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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Cutting Obama (too much) slack

Jeffrey Goldberg reports on the results of a Pew poll on Israel supporters and Obama.
Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, far more Americans continue to say they sympathize with Israel rather than the Palestinians (by 48% to 11%). These opinions are little changed from recent years.

A plurality (50%) says Barack Obama is striking the right balance in the Middle East situation, while 21% say he favors the Palestinians too much. There has also been no change in these views over the past year; in April 2010, 47% said Obama struck the right balance and 21% said he favored the Palestinians too much.
... On the more specific, Obama-related point, it seems as the Republican campaign to paint the president as anti-Israel isn't working so well, especially when you consider that "that a plurality of those who are more sympathetic with Israel also say Obama has the balance right." Sargent goes on to write, "Of those who are more sympathetic to Israel, 49 percent say he strikes the right balance, versus only 38 percent who say he favors the Palestinians too much."
I wonder if those American Jewish supporters of Israel would be cutting Obama so much slack if he were - say - George H.W. Bush (and NO I did not like or support Bush - I voted for Clinton in 1992 and Gore in 2000 because of how much I disliked George H.W. Bush. George W. Bush's support for Israel turned out to be a pleasant surprise). American Jews are doing some wishful thinking because they can't bring themselves to support a Republican for President.

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2 Comments:

At 11:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not all American Jewish supporters of Israel support Obama, or cut him any, let alone so much slack.
I never liked George Bush and I was a delegate for Hilary Clinton in 2008 but disliked Obama so much that I held my nose and voted for a Republican for the first time in my life.
This time my dislike has expanded exponentially, no way do I feel Obama is a friend of Israel or cares about Jews other than to expand his pool of voters. He'll never get my vote.

 
At 5:57 AM, Blogger Captain.H said...

"American Jews are doing some wishful thinking because they can't bring themselves to support a Republican for President."

Let me make that statement even more specifically correct. "American Jews are doing some wishful thinking because they can't bring themselves to support a Republican." That'd be like getting in to see the Wizard. Doesn't happen, "not no how, not no way!"

Not that Jewish Americans are alone in having drunk the Democrat Kool-Aid. Ditto, for example, for black Americans, who gave Comrade Hussein Obama 93% of their vote. The majority of those people voted for him because he's *black*, as well as a Democrat. (Black Republicans and black conservatives in general being "traitors", of course. JC Watts, Alan West, Clarence Thomas, Walter Williams and of course Condi Rice, to name a few "traitors".)

Now, if I, a white person, were to vote for a candidate solely or even partly because he or she is white and the other candidate isn't, that's racism, right? So, what's the difference when blacks do the same? Rhetorical question.

 

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