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By Gary Rotto
 SAN DIEGO—Rabbi Michael Lerner is not happy with Barack Obama. Actually, that’s Barack Obama, President of the United States or POTUS to the inside the beltway crowd.
In a telephone interview, Lerner said
he’s hoping that Barack Obama the Candidate will reemerge to lead the country. He might settle for Barack Obama, Nobel Prize winner. “I’m anxious to find ways to support Obama to become the Barack Obama he promised he was going to be - a person who would change American politics,” states Lerner.
The rabbi, who is editor of Tikkun magazine, will be in San Diego at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, to address the Network of Spiritual Progressive of San Diego and the San Diego School of Christian Studies, at First United Methodist Church, 2111 Camino del Rio South in the Mission Valley area.
In Lerner’s view, part of changing American politics is how the US relates to the rest of the world. Nobel Laureate Obama shows hope for a change in the creating of peace and could put the POTUS on the road rediscovering the personality of Candidate Obama. As Lerner sees it, Candidate Obama would restore the US’ image around the world and change how the US goes about its foreign policy.
“American needs to reconceptualize what will bring homeland security,” suggest Lerner. This reconceptualization moves from economic, military and cultural superiority to “generosity." In his view, the US and other members of the G8 must develop a modern day Marshall Plan, devoting 1-2% of their Gross Domestic Products over the next 20 years to eliminate global hunger, education, and repair the global environment. The implication is to also wipe out poverty
Lerner says the first place where there could be an immediate impact is the Middle East, specifically in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. One can visualize poverty in the PA, but not in Israel. Actually, the National Insurance Institute, the
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Israeli equivalent of the Social Security Administration, showed that “in an international comparison, Israel is at the top of the scale, with an incidence of poverty similar to that of the United States and Mexico,” for the years 2004-2005. In its most recent annual report, the Institute states, “the situation improved somewhat but not to an extent that would change Israel's relative position.”
Lerner urged rebuilding in Gaza, “which has been devastated by the Israeli attacks.” “We will have monitors who will make sure that the funds go to where they are intended,” states Lerner. The idea is to establish a network of faith based monitors who are locally rooted and to bypass potential source of corruption – the governments themselves. He talks of creating an independent body of religious/spiritual/cultural figures free of government control. This international body will determine if the local bodies are free from domination and corruption.
“We’re not interested into pouring money into existing elites,” states Lerner. “If a government interferes, we will just stop it.” The funding of small businesses and economic infrastructure would be part of a global strategy, speaking of the potential project in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, “If either didn’t want it to occur, it wouldn’t happen there, we would start somewhere else,” continued Lerner.
Lerner noted that this concept has already been introduced in Congress by Congressman Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to be elected to the House of Representatives. “Since I am strongly identified with the Jewish world, I thought that is good to show that it is an interfaith project,” explains Lerner.
The shifting of the paradigm is depending on a transformation of the POTUS back to the personality and visions of Candidate Obama. And Lerner believes that this can only be achieved by creating a movement, the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP). The organization, Organizing for America (OFA), which evolved from Obama for America, does not perform the role necessary to get the POTUS to perform like Candidate Obama. Lerner states that another problem is that “one thing he promised us was that he would tell us the truth. It is very hard to engage when you do not get that. “But can NSP succeed in engaging President Obama directly? That is one of the challenges that Lerner will address on Thursday at the First United Methodist Church in San Diego.
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