Anatomy of voting

for the American president

The reasons Americans vote for a candidate can be: party affiliation; special issues, e.g., abortion; ethnicity; broad issues like taxes, U.S. debt, foreign policy, health insurance, unemployment, and religion.

There is a rare situation in which voters should abandon all the above considerations: when a candidate reveals qualities which conspicuously make him or her unfit to be president. We have such a situation in the 2012 election.

For the past four years, the Obama administration has been negotiating with Iran to stop its project of building nuclear weapons. Mr. Obama’s achievements in these negotiations have amounted to zero. The assumption that “economic sanctions will bring them to their senses” was wrong. In Tehran, they are laughing about American stupidity in general, and Mr. Obama’s stupidity in particular. Iran has not changed by one iota its march toward its nuclear goal. A nuclear Iran would be an existential threat to Israel. Moreover, a nuclear Iran could become the spark for igniting a global nuclear war — the dreaded World War III. This would be the most destructive war in mankind’s history. It would annihilate a large portion of the human race.

Mr. Obama has proved beyond any doubt his inability to resolve the Iranian problem. He is the Neville Chamberlain of the 21st century. The United States today is infinitely more powerful than England was in the 1930s. Without landing troops in Iran, the United States has a decided military ability to resolve the Iranian problem.

A serious but inconspicuous shortcoming of Mr. Obama was contained in his 2009 speech to the Muslim world. Superficial listening (the speech is available online) impressed people that the speech was even-handed, with Mr. Obama waving an olive branch toward the Muslim world. However, those who listened carefully could not help but raise the question: whose side is Mr. Obama on? A person who is not recognizably pro-American should never become our president.

Bottom line: Mr. Obama’s disqualification for the presidency is absolute. A second term for Mr. Obama could translate into a disaster not only for America, but for the whole world.

Zeev Dickman, Ph.D.
Overland Park, Kan.

Who paid for Romney ad?

The Oct. 25 edition of The Jewish Chronicle had an ad on the back cover supporting Gov. Romney for president. This ad was “Paid for by Kansas City Jews for a Safe America and Israel.” The ad had as its first line “Obama supporters ‘proudly’ support his reelection.” Well it appears that the “Kansas City Jews for a Safe America and Israel” do not have enough pride to sign their own names to their ad.

Sandy Salz
Overland Park, Kan.