I've been reading Dkos for a few years now but this is my first diary entry...
Last time around I moved to NH for a couple months before the primary to freeze my toes off and Take My Country Back (tm).
Soon after "Debacle 2004" I got my first glimpse of Mark Warner, and I've been interested ever since.
But Warner just doesn't light that fire in my belly that Dean did. Maybe he could, but it seems like he hasn't found his voice yet.
I'm sure many of you will be unsurprised to hear that I find Russ Feingold to be my "2008 version" of Dean. He's the only 2008 "candidate" that seems to speak from his heart, as lame as that might sound.
But here's my question. Will this country elect a Jew? And should this country elect a Jew?
Before you fire up your flame-muscles, think about it objectively. Personally, I habor no predjudice against jews. In fact, I've always liked jewish girls. Don't ask me why.
But could you imagine what that would do to Arab-American relations? Could we even get the leaders of some of these countries -- Iran, Saudi Arabia -- to sit down and negotiate with a Jewish President? (I know the head of the Iranian gov't is not an Arab, but I assume he harbors similar feelings as his countrymen)
I've seen terrorist propaganda using our support for Israel against us. Imagine the propaganda value of a Jewish American President?
I bring this up here because I know there are a lot of very intelligent Feingold supporters here. I'm sure that those who have been cheerleading his candidacy for the past couple of years have thought about this at one time or another.
It does remind me a little of the "you can't elect a catholic" arguments against Kennedy 50 years ago. And that was only proven false by the gigantic will of JFK (and the gigantic checkbook of his father)... Does Russ have what it would take?
Edit:
"I've always liked jewish girls."
For what it's worth, I've always found Jewish girls to be particularily attractive. And I'm sorry if it's not OK that I, as someone said, excluded "african american girls;" or any other ethnicity. And I'm sorry if, as someone said, it shows that I look at Jews as seperate and "exotic."
To every jewish woman: I'm sorry for singling-you-out based on the fact that you're hotter then average. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.