Hope is a wonderful thing, and Barack Obama is full of it.  He thinks if he sits down and talks to the dictators of North Korea and Iran, he can bring reason, perhaps peace, and certainly hope for a better world.

 But, apparently, he never sat down with his long-time minister, Reverend (without reverence here) Jeremiah Wright Jr. and had a discussion about the reverend’s hateful rhetoric.

If he can’t muster the strength to confront one of Chicago’s more public bigots, I wonder, how he’s ever going to have the muster to confront the beast of North Korea, the ayotollahs of Iran, or even his whiny, unthankful (and only recently proud) wife Michelle. Maybe, just maybe, he’s found the fortitude to confront his children. And even more importantly, maybe his two daughters, like mine (sometimes to my chagrin), have been given the space, the independence of thought and the courage to confront him and his wife.

It doesn’t take a lot to challenge your religious leaders, only a smidgen of  indignation, coupled with some beliefs.  I know, I’ve done it numerous times, without ever risking any collateral damage.  Then again, I’m not running for President of the United States – or running from my beliefs to curry favor with those praying next to me.

Recently, I went to synagogue on a Friday night at B’nai Jeshrun in New York City, to celebrate the Sabbath.  It was the week that the Jewish students in Jerusalem were slaughtered by an irate Muslim.  The rabbi was also full of hope,  and prayed we would not evolve in another “cycle of violence.” I shuddered and — and immediately went up to him after services.

I put my hand on his arm and said, “Rabbi when you used the term ‘cycle of violence’ you are speaking of moral equivalency; you are saying that violence deliberately targeting innocent civilians is equivalent to that of self-defense; you are saying that a culture, like those of fanatical Muslims, that worships death is of equal morality to that of our Jewish tradition that cherishes life — and you are making our people weaker and  less able to defend themselves.” He apologized.

And, I don’t go to temple every week.  I go for spiritual sustenance, which is aplenty at B’nai Jeshrun, but when they turn political, which happens, I speak my mind.  It is part of the Jewish tradition, my tradition.

So, my question to Barack is: After 20  years of sermons, did you not once go up to your religious leader and tell him you were offended?  Did you not once express your displeasure with his hate-mongering, or were you sidling up to him to like some south-side hooker, pretending to be asking for foregiveness, but actually conning your next John?

During the Clinton administration, at the same temple, a rabbi regaled us with his tale of praying with Jesse Jackson that Bill Clinton “be absolved of all the charges against him” — not that he become a better man!.

I was incensed because I came for spiritual and religious inspiration and the inner calmness the Sabbath is supposed to bring.  So I went up to him, put my arm around his shoulder and told him, “Rabbi, I want you to know that while you were praying that Billl Clinton be absolved of all the charges against him, I was praying to the same God to cancel your prayers.”

It doesn’t take much to challenge hypocrisy, but it does take a lot to be the leader of the the United States, of the world, and to confront the regimes that imprison their own people, threaten to annihilate those who worship differently, to prevent nuclear arms from falling into terrorists’ hands and to move society forward, into the real realm of hope, peace and prosperity.

And, if Barack, after 20 years of listening to Reverend Wright, had neither the conviction nor the courage to confront his minister’s anti-American, racist rages,  then I have to surmise that Barack is a man with less backbone than I want to see in the White House.

Barack Obama, it seems to me, would rather take detours than build bridges, as long as he continues on the road he set out for himself — and neither for the greater populace, nor for bringing us together.

Me thinks he’s not half the man Hillary is!