In the Jewish community, too, there's little unanimity on who would be best to run the country. Chicago Jewish News talked to four prominent members of Chicago's Jewish community for their views, each one supporting a different leading candidate.

Here (in alphabetical order by the candidate's last name) are their thoughts.

HILLARY CLINTON
Chicago business leader J.B. Pritzker is supporting New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for president and in fact is the national chairman of Citizens for Hillary, a campaign initiative that supports grassroots outreach, fund-raising and policy matters.

Pritzker, an attorney and member of one of Chicago's most prominent families, is a founder and partner of a venture capital firm and is active with numerous charitable organizations, including the Illinois Holocaust Museum campaign, of which he is the chairman.

He said he supports Clinton "first and foremost, because among the leading candidates she has the longest, strongest and clearest pro-Israel record. That is uppermost in my mind and important to me as a Jew."

"She has surrounded herself with the highest quality people on issues important to the Jewish community, as well as to many others," he said.

He is also impressed with "her very long record of experience in government and public service. She is the person who I think is best ready to lead from day one."

"We have such a dearth of leadership in the White House and have such an enormous job to do to reform our good name and good standing and reputation in the world, it will take somebody who has been there and done that."

On specific issues of importance to the American people, such as health care, he said, "Certainly no one has a longer, more noted record of standing up for universal health care than Hillary Clinton."

Pritzker said issues involving children and poverty are especially important to him since he heads a charitable foundation that deals primarily with those issues, and he also serves on the Ounce of Prevention Fund, which deals with early childhood issues, and was involved in Gov. Rod Blagojevich's universal preschool program for Illinois children.

"Hillary Clinton stands out to me on all those issues," he said. "On the issues surrounding poverty, issues around education and health care for children, she has an excellent record, standing up for universal preschool for an early head start. I don't think there's anyone who holds a candle to her on those issues."

"There's been a great deal of talk about issues that are important to the middle class, issues around everything from alleviating the tax burden to getting people stronger protections for their pensions," Pritzker said. "When you compare (Clinton's) record to anyone else who's running, she's the person most capable of protecting the middle class."

On domestic issues, "the obvious one, her position on choice, there's just nobody better," he said.

On the Iraq war, Pritzker said "there's really no difference between the top three candidates in terms of their position: Let's get our troops out," whether their timetable is six, 12 or 18 months. "What puts Hillary Clinton head and shoulders above the others is that there is really no one better qualified to achieve that," he said.

"There's really no difference between the positions of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the question of how fast to pull the troops out, but I think the question voters will face is who is the most capable person to actually accomplish it," he said. "It's one thing to say it, another to have been in the White House with the people who will actually accomplish it."

He added that Clinton "has an extraordinarily high favorability rating-around 70 percent-among Jews. I think the people in the Jewish community recognize that she is someone who has stood up for the community. You really don't get elected in New York if you don't have pretty strong backing from the Jewish community," he said.

Pritzker said that in addition to all these reasons, "there's one other very important reason: It's about time that we elect a woman president in the United States.

"I have a young daughter, and it's never more clear to someone what glass ceilings women face than to the eyes of your five-year-old daughter," he said. "Imagine the dream, what I'd like her to be able to do in her lifetime. It's about time we broke that glass ceiling.

"What's most important is electing the best person for the job, and what a great opportunity that the best person happens to be a woman."

RUDY GUILIANI
Peter Friedman will go to the Republican National Convention as a delegate for Rudy Guiliani. Friedman, an attorney and Chicago partner in a national law firm, said he has admired the former New York City mayor for years.

"When I decided to work to become a delegate, what I was most impressed with was not just what he said recently but how long he has been saying it," he said. "In 1984 he was saying that the United States has to support its key alley in the Middle East, Israel."

Friedman was an alternate delegate for President George W. Bush in 2004 and also served as president of CityPAC, a bipartisan Chicago-based pro-Israel political action committee. He is on the executive committee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and is a member of the Government Affairs Committee of the Jewish United Fund.

"I think Rudy Guiliani shares my view of our country and where we are with the rest of the world," he said.

"I think his support and very real understanding of the importance of Israel, not just to Jewish people but to the U.S., is unmatched by any other candidate," he said. As mayor, Guiliani "tried to close the Palestinian (diplomatic) office in New York at a time when nobody else was trying to do that," he said. "He understood the true nature of (the late Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser) Arafat and was not taken in by his promises.

"Right up until 9/11 he very clearly knew instinctively that what happens to us happens to Israel," Friedman said. "He gets it. That's critically important to me with regard to Israel and terrorism. He completely gets it."

On other crucial issues facing the country, "the full body of his positions is very much in line with mine. I think he would be good for the Republican party and for the country."

"I think he is right on the economy in terms of reducing spending and not increasing taxes and reducing taxes. I think he's right on trade. His moderate positions on other social issues I think are all very reasonable and well-thought-out positions," he said.

But he said that the most important reason he has for supporting Guiliani is because of the candidate's stance on Israel. "He has instinctively supported Israel," Friedman said. "He visited a number of times. After the last intifada, when so many, bombs were going off and killing people, he went over a couple of times (and met Israeli mayors) in support, mayor to mayor."

Friedman recalled that shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, a Saudi prince donated $10 million to a victims' fund. After the Saudi issued a press release calling on the United States to "reevaluate the Palestinian issue," "Rudy Guiliani saw that and within five minutes he decided to return the check," he said.

Friedman concluded that "a lot of the candidates say the right words but I think Rudy Guiliani has done the right things instinctively."

BARACK OBAMA
Longtime Chicago political activist and community leader Bettylu Saltzman is supporting Sen. Barack Obama for the presidency and has done so, she said, since she first met the former Illinois state legislator in 1992 -- even before Obama was a U.S. senator.

"I've always thought he would be president of the United States, and this is his time," Saltzman said.

Well known in the Chicago area for her involvement in liberal causes, she has been involved in politics since 1969, when she supported Bill Singer's campaign for Chicago alderman. She also chairs the board of Mount Sinai Medical Center and Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital and Care Network and participates in numerous other organizations, including the Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, of which she is the immediate past president. She has been honored by the New Israel Fund and the American Jewish Congress.

She supports Obama, she said, because "I think the face of Barack Obama would go a long way to heal the problems we've caused in the rest of the world.

"It's not that we don't have a lot of good candidates in the Democratic party," she said. "We do. But this is his time."

That's because Obama "represents change," she said. "In spite of the fact that Hillary Clinton talks about change, she does not represent change in the same way he does."

Clinton, she said, "talks about her experience , which she says comes from being the First Lady. But I don't think that necessarily gives her the kind of experience" the country needs. "Being in the Senate gives her a certain amount of experience but I don't think that necessarily indicates that she would present change to the country."

Obama "has inspired youth to get involved. That creates the feeling of change."

On the question of Obama's perceived lack of experience, "I say what he says: (Vice president Dick) Chaney and (former Secretary of Defense Donald) Rumsfeld certainly came with their resumes full of the kind of experience you would want your people to have, and they led us into this war," she said.

"Judgment counts for more than experience, and he has displayed incredible judgment." she said. "He wants the right people who have had experience" as his advisors," she said. "That's judgment. You use your judgment, you pick the right people. Judgment trumps experience."

"My main feeling about him is that he presents the face to the rest of the world that we need. I think I'm right about that," she said. She recalled a friend telling her that he had seen Obama's book prominently displayed in a bookstore in Zurich. "In Europe he is the person they are interested in," she said.

On issues pertaining to Israel and the Middle East, "he would use good judgment," Saltzman said. "And his choice of advisors would be good."

In addition, she said it's important to talk about Obama's wife, Michelle Obama. "She's an amazing communicator," she said. "I think she would probably be the best First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. This is not a slap at Hillary Clinton, but (Michelle Obama) has a feeling for people like I've never seen before. For a young woman she is absolutely amazing. She communicates beautifully and is so warm. They would be a great couple to have in the White House."

As for the war in Iraq, she said, "His plan is probably as good as anybody's. The Democrats all have plans to pull out within the next 18 months. I think he has the right people advising him and the right policy."

Saltzman said she also agrees with Obama's health care policy. "I am opposed to mandates," she said. "Hillary and (John) Edwards both have mandates, and I don't think those work. They are very hard to implement. I think (Obama) is right about not having mandates in his policy. I think health care is one of the major issues in the general campaign."

She added that "when I listen to the pundits talk about him the thing that bothers me is they often start talking about him in one dimension-'he's inspirational.' They say Hillary Clinton is a workhorse and a policy wonk, like he doesn't work hard and doesn't know the issues."

Still, she said, Obama's supposed inspirational qualities are important. "Every time I hear him speak, I find him to be inspirational," she said. "It doesn't hurt to have that in a candidate, in a president. I'm sure that's what people found in FDR, in JFK. That helps to move people. I don't think any of the other candidates have that quality."

MITT ROMNEY
Dr. Michael Menis, the chairman of the Chicago Chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition, is a delegate candidate for Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Menis, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in Crystal Lake, is also a member of the Outreach Advisory Committee of the Illinois Republican Party and was appointed by President Bush to serve on the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad.

He said that he had initially decided not to get involved until the Republican Party had selected a candidate and then to get behind that person, but he changed his mind after attending a meeting with Romney in March.

"I was impressed with his position on issues and the manner in which he handled himself," he said. "I learned he was an extremely hard-working, driven and successful individual" who studied at Harvard Law School and in the Harvard MBA program concurrently and received both degrees at the same time.

Rather than pursue a legal career, he said, Romney opted for the business world and started a venture capital company that became one of the most successful such firms in the country, launching hundreds of other successful companies.

"He developed a reputation for turning around failing companies, and when he took the helm of the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, he turned an almost $400 million operating deficit into one of the most successful Olympics in history," Menis said, adding that Romney was also successful as a Republican governor in a Democratic state, where he "worked both sides of the aisle."

Menis also praised Romney's "moral fiber." One incident that illustrates that quality, he said, was when Iranian President Mohammad Khatami was invited to speak at Harvard last year and Romney, as governor, refused to allow any state resources to be used to escort him.

"When the university recently invited (Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad to speak before the General Assembly, Gov. Romney wrote a letter to the U.N. secretary general urging the U.N. to revoke the invitation and called for Ahmadinejad to be indicted under the Genocide Convention for calling for Israel to be wiped off the map," he said.

On foreign policy issues, Menis said Romney has "in-depth knowledge of the challenges the United States and Israel face in fighting radical Islam," displaying "a depth of understanding of the challenges Israel has faced through the failure of leadership of the Palestinian Authority, the threats faced from neighbors and the state sponsors of terror. He has a thorough understanding of the causes of the conflict and what needs to be done to ensure Israel's safety."

On the well-publicized issue of Romney's Mormonism, Menis said that "Jews throughout history have been persecuted for their religious beliefs. If any one religious group should be supportive of someone's right to believe in what they wish and not be persecuted for it or excluded from political office for it, it should be the Jewish people.

"One's faith is one's own personal issue," he said. "I don't believe the tenets of the Mormon faith would affect the way he governs as president. It didn't affect him as governor or in business. I think most Jews should be upset that this has become such an issue," he said.

In addition, he said, Romney "recognizes that the threat from Islamic terrorists is the greatest challenge facing America" and calls for both a strong military and work on the diplomatic front. Romney believes that "moderate Islamic nations need to step up if we are to succeed in defeating global jihad," he said.

In Iraq, the candidate recognizes that "in retrospect, things should have been done differently. Now we need to ensure we don't leave Iraq until there is a stable government, a transparent judiciary and the military can defend itself."

Romney "supported the troop surge, which has proved to be successful and has decreased violence," Menis said. "He is not for setting a timetable. That decision should be made by the commanders in the field."

Menis also praised Romney's health care plan, which he said would involve the private sector and not be a government-run program. His plan, similar to one he put into effect in Massachusetts, would "create more competition and transparency and make citizens more responsible for purchasing health care by expanding health care savings accounts," he said.

"I believe that the Republicans have a very strong field of qualified candidates but after spending time with Gov. Romney and becoming familiar with his impressive record of leadership and success, I felt that he is best qualified to lead our nation during these challenging and perilous times," he concluded.