JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

• Share
• Email
• Print

Ilana Wexler chooses Obama

By · January 31, 2008

The Jewish 11-year-old who four years ago called for a “timeout” for Dick Cheney endorsed Barack Obama.

Ilana Wexler, of Oakland, Calif., started Kids for Kerry in 2004 to raise support for U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), then the party’s presidential candidate. She brought the Democratic convention to its feet with her reprimand of the vice president, who had used an obscenity in an exchange with a Senate Democrat.

“When our vice president had a disagreement with a Democratic senator, he used a really bad word,” Wexler said then. “If I said that word, I would be put in a timeout. I think he should be put in a timeout.”

Since then, she has been courted by the campaign of U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to head its youth outreach. This week, however, the now 15-year-old Wexler declared her support for Obama, telling CNN that the Illinois senator embodied hope and was the favorite among her friends.

Click to login and write a letter to the editor or register for a new account.

This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to JTA now.