Exit polls have now been fully weighted and finalized and Hillary Clinton, it seems, won the Jewish vote in Pennsylvania 62-38%. That is a rather stunning margin, especially considering many of these are more educated and upscale voters (who have consistently favored Barack Obama throughout the primary). This voting group likely contributed to Clinton’s surprising win in Montgomery County(51-49%), a Philly suburb thought to have been prime territory for Obama. So yes, there is now evidence that Obama has a “Jewish problem.”

But it would be a mistake to say that Obama’s endorsement by Hamas, his relationship with Reverend Wright and his willingness to have tea with Ahmadinejad is merely an issue with Jewish voters. Clinton’s final ad featuring Osama Bin Laden, like her 3 a.m. ad before the Texas and Ohio primaries, was aimed at a wider audience obviously than just Jews. The same factors that may give Jews pause also raise some key concerns among all voters, namely their willingness to entrust Obama with the role of commander-in-chief and their overall perception of him as on the extreme Left, even within his own party. It is striking that Obama lost all but self-identified “very liberal” Pennsylvania voters.

So perhaps it is accurate to say that Obama has a “voter problem,” in which Jews play a small, but noteworthy part.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 27th, 2008 at 3:48 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.