October 2, 2008 | 11:35 pm

Open Thread: VP debate

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Just got done liveblogging the debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. I’m wiped and not really able to process my thoughts. In short I was very surprised with how well Palin did; at one point I thought she was mopping the floor with Biden, who suffers from the same boring, drab, experience curse that John McCain is under.

My favorite moment didn’t come from one of Palin’s Joe Six Pack references but from discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here goes:

6:51 p.m.—Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Biden: “Nobody in the United States senate has been a better friend of Israel than Joe Biden.” He has been a major, major supporter. But referring to himself in the third person. Brad doesn’t like it. Brad doesn’t like it one bit. Brad’s not sure he can trust somebody who thinks so highly of himself.

So what did you think of the 92-minute affair? The comments are open.

October 2, 2008 | 9:45 pm

Liveblogging the vice presidential debate

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

5:48 p.m.—I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting for the VP debate for some time now. Joe Biden has pretty much disappeared from the campaign trail and Sarah Palin has been gobbling up lots of negative attention. In 10 minutes we get to see them square off. (@god is predicting “Tonight might set the record for OMGs!” on Twitter.) Stay tuned ...

6:02 p.m.—Gov. Palin and Sen. Biden take the stage. “Can I call you Joe,” she asks when she shakes his hand. As in Joe Six-pack?

6:03 p.m.—Biden receives the kickoff, fielding a question about our untoward economy and what should be done. “We are going to fundamentally change the focus of the economic policy. We are going to focus on the middle-class,” Biden says.

6:05 p.m.—Palin’s response begins with a hypothetical, howya doing? on a soccer field sideline. She punches back at Barack Obama and says John McCain has put “obsessive politics aside and the country first.” Biden deeply sighs.

6:08 p.m.—Palin seems very well prepped, very capable. Like an entirely different person—actually, her hair is different too—from the woman who appeared on CBS Evening News.

6:09 p.m.—Moderator: “Governor, senator neither of you really answered that last question about what you would do as vice president.”

6:10 p.m.—What??? Palin is blaming predatory lenders and not greedy homebuyers. What ever happened to personal responsibility. And now she just mentioned Joe Six Pack and then three phrases later invoked the Holocaust with “Never again.”

6:12 p.m.—Biden: Yada, yada, yada. “We let Wall Street run wild.” This has become the popular, though untrue, simple answer to what went wrong in the housing market. A major part of the problem, definitely, but this jalopy had a lot of moving parts.

6:14 p.m.—Arguing about taxes. I hate how the candidates appeal to the moderator in these debates instead of directing their comments at each other. It’s childish, like when two parents are fighting with each other by addressing all their comments to their kid.

6:15 p.m.—Dodgers game two against the Cubs starts in about 20 minutes ...

6:18 p.m.—Palin says increasing taxes on the middle class is not patriotic. She’s the only one of the four who can even claim to be somewhat upper-middle class. How many houses does McCain have again?

6:20 p.m.—Uh oh. Biden mentions that McCain supports tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil.

6:22 p.m.—Moderator just asked an awesome question: What promises of your campaign are you not going to be able to keep? Biden’s list is long. Palin responds that McCain “doesn’t tell one thing to one group and then turns around and tells something else to another group” and says that Obama voted for the bill that gave oil companies tax breaks.

6:24 p.m.—Palin’s last comment is significant because it is indicative of the hypocrisy of Washington. Candidates rail against policies that they themselves supported in one form or another. Which brings me to the bailout bill and the gall that the Senate had to stuff it with pork.

6:28 p.m.—We’re less than a half hour in and, I have to admit, Palin is dominating. Regardless of the substance of her statements, she is winning this debate big time.

6:31 p.m.—Moderator: “Governor, what is true and what is false about what we have heard about climate change?”

Palin: “We know that it is real. I’m not one to attribute every activity of man to changes in the climate ... but there are real changes going on in our climate. I don’t want to argue about the causes. I want to argue about how we are going to get their to positively effect the impact.”

Hmmm ... call me crazy, but I think we need to know the causes if we are going to effect the impact.

Biden responds that causes are clearly man-made. “If you don’t understand what the cause is, it’s virtually impossible to come up with a solution.”

Hey, I just said that.

6:35 p.m.—Palin just said “raping” in a vice presidential debate. Kudos.

6:37 p.m.—Same-sex benefits time.

6:38 p.m.— Palin: “I am tolerant and I have a very diverse family and friends, and some might not agree with me on this issue.” In other words, Some of my best friends have gay friends.

Both Biden and Palin say they oppose sanctioning gay marriage at the federal level.

6:40 p.m.—On to Iraq. Same story we’ve heard for the past six months. Regardless of the rhetoric, at least Iraq is getting better.

Interjection: A friend just informed me that Palin told Katie Couric that her best friend was gay.

6:43 p.m.—Did she just say “Tal-a-ban-ee”? As in Jalal Talabani, president of Iraq. I think it’s pronounced differently than the radical Islamist nuts.

6:45 p.m.—Moderator: Which is worse, Iran getting nukes or an unstable Pakistan?

Biden mentions the safety of Israel and hedges: “They’d both be game changers.” But focuses on the need to prioritize Pakistan and the radicalized region along the Afghan border.

Palin also says both are very important but says the central place in the war on terror is Iraq. Iran can’t obtain nuclear weapons. “Period,” Palin says. “Now a leader like Ahmadinejad, who is not sane or stable ...” Agreed.

6:50 p.m.—Biden: Obama “did not say sit down with Ahmadinejad.” Heard this before. Biden notes that “our friends and allies have been sit down, talk, talk.” Though not, he insists with Iran’s president, who is more a puppet leader.

6:51 p.m.—Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palin: “A two state solution is the solution. ... We have got to assure them we would never allow a second Holocaust .. We will support Israel, a two-state solution, building our embassy in Jerusalem.”

Biden: “Nobody in the United States senate has been a better friend of Israel than Joe Biden.” He has been a major, major supporter. But referring to himself in the third person. Brad doesn’t like it. Brad doesn’t like it one bit. Brad’s not sure he can trust somebody who thinks so highly of himself.

6:54 p.m.—Palin: “I am so encouraged to know we both love Israel.” Another big sigh from Biden as Palin defends the peacetalk efforts of the Bush administration. “Positive change is coming, though,” Palin says. “We’ll learn from the past mistakes of other administrations.”

6:56: p.m.—Biden: Reels foreign flashpoints in American policy and says that John McCain’s policies look just like President Bush’s. “So far, it is the same as George Bush’s, and you know where that policy has taken us. We will make positive change.”

6:58 p.m.—Palin says they need to bring the surge to Afghanistan, too. Biden retorts that the commanding general in Afghanistan said today that the surge principles will not work there, and also refers to himself in the third person again.

6:58 p.m.—Dodgers got runners on the corners with no outs in the top of the second. No score.

7:01 p.m.—Moderator: Asks Biden if the public has stomach for putting American troops in Darfur? I say yes.

Biden: “I don’t have the stomach for genocide when it comes to Darfur ... We should rally the world to act.”

Palin responds by returning to Iraq and Biden’s earlier support for it and current opposition. Then says we need to act by divesting from companies doing business there, which a lot of states already have done. Doubt that is enough.

7:07 p.m.—Palin says that John McCain “knows what evil is.” The implication, of course, is that Obama can’t tell the difference.

7:07 p.m.—Moderator asks what would your administration be if the president died? No elephant left in that room.

7:10 p.m.—Dodgers up 5 to 0. This debate’s been good for the boys in blue.

7:11 p.m.—Palin: “Ah, say it ain’t so Joe” and “doggoneit” and “God bless ‘er.” Could Palin sound more backwoods? You could hear muffled guffaws in the audience.

7:13 p.m.—Education talk ... boring.

7:17 p.m.—Biden breaking down Article I of the Constitution and tearing up Cheney, who he says is the most dangerous VP we’ve had. For some reason, Palin blanches at criticizing Tricky Dick.

7:22 p.m.—Palin: “Change is coming and John McCain is the leader of that reform

Biden snaps: “Let’s talk about the maverick John McCain is. I love him and he’s been a maverick on some issues. But he has been no maverick on the issues that change people’s lives.”

This is true. McCain still gets a lot of mileage out of McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform, which has been weak anyway, but he’s generally a company man. Biden points to the Iraq war, healthcare reform, tax cuts, etc.

7:28 p.m.—Closing comments coming in moments ...

7:29 p.m.—Palin gets the first closing statement. “John McCain and I, we are going to fight for America, we are going to fight for the middle class ... We have to fight for our freedoms also, economic and our national security freedoms. It was Ronald Reagan who said, ‘Freedom is always one generation from extinction.’ ... We will fight for it and there is only one man in this race who has ever really fought for you, and that is John McCain.”

7:31 p.m.—Biden begins with a bit of condescension. “Look folks”—better improve on that—“this is the most important election you are ever going to face in your life. No one can deny that the last eight years we have been dug into a very deep whole, here at home in our economy and abroad in our credibility.” OK. “It’s time for America to get up together. America is ready, I’m ready, you’re ready, and Barack Obama is ready to be the next president of the United States of America. May God bless all of you, and most of all, for both of us”—he pointed to Palin—“selfishly, may God protect all our troops.”

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October 2, 2008 | 5:13 pm

Kabbalah Centre sues alternative community

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Madonna

When Shaul Youdkevitch and his wife left the Kabbalah Centre in February, after nearly three decades living and working at the now-celebrity-rich religious center, they didn’t want to give up the esoteric teachings of Jewish mysticism too. So they started their own kabbalah community, and because Youdkevitch had been a higher-up at the Kabbalah Centre, his organization quickly got the attention of his former employer.

Now he’s being sued for allegedly stealing trade secrets and leading people astray.

Details of the lawsuit, which I wrote about for this week’s Jewish Journal, are after the jump:

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October 2, 2008 | 3:42 pm

Jews blamed for economic crisis

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Nazi propaganda

From the No-Duh Department: The Anti-Defamation League is reporting a massive rise in anti-Semitic chatter online since the financial markets crashed.

“Hundreds of anti-Semitic posts regarding Lehman Brothers and other institutions affected by the subprime mortgage crisis have been submitted to discussion boards dealing with finance, with many more arriving by the minute,” the ADL wrote in a statement. “The messages rail against Jews in general, with some charging that Jews control the government and finance as part of a “Jew world order” and therefore are to blame for the economic turmoil.”

National Director Abe Foxman added: “We know from modern history that whenever there is a downturn in the global economy, there will be an upturn in the level of anti-Semitism and bigotry, and that is what we are seeing now. The age-old canards about Jews and money are always just beneath the surface.  As we witnessed after 9/11, whenever there is trouble or uncertainty in the economy or world events, Jews become the scapegoats, and ugly anti-Semitic canards are given new life.”

Let’s see: The global financial markets tank. Jews control global finances. Therefore, Jews did it. It’s the easiest explanation. It’s also completely fallacious. But nevermind the facts. Those haven’t bothered these guys in the past.

A few choice examples from the ADL are after the jump:

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October 2, 2008 | 1:08 pm

Younger evangelicals less tied to McCain

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It’s sometimes frustrating as a reporter when you are interviewing political experts and strategists and they hedge on their election predictions. It’s also refreshing, because it seems like every day there is a new crumbling constituency whose potential for some of its members to vote for the party not traditionally their own could have dire consequences for Barack Obama or John McCain or Elisha Shapiro.

I’ve written plenty about Obama’s Jewish problem—too much really—and a little about McCain’s Jesus problem. On the latter, Religion News Service brings us up to speed:

While Sen. John McCain maintains a winning margin among white evangelical Christians of all ages, young white evangelical voters are less supportive of McCain than evangelical voters over the age of 30, according to the poll conducted for the PBS program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly” by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc.

Both age groups remain solidly opposed to abortion.

This really wouldn’t be that surprising. The evangelical voting bloc is still struggling with losing Mike Huckabee in a Republican primary that featured a Mormon, a pro-life Catholic, McCain and no George Bush.

But there has been talk for over a year that evangelicals might vote Democrat, and still it seems like Obama couldn’t break the Republican hold on evangelical voters.

Not sure if anything has changed, or if this is the latest flavor-of-the-week survey.

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October 2, 2008 | 10:06 am

Joe Biden’s poor grasp of history

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

A few readers haven’t appreciated the recent slew of anti-Palin posts, and one sent me this video, in which Joe Biden, who’s also been known for his gaffes, shows that if you’re a vice presidential candidate, you should, under no circumstances, agree to an interview with Katie Couric.

The vice presidential debate should be really interesting this evening.

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October 1, 2008 | 8:15 pm

Poll shows Obama with biggest lead over McCain

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

From The New York Times:

With the first presidential debate completed and both candidates grappling with the turmoil on Wall Street in Washington, Senator Barack Obama is showing signs of gaining significant support among voters with less than five weeks left until Election Day, while Senator John McCain’s image has been damaged by his response to the economic meltdown.

A CBS News Poll released Wednesday that Mr. Obama’s favorability rating, at 48 percent, is the highest it has ever been in polls conducted by CBS and The New York Times. At the same time, the number of voters who hold an unfavorable view of Mr. McCain — 42 percent — is as high as it has been since the CBS News and The Times began asking the question about Mr. McCain in 1999, the first time he ran for president.

The CBS News poll showed that Mr. Obama has a 9 percentage-point lead over Mr. McCain – 49 percent to 40 percent. It marks the first time that Mr. Obama has held a statistically significant lead over Mr. McCain this year in polls conducted by CBS or joint polls by CBS and The New York Times. And several polls taken in battleground states released by other organizations on Tuesday suggested that Mr. Obama was building leads in states including Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The CBS News poll found that President Bush has tied the presidential record for a low approval rating – 22 percent, matching Harry Truman’s Gallup approval rating in 1952, when the country was mired in the Korean war and struggling with a stagnant economy. That finding put a new premium on Mr. McCain’s effort to distance himself from Mr. Bush, and suggests that Mr. Bush will continue to be a prominent figure in the Obama campaign’s advertisements attacking Mr. McCain.

The contest between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama is far from over. It is being fought against the continued uncertainly over the turmoil on Wall Street and in the bail-out negotiations going on in Washington. There are three potential turning-points ahead – a vice presidential debate Thursday night and two more debates between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama – and this election has regularly been shaken up by outside events that have tested both candidates and altered voters’ views.

Still, the trends signaled by this new wave of polls — coming at what both sides view as a critical moment in the contest — suggest that the contours of this race are taking form, and in way in a way that is not encouraging for Mr. McCain’s prospects.

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October 1, 2008 | 5:44 pm

Sarah Palin plays the flute

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The video I posted last week of Sarah Palin in a swimsuit got more traffic than any single post I’ve ever written. It took less than 10 minutes to produce and held no informative value. Like the traffic generated by the Montauk Monster, I’m not sure I like what those numbers say about the types of writing that draw in lots of visitors.

Anyway, footage of the Republican VP nominee at a 1984 beauty pageant didn’t stop with the swimsuit competition. Above she can be seen and heard playing the flute. Please, no “American Pie” jokes.

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October 1, 2008 | 3:42 pm

More than half of Protestant Christians disapprove of Bush’s job

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

If it’s relevant to evangelical Christians, you can usually count on reading about it in Christianity Today, which is why I freelance more for the magazine that Billy Graham started than any other publication. It’s an important publication to be plugged into both as a Christian and a religion reporter. And three of the RSS feeds I receive are from CT and its blogs.

Yesterday, online editor Sarah Pulliam tipped me to an ABC News/Washington Post poll with the headline “Bush approval ratings dip to a new low.”

Funny, I thought, I just had a conversation the night before about how surprising it is that more than a quarter of Americans still support His Eminence, President-for-Life Bush, and many for the dubious reason that he sticks to his guns no matter how wrong he’s been proven to be. How low could his approval rating have dipped? Ehud Olmert low?

Not even close. In light of the nation’s economic woes—and on this I actually agree with the president’s plan of action—only 26 percent of Americans said he was doing a good job.

But what was even more shocking was that, for the first time, more than half of Protestant Christians disapproved of his job performance. That’s right: 52 percent of Protestants—evangelicals, Lutherans, Methodists, Congregationalists, et al—thought Bush was doing a bad job. Where have the other 48 percent been living the past eight years.

In defense of those who don’t disapprove—actually, I can’t really think of a defense. But in looking for relevant links, I found a post I wrote Oct. 2, 2007:

God only knows how this could be, but between 2001 and 2005, President Bush’s approval rating with evangelical Christians ages 18 and 29—people just like me—ranged from 70 percent to 87 percent. The big news from the Pew Forum is that Bush’s favoritism with young evangelicals has fallen to 45 percent.

Members of this group remain fiercely conservative in your politics—supporting the war in Iraq and capital punishment and opposing socially liberal causes—and aren’t likely to ankle to Republican Party, the report says, even if evangelicals can’t pick a presidential candidate to support in ‘08.

But what shocks me is that Bush still enjoys even that much favor with my co-religionists.

I guess this is a familiar grievance of mine.

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October 1, 2008 | 2:11 pm

Bill Maher and religion: lost in transition

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Don’t tell my wife, but I do often make mistakes, and occasionally they end up in print. This happened last week with my feature on Bill Maher’s “Religulous.” The inaccuracy in the article didn’t reflect poorly on Maher, but on me, because I was the person I misrepresented.

In the editing process, my editor wisely removed a pro-religion rant that I had added to connect elements of the movie with a closing quote from Maher. The info, though relevant, was distracting and the tone incongruent with the article. But what I didn’t notice until after the story published Thursday was that I neglected to put any kind of transition back in between this paragraph:

But quickly my feelings of guilt faded into an understanding that the film is a guilty pleasure. “Religulous” is hilarious and poignant because it pokes fun not just at things that bother Maher, but that bother countless among the faithful: violence in God’s name, seeing science as a religious bogeyman, End Times theology.

And this closing quote from the film:

“The only appropriate attitude for man to have about the big questions is not arrogant certitude, but doubt,” Maher says in the film’s closing five-minute monologue, which shifts the tone to dead serious.

“The plain fact is, religion must die for man to live,” he says

To be sure, I do not think that religion must die if man is to live. Here is what I originally wrote to bridge those two quotes from Maher. The first of which I agree with, because doubt and faith are not mutually exclusive, and the second, its own form of dogma:

True. I haven’t seen God and neither have you, and until we do, well, doubt will have to be an element of our belief – or unbelief. This is the perspective Maher comes from, and it’s one to be appreciated. Skepticism is as much a part of Judaism as persecution. Christians too have valued those whose doubt turned to faith (think St. Thomas).

But doubt does not mean disregard or disapproval. Religion provides hope and purpose and meaning; it creates community; it gives answer. It is not a panacea, though it can be a crutch because, in the end, religion is what you want it to be.

And if we didn’t fight wars over disagreements between our gods or our understanding of God, we’d fight wars over logic and reasoning, as the prophetic “South Park” indicated in true “comedy gold” two years ago.

I don’t think what I originally wrote was better, but I did want to clarify: I believe that believing in God is a beautiful thing (long as you don’t use that belief to persecute others).

To see Maher’s appearance last night on “The Daily Show,” watch the video above. Part two is after the jump.

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October 1, 2008 | 1:26 pm

Rick Warren trashes his Hawaiian shirt collection

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The Rick Magazine

Saddleback’s Rick Warren, who hosted the Obama-McCain presidential forum, tells Christianity Today that other changes are under way. But none say as much about a dark time in American culture as the disposal of Warren’s closet of Hawaiian shirt.

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October 1, 2008 | 2:24 am

Hollywood assistant confuses Rosh Hashanah for industry broker

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

If you didn’t know, today was the first day of the Jewish year and the beginning of the 10 holiest days on the Jewish calendar. Hag Sameach.

I wouldn’t expect many non-Jews to know when Rosh Hashanah falls on a given year or what it stands for. But, being that this is Los Angeles, I find it a bit unbelievable that somebody working in entertainment would confuse the Jewish New Year with some Hollywood big wig—no matter how much Jews dominate the industry.

But, indeed, that is the mistake an assistant at Dreamworks made. And, of course, her e-mail (pictured) made it’s way to Defamer, “embarrassing goyem all over the industry.”

Here goes:

Hey Ryan—

I’m sorry, b/c I’m covering for Lindsey’s usual asst., could you tell me, who’s Rosh Hashanah and why would he/she affect Kristi’s meeting with KN and MC?

Thanks! I really appreciate it!

Michelle

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