Jewish comedians battle over White House

McCain v. Obama and Palin v. Biden aren't the only political match-ups this election season: Jewish comedians are also battling over who should become the next president.

And, like the presidential race, this battle pits an aging conservative against a young liberal. And the aging conservative against himself!

It all started when 38-year-old comedian Sarah Silverman released "The Great Schlep," a short YouTube video in which she urges Jewish grandchildren all over the country to flock to Florida to persuade their grandparents to vote for Obama.

"If Barack Obama doesn't become the next president of the United States, I'm going to blame the Jews," Silverman says in the YouTube video that has been seen more than 400,000 times.

In typical Silverman style, it's provocative and will certainly offend some who watch it.

"You know why your grandparents don't like Barack Obama?" Silverman asks. "Because his name sounds scary - it sounds Muslim, which he's obviously not. Yes Barack Hussein Obama is a super f--king s--tty name, but you would think someone named Manischewitz Guberman might understand that."

As might be expected, Silverman's appeal led to a counter-video by Jewish comedian Jackie Mason, who resents the younger comedian's appeal and calls her "a sick Yenta."

Mason, who is the same age as McCain (72), urges viewers to vote for McCain and criticizes Obama as a do-nothing senator. So far, only 40,000 folks have watched his response on YouTube.

What's even more interesting is that Mason lashed out at McCain earlier this year.

As Gawker noted today, Mason went on a long rant against McCain back in January in which he called the Republican candidate a "blatant, out-and-out lowlife."

At the time, Mason was defending GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and accusing McCain of being a "liar" for his attacks on Romney's Iraq policy.

"Romney deserves the job because he's an honest man," Mason said at the time in a seven-minute piece on his YouTube channel, "The Ultimate Jew."

"You're a liar," Mason said. "And what you said is disgusting. And you don't deserve to win an election on fraud. Give up your fakery. I don't care what kind of a hero you are."

Comments

[BobMc]

Regardless of my liberal sensibilities, it's shocking how ignorant of basic facts about government and politics a majority of U.S. adults are. The reason right wingers can out and out lie nonstop is that so few have the basic grounding in facts to realize the hosing they're getting. I admire Israelis, even the right in Israel, because they are intellectually engaged.

[Edie]

Uuuuhhh - BobMc,

please visit YouTube and watch some videos of the settlers that live in Tel Rumeida (in Hebron).

Perhaps right-wing politicians in Israel-proper are knowledgeable about the politics behind their ideology, but so many of the settlers are simply there because of their religious beliefs and don't give a fig about knowing anything about government and politics.

G-d gave them the land and that's all that matters. And somehow standing outside a Palestinian's home and baiting her in front of her children by calling her a 'whore' doesn't seem to conflict with the settler's religious values. Neither does threatening to kill Palestinians 'like they (the Jews) did Jesus' seem to conflict with a couple of young, male settlers. If they were aware of how inflaming and racist (against them as Jews) these words are, especially their historical context, I don't think they'd be saying these things. Ignorance is everywhere.