NYT’s Kantor Claims Obama Lacks Support of Jewish Elderly « Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

NYT’s Kantor Claims Obama Lacks Support of Jewish Elderly

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Tags: Barack Obama

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 10:34 PM and is filed under Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace, Politics & Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “NYT’s Kantor Claims Obama Lacks Support of Jewish Elderly”

Suzanne says:

May 22, 2008 at 5:19 AM

I just finished reading the Kantor article in the NYT and mosied over here to get your take. The article did get my blood pressure up b/c I know this mindset very well- not only evident in the alta alta-cockers but the alta cockers and the alta cockers in training I am afraid in that pocket of Florida yes but I gather elsewhere- like sections of Brooklyn? LA?)) The group reenforced stupidity is mind-boggling. And you can’t argue them out of it.Though you Richard give stats to make me feel better and hope, I thought that the Kantor article showcased that mindset well. That Alan Dershowitz is being asked “who should we w\vote for?” Just about says it all. Funny if you can laugh.

If Obama wants to bother with these folks- he has his work cut out.

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MomGrandma says:

May 22, 2008 at 12:22 PM

OY VAY!!!! Vote Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for 2009!

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Richard Silverstein says:

May 22, 2008 at 1:01 PM

@MomGrandma: I’m afraid you won’t get the opportunity in 2009 as she’s not going to win. But she made a good effort & deserves a lot of credit despite the fact that I neither supported her nor liked her much as a candidate.

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americangoy says:

May 22, 2008 at 1:36 PM

“Alan M. Dershowitz…said he had been deluged with questions from Jews about the race, especially about what to think of Mr. Obama. “I have gotten hundreds of e-mails asking me, ‘Who should we vote for?’ ” he said.”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what…. the….. **** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

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Eric says:

May 23, 2008 at 8:12 AM

54 percent, in a poll with a margin of error of plus or minus three percent, is a “consensus”? I don’t think so. In my dictionary, “consensus” means general agreement, and I wouldn’t call a slim majority general agreement. I think it’s perfectly fair to call the Jewish community split on Iran.

But you are correct–I think Kantor’s questioning of Obama’s efforts in the Jewish community is unfair. He’s done a significant amount of courting of the Jewish community in the last two months. He may not have visited delis, but he had meetings with Jewish leaders in both Pa. and Ohio, and done interviews with Jewish media.

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Richard Silverstein says:

May 23, 2008 at 11:53 AM

Eric: You didn’t follow the link to the AJC survey. 38% approved of military action against Iran. So even if you apply the margin of error in a way that is entirely unfavorable to my pt of view that would mean that 51% disapprove of military action & 41% approve of it. Yes, that’s definitely a consensus though we appear to be defining the word differently. If you apply the margin of error in favor of negotiation then the numbers are even more impressive–57% disapprove & only 35% approve of military action. The way I would describe the alleged split is to say that there is a significant minority that favor it.

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Eric says:

May 23, 2008 at 1:15 PM

Richard,

After clicking through to the link, i noticed you didn’t even have the most recent AJC survey, which buttresses your point even more. The 2007 survey has it 57-35 against military action. But after looking over both surveys, I would say the one problem with your conclusion is that there is no specific question asking whether one favors negotiations or not. One could certainly be against military action at the present time and yet not in favor of negotiations either–instead favoring stepped up sanctions as the best policy, for instance. And the question you cite about whether one favor Bush administration policy is, in my opinion, a flawed and useless question. Not only does it presume that the people being questioned could tell you what Bush’s policy on Iran is–which I doubt a good percentage could–but it presumes that they all object to Bush’s policy as being too hard line. Someone who favors military action, for instance, might say they object to Bush administration policy on Iran because Bush has bombed them yet. I think it’s a fair conclusion to make that a majority of the community doesn’t support military action, but there’s nothing there to definitively prove they want negotiations, as Obama has pledged, either.

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Eric says:

May 23, 2008 at 1:17 PM

By the way, that should be “Bush hasn’t bombed them yet” in the second to last sentence.

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Richard Silverstein says:

May 23, 2008 at 1:30 PM

@Eric:

Thanks for pointing out that I quoted an old version of the survey. I should’ve caught that myself. I agree w. yr comment. Some Jews disagree w. Bush Iran policy because they think Iran should be bombed back to the Stone Age. But how many Norman Podhoretzes are there out there in the Jewish community? Not many.

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