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Obama Reaches Out to Jewish Voters

By Jeralyn

The Chicago Tribune reports Barack Obama is returning his attention to Jewish voters:

Jewish voters are near the top of the list of voting blocs Obama will have to reach out to as he turns to the general election. From appearances in synagogues to meetings with Jewish groups and even an interview with an Israeli newspaper, Obama's courtship shows some signs of paying off, with a recent Gallup Poll suggesting Obama leading Sen. John McCain 61 percent to 32 percent among Jewish voters.

...Still, Obama's lead among Jewish voters is a smaller margin than other Democratic nominees have enjoyed. And doubts about Obama's stands on Jewish issues and Israel stubbornly persist in segments of the community, in part due to methodical campaigns against him by his conservative critics.

The article barely mentions Hillary Clinton's greater support among Jewish voters even though it reports that while only 2% of the population is Jewish, the Jewish vote is important in "classic swing states" like Florida and New Jersey, both of which Hillary won. [More...]

As to Hillary vs. Obama in the primaries,

With all this, Obama has received significant Jewish support in the Democratic primaries. In Pennsylvania, Sen. Hillary Clinton outpolled Obama 62 percent to 38 percent among Jews, but in Massachusetts he edged her 52 percent to 48 percent. In a recent nationwide Gallup Poll, Jewish voters preferred Clinton to Obama 50 percent to 43 percent, a notable but hardly overwhelming margin.

The article mentions many concerns Jewish voters have with Obama. One concern that I've written about a few times is his "friendship with controversial figures as Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi." Khalidi is a scholar and professor and some dispute he is an "activist" but even so, there are concerns. See here and here and here. On his shifting positions in Illinois politics, see here.

Some other criticisms:

"He speaks with extraordinarily empty platitudes about the Middle East," said Herbert London, president of the conservative Hudson Institute, who is Jewish. Of Obama's openness to talking with dictators, London is contemptuous: "That is almost child's play. It is adolescent talk you might hear from a 14-year-old."

...Some have complained that Obama is getting foreign policy advice from experts such as Robert Malley and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who are seen as less friendly to Israel, though Obama's campaign says the two are merely among hundreds of people who have offered counsel. Earlier this month, Malley severed his ties to the Obama campaign.

From a New York legislator:

"Since we don't have a lifetime of experience with him, we need to know who he is, this man who has suddenly come on the scene, who is very exciting, a good speaker and handles himself beautifully," said New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind. "We don't want to be fooled by these things that at the end of the day don't matter that much."

Obama supporters say his support for Israel is top-notch. It may be, but it has increased since he decided to run for national office in 2004 and sought and accepted the support of billionaires like the Crown family.

Crown and his wife, Paula Crown, are members of Obama's National Finance Committee and have raised more than $200,000 for the Obama campaign, according to a list of fundraisers posted on Obama's campaign website.

From the New York Times:

[H]e empathized with the views of his Palestinian friends before adroitly courting the city’s politically potent Jewish community.

The article says the Dems don't need to worry about Obama's losing the Jewish vote to McCain:

Jews have not favored the Republican nominee over the Democrat since 1920, and that was because 38 percent of Jews went even further left and voted for Socialist Eugene Debs. In the 2004 election, Democrat John Kerry won 76 percent of the Jewish vote.

If the Democrats really cared about the Jewish vote, why wouldn't they be raising with superdelegates the fact that Hillary's support with them is solid and proven.

Instead, we get news article that barely mentions her except for a few statistics and give no details on her positions on Israel.

Has the media declared this race over? Seems like it.

Comments now closed.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 18, 2008 (boomark / email).