I somehow missed this strange article in the Chicago Tribune.
2008-07-17-Baruch.jpg

Writer Toni Morrison famously dubbed Bill Clinton “the first black president”—a title he fervently embraced.
Abner Mikva, the Chicago Democratic Party stalwart and former Clinton White House counsel, offers a variation on that theme. “If Clinton was our first black president, then Barack Obama is our first Jewish president,” says Mikva, who was among the first to spot the potential of the skinny young law school graduate with the odd name.
“I use a Yiddish expression, yiddishe neshuma, to describe him,” explains Mikva. “It means a Jewish soul. It’s an expression my mother used. It means a sensitive, sympathetic personality, someone who understands where you are coming from.”
Obama, of course, is a Christian. And his middle name is Hussein. In the presidential election, he won 78 percent of the Jewish vote and about 70 percent of the Arab-American vote, according to unofficial exit polling.

At least he is popular with the Arabs and the Jews. That might be worth something.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

17 replies on “The Jewish President”

  1. Obama is now popular with the some Middle East Arab nations, but if he continues the same old policy of US Administrations toward the Israeli Palestinian conflict he’ll be just as unpopular.

    With Ramm Emmanuel on board, it doesn’t look good for his Arab World popularity contest ratings.

  4. But in truth, Morrison did not dub (honor with a new title or description) Bill Clinton “the first black president”.

    As explicitly stated in her well-known essay, she adopted an appellation of several years’ currency as a hook for discussion of WJC’s more recent siege of trials and tribulations.

    In other developments, George Washington didn’t really chop down his father’s cherry tree.

  5. “It means a Jewish soul. It’s an expression my mother used. It means a sensitive, sympathetic personality, someone who understands where you are coming from.”

    Uh, OK, thanks, you’re so great, you’re like one of my people (…. not like one of your people.)

  6. Reading about Obama’s Chicago political roots, what struck me was that he was readily embraced by the Jewish community while he had to struggle to overcome suspicion by the black community. In fact, it was a number of Jewish liberals in Chicago who very early on financially backed his political career. It was Jews, more than blacks, who had an instinctive sense that Obama was “one of us.”

    Just a few of the recognizable names in Obama’s Chicago Jewish mafia:
    David Axelrod
    Rahm Emanuel
    Penny Pritzker
    Abner Mikva

    I’m sure I’m missing a few. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Gerald Kellman, the community organizer who first hired Obama as a community organizer, is Jewish himself.

    So, for those conspiracy theorists out there who are unhappy about the words President-elect Barack Obama, this time you actually can blame the Jews.

  9. “At least he is popular with the Arabs and the Jews. That might be worth something.”

    Presumably Charles, in his usual, amazingly incoherent and inept manner, is alluding to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Whether or not this is his point, Charles is not a bad writer, but he is a very, very lazy writer.

    Separately, 30% of Arab-Americans voted for not-Obama? Really? What were they thinking?

  10. “Separately, 30% of Arab-Americans voted for not-Obama? Really? What were they thinking?”

    Think about the small percentage of Iraqis that welcomed (and still welcome) us with open arms.

    There are still a solid block of GOP-voting Arabs that support our “conservative values” no matter how much they’re hated by the rest of the GOP.

  12. My friend and I were joking about back when Dennis Miller was a color commentator for NFL football and used to make all these abstract allusions that became more and more detached from actual gameplay (“that dropped pass was like Betty Boop winking at Fonzie during Star Wars!” “What?”). Eventually the other two announcers stopped talking to him.

    This is the literary equivalent of said.

  13. Barack Hussein Obama is of Arab descent. His father was a Muslim, which makes him a Muslim. Any Christian who Jew who embraces him is only embracing the man who will lead to his eventual destruction. The soaring rhetoric and good feelings (the soul of liberalism) will hide it, but Obama is part of a plan for a jihadist takeover of America.

  14. Lord Basil,

    “Muslim” refers to someone’s religion, which is a matter of choice. My parents were Catholic; I am not, and never will be. Obama’s father was raised as a Muslim, apparently, and chose as an adult to become an atheist (a very wise move, IMHO). Obama has written and spoken time and again about his conversion to Christianity, attends Christian churches, and has invited two Christian warlocks to officiate at his inauguration. Barack Hussein Obama is a Christian (unfortunately, IMHO). Religions are not passed down through one’s bloodline.

    Obama’s African ethnicity is Kenyan. Kenyans are sub-Saharan Africans and are not related to Arabs at all (except in the ways in which we’re all related, of course.)

    It is the duty of every good Muslim to stop all activity, face Mecca, and pray five times a day. Every day. You’d think with all the cameras, media, aides, supporters, etc. surrounding Obama for the past year or two, someone would have caught a glimpse of him doing this.

    By the way, “Hussein” is also the name of one of our staunchest allies in the Middle East, King Hussein of Jordan. Why, it’s almost like having “Thatcher” or “Blair” for your middle name!

    Any chance you’ll go curl up with the Rush Limbaugh program and stop posting nonsense?

  15. @13: Are you high, joking, or just amazingly fucking stupid? Obama Sr was by all accounts an atheist or agnostic. The fact that he was raised Muslim is immaterial, at least by American standards. I know some other countries use different ways of accounting such things, but Obama was elected to lead the US, not those countries. Therefore, I will use American standards to assess his statements wrt his religious beliefs and background.

    And by that standard, he’s a Christian. No more and no less. And judging by his conduct, he’s a much better Christian than the Dobson/Limbaugh/Coulter/Robertson crowd.

  17. Lol!

    As a Jew I feel Obama is our president. He’s going to support Israel no matter what and make sure to kill gay marriage in America.

    Orthodox Jews cannot abide gay marriage and Obama is religious enough to understand that.

    As Jews in Seattle, Obama is our President. Pro-Israel, pro-War, and anti-gay. Notice how there’s not one gay man in the entire Obama team! That’s awesome. The Stranger is going to have a great eight years under Obama.

    The Stranger is the most pro-Israel, Pro-Jewish publication is Seattle! I love all of you writers at The Stranger! Mazel Tov!

Comments are closed.