make a phone call!
So, you can’t make it to Florida, and your grandparents have never heard of email or the internet? Thank goodness for the telephone! Your grandparents always love when you call, and this call will be about Obama. Download these pro-Obama talking points (on issues your grandparents care about) and give them a call. Remember to speak loudly!
- Obama’s life story of achievement through education and hard work is one to which Jews can relate.
- Child of an immigrant father who came to the United States seeking opportunity through education.
- Obama graduated from Columbia and Harvard Law School and was elected president of the Harvard Law Review.
- Taught Constitutional Law at University of Chicago for ten years.
- Knows how it feels to personally experience prejudice and to be treated like an outsider.
- Has been supported by Jewish mentors through his adult life, as an organizer, student, law professor and elected official.
- Is a Christian and has never been a Muslim.
- Obama ran the business side of the primary campaign significantly better than any other candidate of either party.
- McCain was a terrible student, and was admitted to the Naval Academy only because his father and grandfather were admirals. He admits to not taking school seriously, focusing more on partying. He graduated at the very bottom of his class.
- When he returned from Vietnam, McCain started cheating on his wife, who had been disfigured in an accident, and ultimately left her for a younger, richer woman.
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After eight years of belligerent and arrogant US foreign policy, America is resented by much of the world.
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With our military stretched thin, our ability to persuade allied nations to work with us is very important.
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McCain would exacerbate America’s foreign policy problems with his macho talk, confrontational policies and renowned temper.
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Obama’s thoughtful approach and even temperament will dramatically increase America’s influence with other nations.
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Obama believes in strong but smart foreign policy: aggressive diplomacy coupled with a willingness to use force when necessary.
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Obama has expressed a willingness to talk to any nation without preconditions but with appropriate preparations. This is the kind of smart but strong diplomacy that led Israel to a peace treaty with its strongest enemy, Egypt – unbroken for 30 years – and the United States to convince Libya to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
- Obama has said that he would not talk to Hamas or Hezbollah because they are terrorist groups.
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After Obama's recent trip to Israel, many politicians and opinion leaders who were unfamiliar with Obama came away impressed with his command of the issues, his remarkable poise, and his commitment to the safety and security of Israel and Jews everywhere.
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David Horowitz, the editor of The Jerusalem Post, wrote this after meeting and interviewing Obama: "Obama, who was making only his second visit to Israel, knew precisely what he wanted to say about the most intricate issues confronting and concerning Israel, and expressed himself clearly, even stridently on key subjects."
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By contrast, Horowitz noted that Sen. John McCain "looked to [Sen. Joe] Lieberman several times for reassurance on his answers and seemed a little flummoxed by a question relating to the nuances of settlement construction."
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Likkud Party Chairman and former Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, after spending time with Obama, said that "he was impressed about Obama's understanding of the Iranian threat and said they both agreed that a nuclear Iran was unacceptable.”
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Hillary Clinton told pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, “Let me be very clear — I know that Senator Obama will be a good friend to Israel.”
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We don’t need a volatile and unpredictable president like McCain in charge of America’s relationship with Israel. We need a steady hand like Obama who will continue decades of US commitment to a strong and secure Israel.
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Raised by hardworking single mother and his grandparents, Obama has deep love for the United States, the country that gave him the opportunity to achieve greatness.
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His love for the United States is similar to that of generations of Jewish immigrants, who loved America for giving them an opportunity to succeed if they worked hard enough.
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Critics miscast Michelle Obama as not proud of her country, when she actually said she was “really proud” of her country “because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.” Even Laura Bush defended Michelle Obama’s statement.
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Rumors that Obama will not say the Pledge of Allegiance, salute the flag or shake hands with American soldiers are complete fabrications.
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Obama represents a different kind of black leadership, less interested in the confrontational tactics favored by many who came of age in the 1960 and 1970s.
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Obama has repeatedly credited Jews, so many of who were leaders in the struggle for civil rights, with making his success possible.
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He calls for affirmative action to be based more on economic factors and less on racial ones.
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After a Father Day’s speech at an African America church where Obama called upon black men to be more responsible fathers, he was chastised by Jesse Jackson.
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In a speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to mark Martin Luther King Day, Obama spoke out strongly against black anti-Semitism.
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Obama strongly denounced Rev. Wright and resigned from his church. Afterwards, a former member of Rabbi Avi Weiss’ congregation wrote an op-ed noting that he had remained a member of that synagogue even though the rabbi made comments he found offensive. He stayed because he liked the rabbi and loved the community.
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You may disagree with Obama’s decision to join Rev. Wright’s church, but given Obama’s positions on issue after issue, his close relationships across racial and ideological lines and his even temperament, it is clear that he is very different than his former reverend.
- McCain, despite bragging that “he had fought for civil rights his whole life,” when asked what, specifically, he had done couldn’t think of a single accomplishment. For years, McCain opposed making Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday, and voted against it in Congress.
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Obama has articulated a plan for strengthening Social Security and assuring its solvency by raising the income cap only on very highly compensated workers.
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Obama opposes privatizing Social Security.
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McCain shares Bush’s interest in weakening/privatizing Social Security.
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After originally opposing the Bush tax cuts because they favored the rich, today McCain has pledged to continue Bush tax policies
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Sen. Obama is focused on cutting taxes for middleclass families and small businesses, and investing in key areas like health, innovation and education.
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The lack of tax revenue, due to reckless tax cuts of the Bush administration, has led to record-breaking budget deficits and cuts to important social programs.
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Obama has a plan to simplify tax filings.
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Obama is pro-choice. He has a 100% Senate voting record according to the pro-choice lobby NARAL.
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Obama will appoint Supreme Court justices like Ginsburg and Breyer to the Supreme Court.
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Obama is committed to ending discrimination against women, including the ongoing wage disparity between men and women.
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McCain told a group of evangelical Christians, “I will be a pro-life president.” When asked who he would appoint to the Supreme Court, he singled out Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer as justices he would NOT have appointed, calling them “activist judges.” McCain praised Bush’s two picks, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, as model appointees.
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In his career, McCain has voted anti-choice 123 times out of 126 votes.
