by Frank James
One of the more interesting stories of this year's presidential campaign has been Barack Obama's relative weakness with Jewish voters, a voting group that typically strongly backs Democratic presidential nominees but whose backing for Obama has been significantly weaker than for his recent Democratic predecessors.
But that's apparently changing.
Gallup reported the following today:
PRINCETON, NJ -- Jewish voters nationwide have grown increasingly comfortable with voting for Barack Obama for president since the Illinois senator secured the Democratic nomination in June. They now favor Obama over John McCain by more than 3 to 1, 74% to 22%...
...The current proportion of U.S. Jews backing Obama is identical to the level of support the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards received in the 2004 presidential election (74%). It is only slightly lower than what Al Gore and Joe Lieberman received in 2000 (80%) -- when the first Jewish American appeared on the presidential ticket of a major party.
One of Gallup's more fascinating, counter-intuitive findings in this poll is that older Jews are actually stronger for Obama than younger Jews.
As Gallup explains it:
The slightly more pro-McCain orientation of the youngest category of Jewish voters (those 18 to 34) could be related to the fact that they are more apt than older Jewish voters to consider themselves political conservatives (29% vs. 16%). However, ideology does not appear to explain the gap between middle-aged and older Jewish voters. Whereas those 35 to 54 are more likely to support McCain, they are no more likely than older Jewish voters to describe their political views as conservative.
Maybe Sarah Silverman had it wrong; the Great Schlep should've gone in the other direction.
Comments
I imagine that the thought of Sarah Palin, President frightens Jewish Americans as it frightens most people capable of reading, writing and doing sums
jThe nasty attacks of John McCain may also ring some bells..
Posted by: c. perry | October 23, 2008 10:58 PM
It begs the question. How could anyone of Jewish decent even consider a vote for Obama? He wants to dialog with the very nations that want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. You can not reason with these liars and thugs. They would rather kill you as to look at you.
Posted by: paul | October 24, 2008 9:59 AM
Paul: The 'wipe off the map' comment is often used but has been debunked. Either way, like it or not, people want our leader to communicate with our enemies and at least strive towards an empowered solution.
Soviet Union felt like they wanted to wipe America off the map, but Reagan decided direct, old fashioned diplomacy was the way to go.
It's been polled as an overwhelmingly supported position, especially amongst independent voters.
Posted by: Joe | October 24, 2008 12:13 PM