Cohen accepts Jesus - as a metaphor
Looks like U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) took the Christ talk to heart. Last month, the Memphis lawmaker trounced an opponent in the Democratic primaries after she failed to convince Cohen's majority black constituency that he wasn't "Christian" enough to represent them.
Cohen, among the first Jewish Dems to endorse the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), took aim Tuesday at Republican vice presidential pick Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin, who has mocked Obama's background as a community organizer. Cohen, echoing a trope that arose almost as soon as Palin (and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani) initiated the dig last week, argued that Jesus might have been considered a community organizer - and pointed out that Pontius Pilate was a governor.
That's already raised hackles among Republicans who are crying religious bias. And considering the hits Cohen took, he should be careful with religious analogies - this is the ad his opponent ran against him.
Republicans should be careful crying bias, though: the legitimate point Palin and Giuliani were making, that Obama lacks executive experience, might have effectively been made picking at any of the many jobs on the candidate's resume: Law professor (12 years) state legislator (eight years) U.S. Senator (four years) law firm associate (11 years) author (two best-sellers.) Yet Giuliani and Palin somehow picked the one job, community organizer (three years) that screams "African American."
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Rhetorics in public speeches is commendable, but maligning any body personally is not fare. But the political domain is different. But in politics there is no set rule and regulation which being followed. A religious analogies one has to be cautious because it is very sensitive area.
We no and understand the dignity of labor. At the same time education,experience and personality do matter.
The voters are not much interested in personality or work analysis but, in real words
in which way and what action the presidential candidate is going to implement the theory into practice. The issues which are hitting the masses so badly have to be redress in effective and sincere way.
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Bill Levinson
09/10/08 06:45 PM
Well, the National “Jewish” Democratic Council has contended that the Jewish Messiah is likely to be a Democrat.
I remind Rep. Cohen (whose hair reminds me of Hades from Disney’s “Hercules” movie) that Pontius Pilate was appointed, not elected like Sarah Palin. Furthermore, Democratic icons like Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter were all governors.
Furthermore, Obama’s own Web site has entries about Jewish conservatives (or neocons) “crucifying” Obama the way “the Jews” crucified Jesus. Is this something with which Cohen wants to align himself?
I don’t see how “community organizer” screams “African-American” either. I was one in college; I wrote letters to the editor, and I even made a speech from a soapbox. So did hundreds of other students. I figure that, if at least one other person agreed with what we said, that made us “community organizers.” On the other hand, a mayor or a governor has actual responsibilities that go with that sort of thing.
At what point are Obama’s groupies going to make the sign of the O over their chests while reciting some kind of prayer?