Ben Smith has a fascinating front page piece in Politico titled “Jewish Dems Losing Faith in Obama.” The kicker line is this: “Based on the conversations with POLITICO, it’s hard to resist the conclusion that some kind of tipping point has been reached” regarding Jewish support for Obama. The piece has a number of to-be-expected comments critical of Obama from disaffected Jewish voters, but the most damaging quotes come from Jewish Democrats who remain on Obama’s side. According to Smith, DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz — trotted out “to combat the story line of Jewish defections” — “said she’d detected a level of anxiety in a recent visit to a senior center in her South Florida district.” And Smith also noted that Obama fundraisers “said they think Jewish doubts are taking a fundraising toll.” According to Daniel Berger, who is working on a Philadelphia fundraiser for Obama, “We’re going to raise a ton of money, but I don’t know if we’re going to hit our goals.”
The 2012 Republican candidate does not need, and should not expect, to win a majority of the Jewish vote. But if disaffection with Obama eats into the Democrats’ traditionally healthy margins among Jewish voters in states like Florida and Ohio, and reduces his fundraising potential in the Jewish community, it could signal real trouble for Obama’s reelection hopes.
Tevi Troy is a visiting senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. A former senior White House aide and deputy secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush administration, he also served as the White House Jewish Liaison.
The above article was originally published in NationalReview, and submitted to YWN by the author.
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10 Responses
The sign would be that the Republicans win Weiner’s seat in the special election. That district include many frum Jews, as well as many hard core Jewish liberals. IF the secular Jews are ready to turn, you’ll see it there.
The truth is that Orthodox Jews never liked Obama, and our numbers are growing due to a higher birthrate, which sooner or later will become obvious to those who believe that the “Jewish” community is a single homogenous grouping. If you separate the politically conserviate (usually Orthodox, but add some secular neo-cons and capitalist types) from the true-blue semi-socialist secular, you’ll see two very consistent communities, with the only changes reflecting natural increase (we have lots of babies, they are rapidly losing numbers due to failure to reproduce).
You are incorrect about the Orthodox Jews. While yes, many like me are hard core conservatives, many only have conservative social values. Most of the they will vote democrat unless there is a big issue about a social topic right before the election.
IF Jews are “turning” on Obama (and the Democrats), it will show up in places such as Weiner’s district. You’ll see the Republicans becoming competitive, quickly, in areas with a large Jewish population. Such changes can occue quickly enough (as when Jews switched from being loyal Republicans in the early 1920 to fanatic Democrats in the 1930s). I frankly don’t see it happening as most Orthodox Jews are hard core Democrats, albeit socially conservative ones.
It should be noted that Weiner got less then 60% of the vote his last time around. The republican does not have that much more to go to win.
Not only do most orthadox jews vote gop these days….its probably 85 percent in favor of the gop. How a pro israel jew can vote for a dem in a national election is beyond me. With the exception of ron paul, every single giper is 100 percent behind israel, not so at all with dem leading figures (ie clinton, obama, kerry)
Tipping point? Don’t fret, Democrats, almost all non-orthodox Jews (the vast majority) would sooner vote for, say. a rabid anti-Semite like David Duke than a Republican. That may never change.
Why are you an arm of the Republican party? When you selectively print lies it misleads Jews.
So when you censor your media with this following article you arent serving the klal.
Politico responded to Tevi Troy who is a propagandist like Rush Limbaugh for the Republican Party.
Politico quote ” DNC chair denies Jewish support erosion DNC chair denies Jewish support erosion June 29, 2011.
DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz denied today that Jewish Democrats are uncomfortable with President Obama.
“What was reported today is not what I am experiencing as I travel the country. The Democratic Party is a natural fit for American Jews, and as I travel the country I’m finding there’s great enthusiasm for President Obama,” said Wasserman-Schultz in a statement to POLITICO. “There is tremendous support among activists, volunteers and donors in the Jewish community for the President, and claims otherwise are just wishful thinking from partisan Republicans who are putting politics above policy.”
“As the first Jewish female Member of Congress from Florida, I’m proud to bring my love of Israel to work with me everyday. I can attest that in my work in the Jewish community I see great confidence in the President’s strong record of support for a safe and secure Jewish State of Israel,” she said.
So YWN actually printed an article where the author didnt have Shultz;s quotes but quotes about what Schultz said from others- which means that now there are no quotes at all that are reliable becasue there is no record of her having said the original quotes. the only direct quotes that come from her are on record after being taped of her- herself.
Why doesnt YWN learn how to be legitimate and report carefully instead of reporting knee jerk progpaganda cut and pastes in a shoddy way.
You dont have to read the politico tovknow that
“a rabid anti-Semite like David Duke than a Republican”
David Duke ran as a Republican. And many YWN commenters would rather vote for David Duke than a liberal Democrat. Certainly the apologists for Yehuda Levin would.
This is yet another partisan spin piece to fire up the Republican base. The Democratic defections from Obama are mostly visions in the dreams of Republican activists. For one thing, the Republicans have to come up with a reasonable candidate and none of the people currently running is impressing anyone. Proof of this is that many Republican pundits aren’t talking about the presidential election at all but are concentrating on the US Senate races.