December 10, 2008 | 8:13 pm

The Josef Goebbels School of Journalism and Propaganda

Posted by Dean Rotbart

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A Jewish Journal reader, T.F., emailed me this afternoon to explain why he, a Holocaust survivor, will be so happy to be done with the Bush/Cheney administration.  T.F. pointed me to an article in the November 11th edition of The American Prospect, a liberal journal, titled Goodbye and Good Riddance.  If like T.F., you think President Bush is an evil buffoon, you’ll appreciate the essay by Paul Waldman.

Here is T.F.‘s note to me, followed my response to him.  If I get a further reply, I’ll post it here as well.

Date: Wed, December 10, 2008 3:29 pm
To: dr@deanrotbart.com

Hey Dean,

I was one of the people that responded to your article in the Jewish Journal, and expressed my position of not feeling compelled to aplologize to anyone, especially Palin, Haggerty and Coulter.


No, even though Liberal, I do not “hate” them, since I do not really know them; but I do not like what they stand for. Palin did the Democrats a favor, or at least the brain trust that put her on the ticket, did them a service. She may very well have caused the Republicans to lose.


My issue with her was that she was, (is), totally unqualified to be president, and to have her as immediate backup to a 72 year old, with a repeated history of melanoma, was not a rational decision.


As for Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh, et. al., they would have been star pupils in the Josef Goebbels School of Journalism and Propaganda. How much time have you spent with Coulter trying to get perfected by converting from Judaism to Christianity?


I am a Holocaust survivor so I believe that I have a profound appreciation of the need for Israel and the criticality of its survival. But, I live in the US, and have done so for 60 years and my first priority is to this country, then to Israel. And the prospect of a McCain/Palin administration frankly scared the hell out me. Contemplating the possibility of Palin as president was astonishing; and contemplating their Supreme Court choices were equally disturbing to me.


All you have to do to look at why some of us Liberals might have concerns with the Hannerty’s, Coulters, etc., is to look at the last eight years! The most incompetent, corrupt Administration in the history of this country. The neo-cons would love to have it continue. In a better world, Bush and Cheney should have been impeached. You conservative folks can get all worked up about Democratic Presidents who can’t keep their pecker in their pants, but are ok with starting a bogus war so that Junior can show his dad that he can fart louder than the old man, or shredding the Constitution at will, or putting 32 year old jerks with a store bought law degrees in positions to vet Justice Department candidates, based on purely political basis. Not appreciating this does not constitute hate; you want to see hate, listen to Michael Savage and Dick Morris! That’s hate.


Hope you read the attached.

Here is what I replied to T.F.:

Dear T.F.,

I once venerated all Holocaust survivors.  My father was one, as you likely know.  Yet I realize that those who survived the Shoah are really no different than the rest of us - they come in all shapes and political/intellectual persuasions.

So the fact that someone who witnessed and personally experienced the German Holocaust is unable to recognize the gathering clouds of the Islamic Global Holocaust is not as surprising to me as I once imagined it would be.

Your dislike of President George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain, Sarah Palin, et. al. does not make the case for Barack Obama.  Did you vote for Obama because you admire him and his associations and his track record or simply because you dislike conservative Republicans and believe anyone—even a Palestinian apologist, is better?

I will ask you to make your case for President Obama.  Tell me, in your view, how he will do better than Bush/Cheney to keep America safe from terrorism?  How will he force Iran to back down from its active plans to destroy Israel?  How will he prevent an all out Islamic assault against the West?  Hint: Charm and logic doesn’t work very well on those willing to cut the throat of Daniel Pearl and other such innocents. Nor does appeasement.

Let’s remember that anti-American, anti-Jewish hatred was not born during the Bush administration.  The terror attacks on 9/11 were plotted and prepared during Bill Clinton’s watch.  If Al Gore were President in September 2001, we would still have been hit.

So, I ask, what will President Obama do differently?

Is the Reverend Wright-loving, Khalidi-praising, Ayers-neighborly, Resco-friendly, anti-War Obama good for America and the world just because he is not George Bush?

How do you explain away those Obama associations, which in the case of Reverend Wright date back 20 hate-filled years?  Or, perhaps, you agree that America is due for some comeuppance?

I await your answers.

Thanks,

Dean

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