Obama, Jewish Voters and the Lessons of 1984

Commentary ^ | Jason Maoz

[alan alda]

Turns out there are real questions about the accuracy of that recent Quinnipiac poll showing President Obama’s approval rating at just 52 percent among Jewish voters. As the JTA’s Eric Fingerhut pointed out, the Jewish sampling “was derived from a sample of just 71 respondents, for a margin of error of plus or minus 11.6 percent — a sample size that pollsters generally say makes such surveys unreliable.”

Actually, common sense and some knowledge of Jewish voting habits should be enough to render any such poll findings suspect at best. Obama enjoys two important advantages that make him almost a shoo-in to win another landslide among Jewish voters three years from now: he’s a well-spoken, nonthreatening black man (a factor not to be underestimated when considering the voting psychology of liberal and moderate Jews), and he’s adamantly opposed to and by the Christian Right.

[broken_arrow1]

HITLER would get 52% of the American Jewish vote. Do they ever open their eyes and ears?

[Gadsden1st]

Haven’t you ever watched Jewish Comics. The just love to talk about how miserable they are. They have a death wish and ever so often they manage to fullfill it.

[originalbuckeye]

Sadly most Jews don’t understand that Christians are their biggest cheerleaders. Most Christians are far more supportive of Israel than most non-Jewish Leftists.

[Dem Guard]

Are they forgetting Obama hates ALL whites?

[hinckley buzzard]

Apparently, if this writer is correct, liberal and moderate Jews are more afraid of their strongest ally than they are of their worst enemy. Strange people.

[x]

39% in 1980 is impressive, and 31% in 1984 disappointing? I suppose, but Maoz goes to a lot of trouble to explain fluctuations in what looks like a more or less consistent pattern.

An 8% fall-off doesn't necessarily mean Jews were terrified of Falwell. It may just mean Jimmy Carter wasn't running.

[alan alda]

Maoz points out in his article that polls found Jews disliked Falwell more than Jackson. And he makes clear that the 39 percent number in 1980 was good for a Republican but that Reagan was expected to even do better in 1984 — until he began courting the Christian Right and suddenly Jesse Jackson looked a lot less fierce.

[arthurus]

more supportive of Israel than most non-Jewish Leftists.

Or a great portion of Jewish leftists.

[x]

He argues that, but it's not out of place to wonder whether Reagan's 39% of the Jewish vote would have been more lasting than Eisenhower's 40% in the 1950s, whatever he did.

Looking at how well Clinton, Kerry, and Obama did among Jewish-Americans shows that there were real limits to how well Reagan could have done.

It's possible that Reagan wanted to focus his campaign against Jesse Jackson, he could have won more Jewish votes, but how often is it that a losing contender for one party's nomination becomes a major issue in November?

And was Falwell really that important to Reagan, or were the Democrats playing up the evangelical connection to pry votes away from the Republicans?

[Elle Bee]

as someone here said during the election .... like chickens voting for Col. Sanders

.

[Clintonfatigued]

Mondale’s strong support among Jewish voters was the big surprise for me in 1984. 25% of Jewish voters who supported Reagan in 1980 supported Mondale in 1984. Amazing.

The best Republican showing among Jewish voters was Richard Nixon in 1972, as Jewish voters really disliked George McGovern. If I’m not mistaken, Nixon won between 40% and 43% of the Jewish vote. But that evaporated in 1976.

Maybe this is a reflection of my bias, and I’m not Jewish myself, but I don’t believe what polls say about Obama’s support among Jewish and youth voters. I will bet that Obama got, at most, 70% of the Jewish vote and 60% of the youth vote.

[GladesGuru]

“as someone here said during the election .... like chickens voting for Col. Sanders”

Ba, Ba, Ba, Baraaack! - the call of the Jewish voter.

It does make sense when one “follows the cash”.

Many Jews are in positions which are directly or indirectly funded by government. Education, most all the soft science positions, ad nauseam.

Cash for the commies, our cash!

[originalbuckeye]

Yes. It is baffling the number of Jews who aren’t supportive of Israel.

[Dionysius]

As a Muslim he especially hates Jews — that’s why he isn’t doing jack to prevent Iran from getting the bomb. If Tel Aviv was vaporized he’d cre*m all over his prayer rug.

[originalbuckeye]

I hadn’t heard the acronym JINO yet. Yes, I agree.

[originalbuckeye]

I heard Achmadinejad shouting about how far Iran has come in developing their nuclear capabilities in the last 10 months. Obviously he was referring to the amount of time Zero has been President. I hope all those people that voted for Zero thinking the world would LOVE us if he was President, well, I hope they are the only ones hurt by his policies. The rest of us don't deserve the exponentially more dangerous world Zero is creating.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

[eddiespaghetti]

Many Jews are in positions which are directly or indirectly funded by government. Education, most all the soft science positions, ad nauseam.

How many fields of science (hard or soft) or education can you name that are NOT funded, directly or indirectly, by the government?

It appears certain that you’ve examined the issue closely, and can demonstrate the distribution of government handouts according to religion and/or ethnicity, right? (sarc.)

Your conjecture is worthy of Buchanan. That is to say, it is insipid and based on opinion rather than facts, while itself masquerading as truth.