New York – Jewish Support for Obama Slipped, But Still Strong

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    A religious American Jewish woman completes her forms next to ballot boxes and an American banner as American nationals in Israel cast their vote in the USA presidential elections, in Jerusalem, Israel, 23 October 2012. EPA/JIM HOLLANDERNew York – Jewish support for US President Barack Obama slipped in the 2012 presidential race but still far surpassed that earned by Republican Mitt Romney, according to exit polls.

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    On Tuesday, 69 percent of Jews cast their ballot for the Democratic candidate as compared to 78% in 2008. Some 30% went for Republican Mitt Romney, up from 22% for the party’s candidate in the last presidential race.

    The exit polls are conducted by a national consortium and generally include samples of 400-500 Jewish voters in their national survey.

    Both parties took comfort in the outcome and used it to bolster their argument about the political orientation of the Jewish community.

    “In no way, shape or form was this a narrow victory,” said Democratic pollster Jim Gerstein about the 2012 Jewish vote, which he said was closer to the 2008 results than reflected in the exit polls. A group of academics and pollsters affiliated with the National Jewish Democratic Council later adjusted the Jewish vote figure, which is notoriously hard to track given the small sample size gathered in surveys, from four years ago down to 74% after compiling more data.

    Gerstein said that that means the drop in the Jewish vote – of about 5% – is consistent with the drop in support for Obama overall among other key constituencies such as Catholics and white voters. Nationally, Obama’s popular support dropped from 53% of the vote to 50%.

    The Republican Jewish Coalition, however, argued that this year’s exit poll had to be considered in relation to the 2008 original exit poll number in order to get an accurate comparison.

    “If the Democrats want to lower their expectations to make their candidate look better, that’s up to them,” said RJC executive director Matt Brooks.

    He maintained that the 8-point increase for the Republican candidate represented “unambiguous inroads into the Jewish community” by the GOP, particularly given what a large percentage jump it represented.

    The RJC launched an unprecedented $6.5 million campaign for Jewish votes, targeting swing states with phone calls, mailings, surrogate events and ads.

    “I thought we got a good return on the investment we made,” he said.

    Gerstein, who on Tuesday did an election night survey of Jewish voters for J Street that found results similar to the exit polls, disputed the efficacy of the RJC efforts, suggesting their efforts to peel away voters over topics like Israel and Iran was misplaced.

    According to his survey Tuesday, only 10% of Jews identified Israel as one of their two main voting issues, and just 2% chose Iran.

    The RJC, however, in its own Tuesday survey found that 77% of Jews surveyed said Israel was an important issue to them compared to only 22% who didn’t.

    US Ambassador Michael Oren didn’t have to conduct a survey during the election to conclude that the issue of Israel was important to voters, noting the number of times it came up on the campaign trail and in the presidential debates.

    “The candidates competed with each other over who was more pro-Israel,” he told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

    Oren dismissed the suggestion being made by some in the Israeli and US media that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tried to interfere in the US election on behalf of Romney and would pay a price in his relationship with the White House.

    “We do not interfere with internal politics,” Oren stressed.

    Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post


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    11 Comments
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    SherryTheNoahide
    SherryTheNoahide
    11 years ago

    Jews are smart! Romney’s plan made ZERO sense! The math didn’t add up! Sorry folks, but it didn’t! Not to mention, MOST of America (you know, us 47%’ers & 99% ‘ers) weren’t interested in giving the very people who wrecked the economy, trillions in tax breaks, when we NEED more revenue coming in right now! We have 300+ million people living in this country! NOT the #’s we had back when the Founding Fathers started the country, for pete’s sakes! LOL

    But what else do you expect from a party that consistently brings up the 1980’s all the time? Who’s heros are (only) Hamilton or Jefferson, and never Kennedy or even Bush Sr for crying out loud?!

    And notice how they act as if the 2nd Bush’s Administration NEVER existed?! And expected that the rest of the country would just FORGET who screwed everything up in the 1st place?! Who’s watch 9\11 happened on?! Who got Us unto 2 pointless wars that they didn’t even put on the books & left our current President to try & find a way to pay for?!

    No! Jews are NOT stupid! And like a lot of other Americans, they mostly all cast their ballots for Barack Obama, because a lot of Jews are a part of the “loser 47%” that Mitt Romney talked smack about at his fancy fundraiser in Boca Raton! LOL

    11 years ago

    We are our own worst enemy. From the liber leftist to the people who think but giving food stamps and section 8 is really going to help us. obama is destroying America, the leftist, people wanting something for nothing, free birth control and
    college loans for nothing put this person back into power What a mistake America did. Look at the stock market and it is going to get worse. Business are not going to build in the anti business economy of obama. obamacare is going to destroy the best health service in the world. I know I have lived else where

    11 years ago

    The majority of American Jews have voted away kashrut, Shabbat, Taharat Hamishpacha. They have voted away Tallit, T’filin and Mezuza.

    They have voted for shrimp, pork, and (tref) Chinese food.
    The 613 Mitzvot have been replaced by the “mitzva” of “tikkun olam”.

    Those are the 70% who voted for Obama, plus a few leeches, who are getting government handouts!!

    SandraM
    SandraM
    11 years ago

    Sherry, sherry. Calm down. Your man won, to the great detriment of the USA.

    What a shame that lying, rhetoric and class warfare works so effectively.
    Romney’s loss is America’s loss. History will prove that, but by then it will be too late.

    Canada went through with something similar to this in the 1970’s with the highly charismatic Pierre Elliot Trudeau – they called it Trudeau-mania back then. He was so full of hope and change. Yeah. Canada is still cleaning up from his devastating socialist policies. Canada used to lead the world in health care; today there is a huge crisis with doctors shortages, long waits in Emergency rooms which can stretch for days, and 3-6 month waiting periods for simple things such a MRI and CT scans, let alone surgeries, where the waiting could take a year in some cases.

    Obama’s chickens will come home to roost, but not now; in twenty or thirty years, and by then it will be way too late to do anything about it..

    11 years ago

    Money Money Money Getting welfare etc etc etc is the priority

    shalomke
    shalomke
    11 years ago

    Sorry Sherry, but the vast majority of orthodox voters voted Romney. As for our secular brethren, they have long since replaced Jewish values with liberalism, so no surprise here.