New York election: Has Obama lost the Jewish vote?
| Washington
Conservative provocateur Matt Drudge鈥檚 headline this morning on the election in NY-9 screamed:
"Revenge of the Jews; Dem Seat Turns in NYC"
It was a fresh headline on this e about the Republican win of a long-time Democratic seat in New York.
And in today鈥檚 Wall Street Journal, Dan Senor that the Democrats鈥� special-election loss in New York City was a direct rebuke of President Obama鈥檚 Israel policy. Senor, who was the Bush administration鈥檚 top spokesman in Iraq, analyzes Obama鈥檚 鈥淚srael problem鈥� in detail - and concludes that the president is hemorrhaging support among Jewish voters (who broke strongly for him in 2008).
If true, this could pose a serious threat: Jewish voters are a key voting bloc in critical swing states like Florida and Pennsylvania.
But the evidence is hardly clear-cut. Over at CNN鈥檚 , Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg is quoted today as saying that Obama鈥檚 recent drop in approval ratings among Jewish voters in NY-9 simply mirrored the drop in approval ratings among Democrats in general.
鈥�Jewish voters are no different than all the voters in the district.鈥�
And nationally, as recently as last June, Gallup found Jewish voters giving Obama a 60 percent approval rating. Among Jewish Democrats, support was at 83 percent. Notably, those numbers came in the wake of Obama鈥檚 May speech declaring that Israel鈥檚 1967 borders should be the starting point for peace negotiations - a speech that drew criticism from some Jewish leaders.
Gallup concluded there was 鈥渘o evidence鈥� that the policy speech had any significant impact on Jewish voters鈥� attitudes toward Obama.
This would seem to suggest that Jewish voters - like Democrats overall - may have grown increasingly unhappy with the president after what was an indisputably rough summer (the debt-ceiling debacle, the S&P downgrade, bad jobs reports). But that doesn鈥檛 mean Obama has a unique problem with this bloc, or that he won鈥檛 necessarily be able to bring them around when the time comes.
Want more?
- Read the Gallup reports and .
- Watch House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R) argue that President Obama in his support for Israel.
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