The party line from Democrats this year has been to deny that President Obama is in any trouble of losing Jewish support to Mitt Romney in November. But the announcement that a group of Jewish liberals are seeking to form a group to counter the Republican Jewish Coalition’s campaign against Obama is proof the president is in trouble.
But these Jewish liberal donors who wish to offset the efforts of Romney donors such as Sheldon Adelson are making a mistake if they think all that is needed is to throw some money at the Jewish market. If the RJC’s “buyer’s remorse” ad campaign has traction it is because Jewish voters know that President Obama is, as veteran diplomat Aaron David Miller wrote yesterday, “not in love with the idea of Israel.” This is not, as one Democrat told Politico, a case of Obama being “swift-boated.” The GOP isn’t making up novel criticisms of the president so much as it is simply highlighting what everyone already knows
The credibility of those who assert that Obama is the best friend Israel ever had in the White House is undermined not only by the memory of the fights he picked with the Jewish state over the course of his first three years in office or by the fact that he was determined to distance the United States from Israel in an attempt to draw a contrast between his policies and those of his predecessor. The fact that the president has been forced to resort to a Jewish charm offensive intended to erase these incidents from the public’s memory is testimony to the White House’s concern that there will be a political price to be paid for the distance Obama created by himself and the Israeli government.
As Politico noted in the same article, such Republican efforts to eat into the Democrats’ historic advantage among Jewish voters are not new. Major investments were made four and eight years ago to no avail as John Kerry and Barack Obama won huge Jewish majorities that were second only to African-Americans in terms of margins for the Democrats.
The difference this year is not about Republican campaign tactics. It is about the Democrats’ heightened vulnerability. For decades, Jewish Republicans longed for another presidential candidate like Ronald Reagan whose percentage of Jewish votes has not been equaled in the last 30 years. But what they really needed was not another Reagan but another Jimmy Carter. While Obama may not be as unpopular among Jews as Carter, there is little question that his open hostility to Israel’s government will ensure a drastic reduction from the 78 percent of Jewish votes he won in 2008, a loss that could put battleground states like Florida or Pennsylvania in jeopardy for the incumbent. A Democratic campaign targeting Jews may stem some of the bleeding, but their problem is not Adelson, his money or the RJC, let alone Mitt Romney. The Democrats’ only liability as far as Jewish voters are concerned is the man on the top of their ticket.
It’s not only Obama. The Democrats’ Jewish problem is also Hillary Clinton, the silence of all Jewish Democrats except Joe Lieberman on the advance of antisemitism over the past twenty years, the coincidental expulsion of Joe Lieberman from the Democratic Party, the National Jewish Democratic Council’s endorsement of Clinton and Obama’s racist foreign policy and acting as a vehicle to convince Jews to support the Democrats rather than a Jewish caucus within the Democratic party, the routine banning of liberal Democrats from Democratic websites for not hating the Jews or for knowing Jewish history, and the fact you have to go to partisan Republican media to find accurate information about Jewish affairs.
The Democrats do not have a single prominent defender of the Jews. They do have a lot of people who will say the words “I’m pro-Israel” and immediately follow it up with anti-Israel rhetoric, slanders, and demands for further surrender. Not one Democratic official uses pro-Israel rhetoric, exposes the falsehoods of the slanders, or notes that surrendering has not worked for Israel. Not one Democrat seems to be aware that there is a problem with the party’s foreign policy.
The majority of Jews will continue voting Democratic because the Republicans are trying to force them to be Christians and are hostile to minority groups in general. The near enemy takes priority over the far enemy.
Where do you get the notion that Republicans want to convert the Jews, hence support Israel? There is surely a tradition of Christian Zionism, but to imagine that Republicans are all missionaries duping prospective members is delusional. Israel and the US share common interests, and Republicans know what they are.
What, this is Harvey Weinstein of Miramax notoriety? How many fat ugly Harvey Weinsteins can there be? Well, judging from Wikipedia you do have to recognize that these guys are the James Browns of the movie industry, Bob & Harvey are just the hardest workingest men in show business.
These Jewish liberals are getting close to being communists. Furthermore he is distancing himself from White America.
The Swift Boaters didn't make up novel criticisms. I left the left because Kerry said that the Communists would only kill 3,000 post war. They killed 100,000. plus another 250,000 that died at sea. By 1980 (after that was all over) I was well gone from the left. By '88 I was voting for Ron Paul. n nOf course I'm none too fond of the racism of Drug Prohibition or the denying medicine to people who need it.
This is about Romney. It all is. Here, we have a vulnerable president, a man who's not what America's presidents are supposed to be—and who does the GOP serve up? Mitt. n nSomething is wrong with this dynamic. Perhaps the GOP simply cannot function normally any longer, having been tagged by the presidency of George W. Bush and the non-candidacy of John McCain. And then, there were "the debates…………." What kind of political party puts on a serious of inspid "debates" like those we watched for several months? Where is the GOP's judgment, its sense of what the primary process is supposed to be? We have all gradually lowered our expectations to fit the reality, to the point that now we actually think Mitt is a good candidate. Are we that far-gone? n nNot one politically savvy man or woman I know thinks that Mitt's the right guy to run against Barack Obama. What kind of political party nominates a man whom no one thinks can win? n nAnd if he does win? President Mitt "I'm a businessman" Romney? Hard to process that. Oh, the boredom this man engenders! So "sincere," or as Ringo Starr once said, "too clean." He's a throwback to the 50s. What about today's Americans does Mitt plug into? Even the squarest among us is hipper than Mitt! Mitt, the businessman. n nWhat about a businessman—and I come from generations of them—is right for the White House? The last one was—Herbert Hoover. Remember him? He inspired no confidence at all among Americans at the onset of the Great Depression. His successor, Franklin Roosevelt, may have been many things we don't like—but he inspired the nation! His negatives/ Well, they all have a ton of flaws, our presidents, and FDR was no exception. But he stayed the course and the world was saved from fascism because of him. No small feat. n nTell me, if there is another Depression and/or a global war—will Mitt get us through it? n nWill the GOP go the way of the Whigs? I'm betting it will, no matter if Mitt wins or not. Mitt is the last straw! n nAnd as awful as Hillary Clinton is as a Secretary of State—and she is awful, an embarrassment really—so was Condoleeza Rice! And Mitt is thinking of her as a running-mate? What, Romney-Rice? As in "another 4 years for Obama?" n nFriends, Mitt Romney is not a bad man. Nor is Condoleeza Rice a bad woman. They are both seriously good people. But this is not about "who's nice, who isn't." This is about defending and furthering the historical trajectory of the United States, for the sake of the whole world. We cannot have s repeat of McCain-Palin, which was a freak show! Again, two good people, McCain and Palin, just not appropriate for running this nation. n nTo Obama's credit, at least he has a "vision," however twisted and bizarre it may be. Romney? What's his "vision?" Romneycare? How about "no vision at all!" This is a technocrat, a subdued, uninspiring, simple man who to my knowledge has never said an interesting or insightful thing in his whole life! I'm willing to admit I'm wrong. If anyone can quote or point to even one thing that suggests "Romney's da man," I'll be the most relieved Republican out there!
Mitt is NWO. Just as is Obama. He just has better atmospherics than Obama. As a temporary holding measure he is fine. He is a go slow Progressive. Don't wise up the Marks. But as an antidote to Obama? No way.
You are very harsh on Romney and I think unjustifiably so. I think you base your opinion on his record as governor of Massachusetts. As a resident of that state I can tell you that its legislatures are completely dominated by Democrats who could pass anything over his veto. Under those circumstances he could not work his will upon the state. That he managed to accomplish what he did in the directions you approve is remarkable. He staved off a much worse medical plan with what was passed, and it has not produced 150 new government organizations with unknown powers. In fact it hasn't changed medical practices in Massachusetts much at all so far. nYou will be pleasantly surprised if he wins the election.
This fear of missionaries has got to end. Nobody can force us to convert, we are not at their mercy. Free people, free nation. Plus it’s not just a matter of power.
The Jewish religion rejects the notion of a God-man. How is a religion which promotes the appearance of precisely such a God-man going to convince any Jews? Without being religious it’s not hard to see why they had to use force in the past. Well, the situation has changed. For all I care all the republicans and all the Christian Zionists want Jews to convert. Let them, they can have their fantasies. We don’t need to agree on everything.
But unless you believe Christianity has some argument against Judaism there’s really nothing to fear. How are they going convince us? Quite the opposite is the case. There are loads of Christians who want to become Jewish.
We must make peace with Muslims, even though they dream of slaughtering all the Jews. But we shouldn’t trust people who support and love us but and like to convince us of something must of us regard as silly.
Stay in your bubble, right wing-nuts. Keep on with your labored theorizing/fantasizing. Keep on obfuscating and truth-twisting to reinforce your dreams of "taking back" America. You'll be oh so shocked in November.