American Jews favor Obama over McCain

[Thunder]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1024600.html

So American Jews favor Obama over McCain by a large margin.

Brings tears of pride to me eyes.

:D

[Oliver]

Fortunately, that's correct - but nothing surprising.
Unfortunately, Jews supporting a black Man will turn this thread into a MagZ Battleground.

[doobiedoright]

After my experiences with a few Jews last month,it dsosent surprise me at all!
The bigotry displayed towards Christians was unbelievable!

[Oliver]

After my experiences with a few Jews last month,it dsosent surprise me at all!
The bigotry displayed towards Christians was unbelievable!


How so?

[Nogbad]

I thought the US Jewish population routinely voted Democrat?

[moon1969]

Marc Rich would probaly favor Bill Clinton.

[Tony]

After my experiences with a few Jews last month,it dsosent surprise me at all!
The bigotry displayed towards Christians was unbelievable!

Then why would they like Obama? He is a christian, he just isn't a fanatical religious loon.

Christian fanatics have worked very hard to earn Jewish ire over the past 2000 years. I say we let them keep their prize.

[ProbeX]

I thought the US Jewish population routinely voted Democrat?

True. Jews are also considered the cultural voting bloc that is most pro-Obama, and yeah, it's probably partly because they heavily vote Democrat. But it doesn't seem to be the only reason for their support of him.

Can try and speak as a Jew here. I consider myself a Jew by culture, but not necessarily by religion (yeah, sounds confusing). I was born to a Jewish parent and participate in the culture and holidays but, perhaps illogically, I don't actually worship God, (or G-d).

Culturally, Jews disproportionately value education (in general), and Obama tends to attract voters with more education.

Also, obviously many Jews have been discriminated against harshly across the ages, not unlike Blacks. So the Jews and Blacks have some commonality and the Jewish community have often been the first to step up and defend Blacks (i.e: Civil Rights Movement). I'm not saying there aren't some Jews who are racist. There sure are. It gets to me.

Many Jews are raised to value philosophical discourse and the questioning of the status quo (w/the exception of the more orthodox Jews). So many of the Jews in my family, and those who I know, and know of, have a marked appreciation for Obama's seeming sense of intellectual depth and conversational nuance.

Well, this is my take on it anyway.

[The Painter]

I thought the US Jewish population routinely voted Democrat?

They do. It is a non-issue.

[Puppycow]

While Obama leads McCain by 27 percentage points in the survey, his numbers pale in comparison to those received by Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry.

When a democrat leads the republican by *only* 27 points among Jews, that's considered low. A Republican would do very well to get 40% of the Jewish vote.

Personally, I wish we had more Jews. I'm pro-semitic.

Maybe the Jews who would otherwise be republicans moved to Israel? That's probably not right, either. After all Israel is also famous for Kibbutzim, which are socialist communes.

Obama's Jewish support is about what you would expect, I think, since Jews are traditionally very pro-democratic.

[eeyore1954]

After my experiences with a few Jews last month,it dsosent surprise me at all!
The bigotry displayed towards Christians was unbelievable!

Of course I know there must be some I have never personally known a Jewish person who displayed any bigotry towards Christians.

[Safe-Keeper]

After my experiences with a few Jews last month,it dsosent surprise me at all!
The bigotry displayed towards Christians was unbelievable!I thought that when JEROME was banned, this place would become boring and troll-free. You've proven me wrong:).


So American Jews favor Obama over McCain by a large margin.

Brings tears of pride to me eyes. Good deal:).

[Meadmaker]

After my experiences with a few Jews last month,it dsosent surprise me at all!
The bigotry displayed towards Christians was unbelievable!

I've only experience that among the Orthodox, and even then I mean among the Orthodox who tend to form closed communities and mostly talk to other Jews. (Background: I'm atheist, but I married a Jewish woman and we are raising our son Jewish. Both of us routinely participate in the rituals, but I don't believe in God. I will probably convert some day if I can find a rabbi who will convert someone who is atheist. That sounds paradoxical, but I doubt it will be a big problem.)

Jews traditionally have been big Democratic voters. Back in the old days there was a lot of active anti-Semitism, and the civil rights support from the Democratic party was a big draw. Also, Jews really are more into education than the rest of the country, and educated voters (we elitists) tend to vote Democratic. I also think there is a stronger tendency toward community activism and less of the "rugged individualist" streak among Jews, which has tended to draw Jews toward Democrats.

In recent years, some of the more staunchly religious, especially among Orthodox and, to a lesser extent, Conservative Jews have defected to Republicans due to issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

In some of my discussions, Obama was perceived as not suffiently staunch in support of Israel. I don't know how much of that was legitimate based on stuff he said, or if it was suspicion based on a guy with an Arabic name. His call for discussions with Iran and Palestinians turned off some Jews, but I think they are generally overcoming that suspicion. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin is incredibly, intensely, pro-Israel, but it's obvious that her support is based on wanting to make sure Jesus has a home there, and that doesn't play so well at the synagogue. When I heard that the head of "Jews for Jesus" spoke at her church shortly before she received the nomination, I figured that alone was worth about 100,000 votes for Obama, and more if it seemed to be a pattern.

[MaGZ]

Fortunately, that's correct - but nothing surprising.
Unfortunately, Jews supporting a black Man will turn this thread into a MagZ Battleground.

A Black man whose cultural identity is Muslim. I thought Jews were suppose to be smart.

[hgc]

See Sarah Silverman's take on this: http://thegreatschlep.com/site/index.html

[MaGZ]

Then why would they like Obama? He is a christian, he just isn't a fanatical religious loon.

I don’t believe Obama is a Christian; he’s too smart for that. His mother and grandparents who raised him were atheists. Obama joined the Black racist church on the south side of Chicago only to further his political career.

[Cleon]

Jews tend to vote Democrat.

And evangelical Christians tend to vote Republican.

How is this news, exactly?

[Thunder]

After my experiences with a few Jews last month,it dsosent surprise me at all!
The bigotry displayed towards Christians was unbelievable!

Umm...Obama is a Christian.

I am a Jew in NYC. I can not tell you how many times I have had good Christian folk call me anti-Jewish names and utter anti-Jewish ideas at me.

To compare anti-Christian feelings of Jews in America..to anti-Jewish feelings of Christians in America...is INSANE.

[Thunder]

Most Jews likely support Obama cause he is clearly smarter then McCain, he shares the common values of Tikkun Olam (heal the world), he shares liberal social democrat values which most American Jews tend to have, he is not a Conservative Christian nut, and he went to Columbia University. =)

[davefoc]

I think the topic of this thread is misleading in that as people have noted Jews as a group routinely vote Democratic.

The more significant issue is whether Obama has retained or exceeded traditional Jewish support levels. Reasons that I suspect he has:

1. The tie in to Christian fundamentalism of the current Republican Party might make them uncomfortable (as Meadmaker mentioned), especially with the selection of Sarah Palin.

2. Obama has been skillful at positioning himself just below McCain on the Israel hawk scale. This encompasses a large percentage of the Jewish voters from the more dovish to the somewhat hawkish. The Israeli strong hawks were going to vote for McCain no matter what. Israel is their issue and they favor the candidate likely to support the most arms and the most money for Israel and the most aggressive American policy in the middle east. McCain is their guy period. They don't want some introspective mamby pamby guy getting in the way of their paradime of the middle east which is that Israel is good and Arabs are the problem. Sarah Palin summarized their views well (rough quote): "we're the good guys and they're the bad guys".

3. Obama comes across as a very bright guy (as Parky76 mentioned) and McCain doesn't. I suspect that this is going to appeal more to Jews as a group because of their emphasis on learning and intellectualisam.

One wild card here is the Muslim tie in and Obama's race. Both factors that will cost him some Jewish voters. I don't know how in net this affects things. Some Jewish people won't vote for him because he's black and some will vote for him because he is black. And he will probably lose some votes in the Jewish voting block because of the Muslim tie in. This is a more serious issue for Obama in other voting blocks though. I think there are big blocks of older religious Christian voters that are convinced that Obama is a Muslim and there is nothing in the world that will convince them otherwise. Although I may be misreading this. The rabid anti-Obama sentiment in this group might be more directed at the fact that he is black and the Muslim thing just provides cover for their underlying racist ideas.

One thing that is interesting here is that so much is made of a voting block that is so small. It is true that presidential elections can be so close that big swings in the Jewish voting block could decide an election. One theory is that in addition to Ross Perot another problem for the first Bush when he lost to Clinton was the dip in the percentage of Jewish vote that he got. Supposedly his decisions against some of Israel's expansion efforts lost him enough Jewish votes that he lost the election.

Still, swings in most identifiable voting blocks could change the outcome of an election and it doesn't seem that as much time is spent on discussing them, at least relative to their effect on the outcome of an election, as is spent discussing the Jewish voting block.

[ProbeX]

Of course I know there must be some I have never personally known a Jewish person who displayed any bigotry towards Christians.

Me either. Judaism is one of the few religions that generally doesn't try and convert others or cram religion down others' throats. Yeah, there are exceptions.

[ProbeX]

I don’t believe Obama is a Christian; he’s too smart for that. His mother and grandparents who raised him were atheists. Obama joined the Black racist church on the south side of Chicago only to further his political career.

Off-topic and off the wall.