The Volokh Conspiracy

Obama--The First Jewish President:

So says Abner Mikva, in yet another article on Jewish voters and Obama. This article is not any more enlightening on the issue than most others, but does contain some interesting information about liberal Chicago Jews who helped facilitate Obama's rise in politics, including Martha Minow's dad, who heard about Obama from Harvard Law Prof. Minow.

Hoosier:
My former congressman is still around? At least Mikva didn't write an article about McCain being too old.
8.28.2008 8:30pm
Obvious (mail):
McCain should make a big campaign point about Americans not being able to afford a President that takes off all those Jewish holidays... ("It's 3 AM. Somewhere in the world, a crisis breaks out. It's Rosh Hashanah...")
8.28.2008 9:16pm
taney71:
I hate this crap. A Jewish President has to be Jewish. Just like a black President has to be black.
8.28.2008 9:18pm
Vernunft (mail) (www):
Ambiguity of language FTW, taney.
8.28.2008 9:28pm
Milhouse (www):
taney71:

Though a president who was both would be kind of cool.
8.28.2008 9:43pm
anonymouseducator (mail):
Lenny Kravitz just formed an exploratory committee.
8.28.2008 9:46pm
LM (mail):

Though a president who was both would be kind of cool.

President Sammy Davis, Jr.? It doesn't get any cooler than that.
8.28.2008 10:00pm
Cornellian (mail):
With a Rat Pack cabinet - that would make for some happenin' cabinet meetings.
8.28.2008 10:13pm
Hoosier:
"President Sammy Davis, Jr.? It doesn't get any cooler than that."

And let's not forget that Sammy is "ontologically challenged." That has to be good for some votes, right?
8.28.2008 10:29pm
PLR:
How about, "the first President elected who was a cousin of Dick Cheney?"

Kinda stilted. Never mind.
8.28.2008 11:26pm
LM (mail):

And let's not forget that Sammy is "ontologically challenged." That has to be good for some votes, right?

It might be good for more if I didn't suspect he's far from the first.
8.29.2008 4:04am
Dilan Esper (mail) (www):
I think Martha Minow's dad must have thought that the rest of the candidates were a vast wasteland.
8.29.2008 6:29pm
CJColucci:
It's about time. We've already had the first black President.
8.30.2008 5:30pm

Post as: [Register] [Log In]

Account:
Password:
Remember info?

[Important Note to Helpful Readers: If we have confusing typos and especially ugly formatting errors, such as an unclosed underline or bold tag, we'd love to hear from you about them -- but please e-mail the author about this, rather than leaving a comment. We often won't read the comments for a while after the post, and if there's a glaring formatting error, we'd see it quickly when we revisit the post, even without the comment; and in any event the comment likely isn't going to be that helpful to your fellow comment readers. So please e-mail us directly about glitches like this. Thanks!]

Comment Policy: We'd like the posts to be civil, of course (no profanity, personal insults, and the like), but we're also hoping that people try to be as calm, reasoned, and substantive as possible. So please, also avoid rants, invective, substantial and repeated exaggeration, and radical departures from the topic of the thread. Sticking with substance -- and staying on-topic -- will make the comments more helpful to other readers, and more pleasant.

As editors, we reserve the right to delete posts, and even to kick out posters, though we hope that both of these will be exceptional events. (We also reserve the right to be busy with other things, and therefore (1) not remove all the posts that might merit removal, and (2) ignore demands such as "You should remove A's posts, because they're just as bad as B's!")

Here's a tip: Reread your post, and think of what people would think if you said this over dinner. If you think people would view you as a crank, a blowhard, or as someone who vastly overdoes it on the hyperbole, rewrite your post before hitting enter.

And if you think this is the other people's fault -- you're one of the few who sees the world clearly, but fools wrongly view you as a crank, a blowhard, or as someone who overdoes it on the hyperbole -- then you should still rewrite your post before hitting enter. After all, if you're one of the few who sees the world clearly, then surely it's especially important that you frame your arguments in a way that is persuasive and as unalienating as possible, even to fools.

Our goal is to provide an interesting and pleasant environment that can help inform readers. To do that, we'll occasionally have to exercise our editorial discretion. Think of this as an in-person discussion group, where having different voices is critical to a great conversation -- but where sometimes the leader has to deal with cranks who sour the conversation more than they enliven it.

Naturally, there's always a risk that this discretion will be used erroneously, no matter how well-intentioned the editor. But discussion groups (especially on the Internet, but also off it) generally need an editor who'll occasionally make such judgments.

And, remember, it's a big Internet. If you think we were mistaken in removing your post (or, in extreme cases, in removing you) -- or if you prefer a more free-for-all approach -- there are surely plenty of ways you can still get your views out.