Maureen Dowd points out wisely that the Obama administration is too white. There are only two blacks in the administration, she says.
unlike Bill Clinton, who never needed help fathoming Southern black culture, Obama lacks advisers who are descended from the central African-American experience, ones who understand “the slave thing,” as a top black Democrat dryly puts it.
The first black president should expand beyond his campaign security blanket, the smug cordon of overprotective white guys surrounding him — a long political tradition underscored by Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 when she complained about the “smart-ass white boys” from Walter Mondale’s campaign who tried to boss her around.
That "smug cordon" that Dowd astutely describes is also a philosemitic one. Israel lobbyist Mitchell Bard points out all the Jews in the Obama administration.
David Axelrod (2009- ) Senior Advisor to the President; Jared Bernstein (2009- ) Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice President; Rahm Emanuel (2009- ) Chief of Staff; Lee Feinstein (2009- ) Foreign Policy Advisor; Gary Gensler (2009- ) Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Elena Kagan (2009- ) Solicitor General of the United States; Ronald Klain (2009- ) Chief of Staff to the Vice President; Jack Lew (2009- ) Deputy Secretary of State; Eric Lynn (2009- ) Middle East Policy Advisor; Peter Orszag (2009- ) Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Dennis Ross (2009- ) Special Advisor for the Gulf and Southwest Asia to the Secretary of State; Mara Rudman (2009- ) Foreign Policy Advisor; Mary Schapiro (2009- ) Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Dan Shapiro (2009- ) Head of Middle East desk at the National Security Council; James B. Steinberg (2009- ) Deputy Secretary of State; Lawrence Summers (2009- ) Director National Economic Council; Mona Sutphen (2009- ) Deputy White House Chief of Staff
I think Bard may be missing a Shapiro (I'm guessing the asst secy of State is Jewish), as well as Stuart Levey, the Iran guy in Treasury, and czar Cass Sunstein. My impression is that Obama's philosemitism outstrips Clinton's and Bush's. And the lesson is that Obama is a conservative person temperamentally who has a keen sense of where American power lies. Originally an outsider from a scattered family in the west, he gravitated unerringly toward the east coast Harvard establishment; and the American establishment today has a prominent Jewish component.
Here is Walter Russell Mead making a similar point (
in a Foreign Affairs reviewof David Remnick's book on Obama): “Most readers will feel that Remnick spends entirely too much time on detailed accounts of the ultimately irrelevant candidates who tried and failed to stop Obama's march to the Senate in 2004. Instead, Remnick should have put his intelligence to work on the mostly white world of liberal Hyde Park activism, which had a profound effect on Obama during his years in Chicago. This is a regrettable oversight, since, as Remnick's narrative makes clear, white (and often Jewish) friends and associates formed a critical part of Obama's network.”
This is not a sinister trend; it is the trend that lifted me. And history suggests that establishments come and go, with particular sociological flavors. The WASPs are over; none are on the Supreme Court today. The significance of these numbers is the effect on Middle East policy. And of course, along with that, the absence of Arab-Americans; and the fact that people like Rashid Khalidi, Chas Freeman and Rob Malley (yes, a Jew, but a progressive one) are exiled from this braintrust.
How does Bard know who is Jewish? Is there a secret Jew Directory?
“How does Bard know who is Jewish? Is there a secret Jew Directory?”
Click the link, potsherd. Who needs a directory when they are bragging about it, in this way? Could some of them be, by the strictest standards, not actually Jewish? Possibly, but who’s counting? They may have attended a Bar or Bas Mitzvah or even danced at a Jewish wedding.
None of this bothers me, I’m past it. When Obama did not immediately replace the Secret Service with a Nation of Islam bodyguard, I knew it was hopeless.
“There is nothing sinister about Jewish power in the U.S. because it has lifted you?”
Lifted Phil Weiss to where, exactly? Methinks there may be some irony involved in that sentence. Not that Phil, by his own admission, hasn’t come a long way. The sentence is unclear to me, too.
I have a funny feeling about this post. But I can’t articulate it, the first sentence got me so dizzy. Zionists can make lists of Jews, brag about their influence and capabilities, but if anybody else does it (or even links to it) it’s anti-Semitic. Something like that.
“This is not a sinister trend; it is the trend that lifted me. And history suggests that establishments come and go, with particular sociological flavors. The WASPs are over; none are on the Supreme Court today. ”
There is nothing sinister about Jewish power in the U.S. because it has lifted you? With all the complaining about Jim Crow and white privilege, you sure are giving Jewish power (and yourself) a major pass. So far the Jewish elites have proved to be nepotistic, racist, destructive, cynical and undemocratic. How long can they last, and what will be left when they are swept aside?
I wonder what percentage of networking Jews support affirmative action against whites?
Whoops, Tod, my second reply was to this comment.
“I wonder what percentage of networking Jews support affirmative action against whites?”
Okay, now I’m not just dizzy, I’m near syncope. By “affirmative action against whites” do you mean what Shirley Sherrod did? Maybe the Black Panthers will just induct the entire JVL list into their membership!
“I wonder what percentage of networking Jews support affirmative action against whites?”
I owe you an apology, Tod. I spoke too soon. As usual.
I guess we will have a chance to find out!
Wikipedia files Richard Holbrooke, certainly one of the most important members of the Obama administration, under the category “American Jews”:
link to en.wikipedia.org
I don’t know how strong Holbrooke’s feelings are about Israel, but his rhetoric on the Global War on Terror sometimes seems to be indistinguishable from that of hardcore neoconservatives. In fact, as I recall, Holbrooke was a PNAC (Project for the New American Century) signatory and is associated with MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) and UANI (United Against Nuclear Iran). He co-founded UANI with Dennis Ross, someone whose very strong feelings about Israel are an open book.
It would be interesting to know what policies towards Iran Holbrooke and Ross are currently lobbying for within the administration.
“There are only two blacks in the administration”
That’s pretty dismal. Surely “al jolson” & co. could have found some black Jewish people?
Easy on Al Jolson, he was a hell of a guy. He was the Gene Simmons of his day. His blackface performances (a convention of the time) were certainly racialist, but not racist by the day’s standards, and he was an advocate for actual black performers.
Obama went to Harvard with a powerful Jewish presence and lived in a city Chicago with a powerful Jewish elite. He is part of their world. They made him who he is. Over 50% of funding for the Democratic party comes from wealthy Jewish donors. In return the US spends billions of dollars a year supporting Israel, $149 billion since 1947.
Todd I agree with your characterization as nepotistic, racist etc. But this is something they are completely blind to. if as Oliver Stone said truthfully that American Jews control Hollywood, he is called anti-semitic, even though the facts are plain to see.