פאול ! אבאמא שטארק צווישן יודין
Polls: Obama Doesn't Have A "Jewish Problem"
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| 7/21/2008 1:50 PM ET |
After analyzing a series of polls taken in April and May, the head of the National Jewish Democratic Council said Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee is beating his Republican opponent by roughly two to one among Jewish voters.
Ira Forman, the executive director of NJDC, said "there's a lot of solid support for Obama in the Jewish community" although between 5 percent and 10 percent remain undecided between Obama and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
On the "threshold issue" of support for Israel, Forman said there is essentially no difference between the two candidates, so Jewish voters will likely line up behind Obama because of his stances on the economy and social issues. However, he expects some on the right will attempt to portray Obama as insufficiently supportive of the Jewish state.
"Republican tactics in the Jewish community are almost totally focused around Israel because on domestic issues they're so far out of sync," Forman said, adding that he expects a "smear and fear" campaign of guilt by association to question Obama's commitment to Israel.
"On the substance of the issue, it's really an argument that has nowhere to go," he said.
McCain's perception as a moderate on some issues is also helping him among Jewish voters, Forman said, noting that the Arizona Republican is polling between 5 percent and 7 percent higher than President Bush did four years ago.
"Moderate Republicans do better, everything else being equal, than conservative Republicans among the Jewish electorate," he said.
Forman added that he didn't think the support of former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., would bolster McCain much among Jewish voters.
In 1996 the Clinton-Gore ticket took about 78 percent of the Jewish vote, and exit polls from 2000 show 79 percent of Jews voted for the Kerry-Lieberman ticket, Forman said.
"We never saw the jump that we kind of expected," he said. "We did not see a jump with Lieberman on the ticket. … I wouldn't overemphasize the Lieberman factor." |
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