just like Chelsea Clinton and then lecture us about inequality.
I’m quite sure that Brian May and Skunk Baxter are smarter than any of the Obamas or Clintons. So is Jack and so is my son.
It seems Bibi is backpedaling today. I think both sides need each other in the end as mentioned above. But I think Bibi will have problems with the people of Israel if he loses US backing. I know some people are focusing on the Arab voters (I agree inside of Israel this will upset very few people but it does look like a stupid comment from the outside) but I think the bigger issue is the one state comment. We have basically had an agreement that we eventually would get two states for decades (they only have to say they will do it not actually do it apparently) Bibi made a stupid comment because he thought it would save his butt it turned out to be a bad calculation in the end, and will likely bite him in the UN at some point
The allegation of racism is a canard, just like the accusations of voter intimidation by Republicans here in this country, and it’s aimed at the same audience, liberal Americans, particularly Jews. There’s no question that the Obama administration would like to cause a split in the Jewish community over Israel, to get liberal Jews to treat Zionists and religious Jews as ostjuden, not worthy of their support.
Foreign NGOs hostile to the Likud government along with political allies of Pres Obama (search for V-15) including some efforts that may have involved funding from the U.S. government, worked hard to get out the Arab vote in Israel after the joint list of Arab parties vowed to do whatever they could to bring down Netanyahu’s government.
I guess Netanyahu wasn’t supposed to mention that.
Mr Netanyahu is the first foreigner I wish could be elected as US President.
The stunt with the US Congress really exposed the Obama’s shameless treatment of the only real ally it has in the region. I say ‘real’ ally because the US has many decades of choosing its friends poorly - notably the mujaheddin of the 1980s, Pakistan, all the ‘Arab Spring’ countries, and anyone who topples a dictator.
Obama’s 2008 campaign promise that “talking nice to our enemies would make them love us” was a joke then, and a dangerous lie now. This guy is way in over his head, and the anti-American rhetoric must have other causes if you’re a part of this Administration, even to the point of blaming our ally Israel. Mr Netanyahu - at the very least - understands the real meaning of uncompromising national security. Our President thinks it’s a PIN number for Obamacare.
I agree with Jack’s assessment that the Obama Administration wouldn’t really care is Israel was destroyed, because the Palestinians have successfully appealed to its love of reparations for all wrongs, real or imagined.
As for Iran: I say let them build the Bomb; Iran is a sovereign nation, after all. But then advise them - just as in the Cold War - that any use of it on an ally will result in Iran’s destruction. Not maybe.
As for foreign intervention, I’m becoming an isolationist (sort of like Rand Paul). I’d remove all US military from every country, and return them only upon invitation IF we saw a compelling national interest, and then let that nation pay for it. I’d completely shut off the Middle East oil tap to the US, and offer safe passage of US oil workers out of there. Then I’d shut off all foreign aid (even to Israel), in order to avoid the conflict of interest that such aid always encounters.
But alas, a candidate who agrees with me can’t get elected. Somehow, the media mandates that Democrats must be leftists and Republicans must be centrists. With that formula, we won’t see another Republican (I should say rightist) elected President for a very long time.