Here in Florida, everyone loves the old Jewish joke about Abe
who calls his wife nervously two hours after he was expected
home.
“So, Sophie, what are you making for dinner?”
“At this hour… what am I making? Poison is what I’m
making!”
“Good, then just make one portion. I’m held up at the
office and I won’t be able to join you.” I thought of that when I
went to see recent U.S. Senators Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Jim
Talent (R-Mo.), along with Ambassador Ned Siegel, try to navigate
an appearance on behalf of Mitt Romney at a major South Florida
synagogue Sunday night.
Synagogues, like churches, are constrained by law from
conducting campaign events for individual candidates. More powerful
than that disincentive is the potential wrath from the swath of
congregants who back the “other guy.” And one thing you can count
on in a large synagogue like the Young Israel of Hollywood-Fort
Lauderdale, with almost 500 member families, there will never be
unanimity of support for any political figure, American or
Israeli.
The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
solves this conundrum by hosting candidate forums in companion
communities. For example, in the 2008 election, they would hold an
evening for the Obama campaign at a synagogue in the West Side of
Manhattan and an evening for the McCain people a day later in the
East Side. Thus, each one has the feel of a partisan rally but
together they add up to equal time. That kind of meal for one,
where the crowd composition is unsure, can be like eating poison
for a politician.
In this case, things could have been even worse because
the model broke down. The Gingrich camp declined to participate, so
the tripartite forum designed for Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Boca Raton
was down to the Romney team here on Sunday and Rick Santorum
getting his chance Monday morning at the 700-family Boca Raton
Synagogue. When Rick’s daughter took ill and Monday’s session was
canceled, Romney was the last man standing.
But the talent of Talent and the cool of Coleman helped to
circumscribe — you should excuse the expression — the potential
pitfalls. Both men, in addition to being bright and engaging, are
self-deprecating to the point of deferential, and whenever an
audience member voiced a reservation about Romney, they let them
speak their piece. They managed to cultivate an atmosphere of
fairness and openness that impressed their tough customers very
positively.
Here are some of the highlights of the evening. Talent
made a brilliant point that would never occur to an outsider. The
predilection of politicians is to avoid tackling serious issues.
Firstly, they like to be popular and do not look forward to butting
heads with an entrenched hostile constituency. Secondly, they
always want to be associated with success and removed from failure;
why take on challenges where the likelihood of emerging as a victor
is minimal?
“When was the last time you heard a candidate for Governor
build his campaign around the pledge to revitalize urban
education?”
The thing that impressed him about Governor Romney from
their very first meeting, was his appetite for trying the fix the
biggest problems facing the country. His background as a turnaround
specialist in the corporate world suits him well in his quest to
achieve a rededication of the national spirit and a reigniting of
this country’s economic engine.
Perhaps the most amazing single line to emerge from
Talent’s presentation gave a glimpse into a metaphysical calculus
not accessed by the common breed of superficial politician.
“Governor Romney believes that we have a moral obligation to Israel
partly because it arose from the ashes of the Holocaust which
after all constitutes one of the greatest failures of the
West.”
Senator Coleman shared the pain of his defeat in Minnesota
at the hands of Al Franken in a recount corrupted by the Democrat
machine. He sees God’s Hand in this eventuality, because that gave
the Dems their 60th Senate seat, enabling the 800 billion dollar
stimulus which did not stimulate and the partisan Obamacare plan.
When the people saw the extremism of an untethered left, they
elected Scott Brown and then handed the House of Representatives to
the Republican Party. (This gives a whole new meaning to Deus
ex machina.)
To give ultimate meaning to his loss, he hinted, the
salvation must be completed by sending Obama into the sunset in
November. It is time for a President who believes that it is not
America’s place to take the Palestinians’ coveted endpoint — the
1967 borders — and turn them into the starting point of
negotiations, who has promised that his first visit abroad will be
to Israel, who will not keep the Prime Minister of Israel cooling
his heels while he eats dinner for a few hours.
The assemblage did not disappoint in their questioning
during the Town Hall segment. Does Romney have the killer instinct
Gingrich has shown? Why won’t he promise to move the American
Embassy to Jerusalem? If he is embracing Paul Ryan’s Medicare
overhaul, isn’t he throwing away all the over-45 voters? Will he
free Jonathan Pollard? Can he answer Obama when he charges that
Romneycare is not too different from Obamacare? Why hasn’t Romney
risen above 40 percent in the polls? The answers were smart,
thoughtful, reassuring, energizing, with Ambassador Siegel adding
some insight from the diplomatic realm.
Even the rabble-rousers, the troublemakers, the kibitzers
and the naysayers were grudgingly impressed. One lifelong Democrat
verbalized this startling utterance: “It was a very enjoyable
evening.” By now he has probably thought better of it, but it
remained a telling moment.
This reminds me of one joke in parting, a conversation
between one woman and another at a Jewish wedding.
“So, are you a friend of the bride?”
“Certainly not! I’m the mother of the groom.”
