Anybody out there good at neck-rubs?
I got my phone call from Agudas Yisroel, the coalition of crazy right wing nut job rabbis, tonight. They wanted to know if I was aware Tuesday was election day. I said I was and before she could go on, I let know I was 100% voting for Obama (even though I already had) and that I believe it is absolutely prohibited by the Torah to vote for McCain.
So there. :-)
Posted by
Am Kshe Oref - A Stiff-Necked People
at
11/02/2008 07:46:00 PM
Left Wing Modern Orthodox: 78%
Right Wing Modern Orthodox: 89%
Left Wing Yeshivish/Chareidi: 37%
Right Wing Yeshivish/Chareidi: 4%
This means you're: Modern Orthodox
What does it mean?
Congratulations. You're Modern Orthodox all right, but wait! Just when you were ready to live an idyllic happily-labeled life they announce Left Wing and Right Wing Modern Orthodoxy. What the heck is up with that? Maybe you need to rethink and refine some of your positions, and then take the test again so I can put you in a little box.
See? I'm not such a Kofer after all!!! :)
7 comments:
did they respond?
I've been following your blog for a while now, and I can't help feeling that you're in for major disappointment even if Obama wins.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a Brit and therefore I naturally support Obama :), but I find it disturbing that you see everything in black and white. ie. Obama good, McCain bad. People and politics are rarely that simple. There is some good stuff about McCain, and some stuff about Obama worries me. I can't understand why a self-confessed right-winger when it comes to Israeli politics doesn't have at least a few worries about what an Obama presidency would mean for Israel. I'm more left-leaning on these issues, but I still have some of those fears.
Think about it. Do you have ANY doubts at all about Obama? Do you have ANYTHING good to say about McCain? Give it a try. (I won't ask about Palin, you'll be stuck thinking forever!)
Regards
Dinky Londoner.
Palin: Hottest VP candidate ever. See something positive...
McCain: I REALLY liked him in 2000. I think at his core, if he hadn't listened to his handlers, he is a good person and WOULD have run an honorable campaign. Unfortunately, he DID listen to his handlers and instead of determining for himself what he needed to do. It's not that I think he's evil. It's that the party, as it stands, IS and it really needs to change for the better.
Obama: I don't actually like his health plan. I think Hillary's was much better and I hope he adopts hers once he's in office. Hillary's was far superior.
Truth is, with the surgery coming up, I won't have time for any let down. It's a hurtle to the surgery now...
See? I met the challenge! :)
Rafi,
No. It was some Bais Yaakov girl who didn't really know HOW to respond. Probably because she couldn't conceive how anyone could possibly say something like that. So I bid a good night and hung up.
The BY girls are very obedient and do what they are told. Their parents suggested they do a chesed and make phone calls and what to say. When someone does not respond by the set script, they get stuck.
We missed our call this time around but in 2004, I was called during the voter registration drive. She also identified herself as calling on behalf on AY. She wanted to let me know that I should drop my registration form off at Bush-Cheney HQ. I told her that registration could also be done at any public library and the BMV. She didn't know what to say and seemed confused. I also reminded her that religious organizations can lose their non-profit status if they stump for candidates.
In my case, I didn't tell her I had registered in 1994 (when I turned 18), but reminded her to inform people of their options.
It's almost inevitable that Obama will disappoint. The challenges he will face when he enters office are huge, and the expectations for his presidency are not only high, but contradictory, with his liberal supporters seeing him as a new FDR, and his conservative supporters hoping (with some doubts) that he'll end up displaying some Clinton-style pragmatism. Andrew Sullivan, an errant conservative and early Obama supporter, wrote a poignant essay in the last few days on this subject:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5061437.ece
For my part, what strikes me most about Obama throughout this campaign is the feeling that he really knows what he's doing. It's not just a matter of his demeanor, but how beautifully his campaign has unfolded.
Earlier in the year, when he was initiating a powerful ground game in several states that don't traditionally vote Democrat, pundits were stupefied. It seemed like he was trying to win in a electoral landslide, yet that seemed far-fetched at the time. Now, it no longer does, and in fact the polls seem to be pointing toward it. That's because he had a strategy, and he thought ahead.
He is, in fact, the most talented Democratic politician since Bill Clinton, and it's astonishing to realize that he effectively beat Bill Clinton in the primaries and even made him sound stupid.
During primary season, a friend of mine who preferred Obama in theory still felt Hillary would make a stronger candidate in the general election because she "knows how to knife-fight." That theory fails to explain why Obama emerged from her knife-fighting stronger than ever.
I am not going to succumb to the fallacy of thinking good campaign skill automatically translates into a good presidency. Bush himself disproves that belief. But this has not been an ordinary campaign, and unlike Bush, Obama has succeeded mostly through positive qualities. To successfully run a campaign based on "hope" and "change" in this climate is a pretty remarkable feat.
Of course he will disappoint. Like you said, it's inevitable. And like Obama himself said, he's not perfect. No president is. But he'll do a MUCH better job than Bush ever did and than McCain ever could.
As for the hope/change theme, I'm VERY pleased with it. Listening to ads from both sides, nearly, if not all, of McCain's ads are negative, lies, and just downright wrong. Listening to some of Obama's, certainly, some are negative because that's the nature of the game: to show the opponents negatives as much as to show your own positives. But the vast majority of Obama's ads are positive messages and are even inspirational. And that's the fundamental difference between the two candidates.
Here's hoping...
OBAMA '08!!
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