Barack Obama Has Got Jews On His Mind....

Two interesting comments made by the president during his speech to the Congressional Black Caucus (the now-infamous "STFU and get in line behind me" speech)...

The first is a story he told invoking the faith of biblical Jews in their God as a type of analogy for the faith he expects the black community to have in him:

Obama opened the speech by mentioning the Biblical story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three captive Jews who were thrown into a fiery furnace because they would not worship a golden idol. Obama quoted a pastor who referred to the three men as "good crazy" for having that faith. He added that the pastor had attributed the same "good crazy" to him when he decided to run for president.

Obama continued that analogy, equating the Jews' "faith in the things not seen" to the more mundane "belief that if you persevere a better day lies ahead."

Hmmm.... a true god should not have to beg for worshipers, they usually come to receive the bounty promised for their fealty and perhaps due to the fear of his might wrath as well. And since Obama's promised cornucopia of goodies has failed to materialize (except for a few well-connect high priests), and his threats have proven empty, the whole thundering "I am the Lord Thy God!" thing is a bit ineffective here.

But back to the Jews. A bit of a slip here, as reported by the Daily Caller (video at the link), during the class warfare section of his speech:

“When you start saying, at a time when the top one-tenth of one percent have seen their incomes go up four or five times over the last twenty years, and folks at the bottom have seen their incomes decline, and your response is that you want poor folks to pay more — give me a break.

“If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew — as a janitor — makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that as a badge of honor.”

I can't even define this as any kind of insidious, antisemitic slip, so I won't. The most likely explanation is that the teleprompter blinked and burped for a moment, or that he simply had - based on his opening sermon about biblical prophets - Jews on his mind.

I'll go with the latter. Innocent, really. But telling. Obama might talk about Israel very now and again, but he doesn't often talk about Jews. Seems like he has been talking a lot about both lately. And all it took was for this once-solid electoral group to show him that their votes cannot be taken for granted.

For the CBC, and for blacks nationwide, there is a lesson there. If you really want something done, go to your next local Tea Party rally. That will make the president sit up and take notice. And perhaps - just perhaps - you might see some of the appeal of an alternate ideology to the one you have given your vote to so many times, with so little in return.