Guess Who I'm Inviting to Dinner?

I don't know about you, but if you decided to become an Obama supporter, you've probably been receiving a ton of email blasts from their camp. The messages come fast and furious - some are inspirational, some tattle on Hillary Clinton's latest misdeed, others urge you to join the grassroots movement and wave an Obama sign in the next state that will be holding a primary, but my favorite one of all has been the "you can have dinner with Obama" messages.

When I first read the invitation and then saw the big honking DONATE NOW button right below it, I figured it was just a ploy to get me to fork over some bucks to the campaign so that he can keep steamrolling his way through to the nomination. What I also realized is that even if I give $25 to Senator Obama, there's no way I'm going to wind up becoming the lucky person who will get to break bread with him on the campaign trail.

And so, I've decided that if Obama is truly reading all the commentary about himself in the blogosphere, that I would invite him over to dinner at my house. But not just any dinner. I've decided to invite Senator Obama to Passover with my family. If he truly wants to know what goes on in the minds of bleeding heart liberals, several Democrats and three staunch Republicans, then I say, spend an evening with the Feldmans and get into that Pesach spirit.

If you get there early, my mom and I will give you a lesson on matzoh ball preparation - follow the directions on the box and add a little seltzer for buoyancy. And then, if you're lucky, you can take a seat next to my dad, Neil who will re-tell the story of the first Passover from our vintage Waldbaums Haggadahs that we still have since 1976. And don't worry if you can't follow along - most of our attendees are not of the Jewish faith since there were lots of intermarriages in our family. My cousin Jeff married Terri, who is Irish; my sister-in-law Sherri, is married to Ed - an ultimate conservative whose family is from Puerto Rico; my father-in-law John is another Irishman; my cousin Lee's wife Sandy is Catholic but she converted to Judaism a few years back; then there's George and Evanthia - my husband's step father who is Greek (as is his girlfriend). So Barack - if you and your family join the festivities, you'll fit right in with our Jewish melting pot.

Come sing songs with us, learn how to use your red Manischewitz wine to symbolize the plagues. And watch how my son, who is just learning to read attempts to tackle the four questions in Hebrew. We've got lots of food to offer - from gefilte fish to chopped liver, to turkey, brisket, matzoh pudding and sweet potatoes mixed with apple compote, walnuts and roasted marshmallows. And here's the kicker - I won't ask you to give us a dime to come and partake in our fabulous meal. You can breeze in like the wind -- just like Elijah does each year.

So if you can make it to the first seder next Saturday, I'm officially inviting you, Barack Obama, your wife Michelle and your two kids to join in on the fun. And if your children find the matzoh, they can feel free to use the $10 they receive to donate back to your campaign.

Don't feel obligated to attend, because as my Grandma Dora used to say, "If you don't come, you don't have to go home." But if you are in the area, feel free to give us a holler before sundown.

Comments

[Mom101]

Way to overanalyze a relatively benign segue into a humorous essay.

Very funny Beth Feldman. I'd join you for Passover any day. Especially if Obama shows up.

[efranklin]

"... if you decided to become an Obama supporter, you've probably been receiving a ton of email blasts from their camp. The messages come fast and furious - some are inspirational, some tattle on Hillary Clinton's latest misdeed..." Same goes for the Clintons. Bill had a veritable field day with the calls for Hillary to drop out.

[NoneSoBlind]

"A ton of email blasts" from the Obama camp? Really? Can you quantify that over, let's say, a two-week period? Because I'm an Obama supporter, and I'm actually surprised at how relatively few emails I receive.

And then there were those dinner invitation emails: 4 different ones over a period of 7 days, with additional information per email. Umm--does that really constitute "a ton of email blasts"? I hardly think so.

By the way, those "big honking DONATE NOW" buttons that you say were right below the invitation had significantly less prominence than the "Post a Comment" button on this page. And they only appeared as part of the image of the invitation itself. (The campaign emails themselves end with a red button that reads "donate"; the button measures approximately 1.5 inches by less than .25 inches with the much smaller "donate" text centered in the middle, which makes it pretty subtle. BTW, are you insinuating something nefarious when you say you had no chance of being selected for the dinner?

Also, you characterize some of the emails as "tattling" on Clinton's misdeeds. When his campaign emails even mention Clinton, it does not tattle on her; the tone is more informative than that, and the emails are about substantive matters.

So, details immaterial, you might say. But why did you choose to portray these matters ever so subtly in a negative, inaccurate manner?

[RaderBarbarian]

Ah, there are NoneSoBlind as those who fail to see ...humor, compassion, intelligence, fairplay, nitpicking, whining, antagonism, lack of civility. And I am sure there are SomeSoBlind that they will let their cock-suredness keep them from doing the right thing when the chips are down and they have to decide whether or not to support "that woman" or "that old fart." Will you BeSoBlind as to stay home then?

[misspeach2008]

Your family sounds wonderful. Have a great holiday together. Let us know if the Obamas attend.