Milw. J-S on Tommy Thompson: Long shot made longer

If Tommy Thompson's presidential run isn't over, it should be. And this has nothing to do with his relatively light campaign chest. His remarks about Jewish people and tradition Monday revealed him simply to be ill-suited to the presidency.

Speaking to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C., Thompson said, "I'm in the private sector, and for the first time in my life I'm earning money. You know, that's sort of part of the Jewish tradition, and I do not find anything wrong with that."

He later made a feeble attempt to explain the inexplicable. "I just want to clarify something because I didn't (by) any means want to infer or imply anything about Jews and finances and things," he said. "What I was referring to, ladies and gentlemen, is the accomplishments of the Jewish religion. You've been outstanding business people, and I compliment you for that."

So an accomplishment of the Jewish religion is business acumen? Surely, a presidential candidate who would represent all Americans would know how hurtful stereotypes are. Surely, such a candidate would know, given this country's experience with anti-Semitism, that Jews as fixated on money ranks up there among the most hurtful of them.