political_talk

John Adams on the Jewish Religion

In a letter to François Adriaan van der Kemp, a Dutch minister, in 1809, Adams wrote of his admiration for the tenets of the Jewish religion. His opinion of Christianity is here.

I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe or pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.

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Source: WikiQuote

VIDEO & FULL TEXT: TED KENNEDY Speech at the Democratic National Convention 2008

Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy's speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver:

August 25, 2008

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Caroline¹.

My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, it is so wonderful to be here.

And nothing -- nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight.

I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals, and to elect Barack Obama President of the United States.

As I look ahead, I am strengthened by family and friendship. So many of you have been with me in the happiest days and the hardest days. Together we have known success and seen setbacks, victory, and defeat. But we have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world. And I pledge to you -- I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate when we begin the great test.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

For me this is a season of hope -- new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few -- new hope.

JEFFREY HART: Both Nixon and Reagan would have agreed with Obama's speech against the Iraq War

Jeffrey Hart¹, Republican columnist for The Daily Beast, and a former speechwriter for both Reagan and Nixon, endorsed Barack Obama during the 2008 Presidential Campaign.

One thing I know is that both Nixon and Reagan would have agreed with Obama’s speech against the Iraq War… But all the organs of the conservative movement followed Bush over the cliff—as did John McCain.

¹Hart is currently professor emeritus of English at Dartmouth College, and he  wrote for the National Review for more than three decades as a senior editor.