Newsweek: "Wooing the Jewish vote...can Bush make inroads?"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6083061/site/newsweek/



Sept. 23 - Florida's Palm Beach County—land of butterfly ballots and electoral chaos—was back in the thick of political battle on Wednesday. The target this time: Jewish voters. At Temple Beth El in West Palm Beach, Rudy Giuliani gleefully lambasted Sen. John Kerry for his alleged flip-flops on Iraq, drawing guffaws and a few standing ovations from an audience of about 500. “This would be funny if it was on the Letterman show,” said Giuliani. “It isn’t funny when we’re talking about the war on terror.” The former New York mayor then made an emphatic case for re-electing President Bush. “He has stood up to terrorism and will continue to do so no matter how much they ridicule him,” Giuliani asserted. “He knows (the terrorists) only respect strength.” To conclude, Giuliani pressed his hands together in prayer. “Do me one favor, please,” he told the congregation. “Please don’t make it so close this time.”

At almost precisely that moment, across town at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, Kerry was wooing Jewish voters just as ardently. He recounted for the crowd the time he’d flown over Israel and, seeing from above how closely girded it was by countries like Egypt and Jordan, realized its fragility. After the rally, Kerry met privately for almost an hour with a group of about 65 Jewish officials and community leaders. He averred his staunch support of Israel and bemoaned what he considered its more precarious position after years of reckless foreign policy under Bush. Then he moved beyond the Middle East, taking questions on everything from health care to the Supreme Court. “I think it’s outstanding that someone running for president would take the time to meet with a relatively small group of Jewish leaders to hear their opinions,” said Nan Rich, a Florida state representative, who pressed Kerry to be more vocal on women’s issues. “You could just sense that he was really hearing what people were saying.”

Both campaigns have good reason to listen. Though Jews make up only 4 percent of the nation’s electorate, they usually turn out to the polls in droves. What’s more, Jews are concentrated in key battleground states—most importantly Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. A five-point shift in Florida—where, despite Giuliani’s pleas, the victory margin may well be whisker-thin again—could signify more than 20,000 votes. In 2000, Bush won a meager 19 percent of the traditionally Democratic Jewish vote, compared to 79 percent for Al Gore (Reagan’s 38 percent in 1980 marked a high point for the GOP). But this time around, largely because of Bush’s unflagging support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Republicans think they can sway a chunk of that electorate to their side. “We can make the difference in the election,” says Adam Hasner, Florida chairman of the Bush-Cheney Jewish outreach coalition. “We’re making the Democratic Party defend votes that it has historically taken for granted.”

Take Ricki Black. Raised in a Democratic household in New York, the Boca Raton resident voted for Gore in 2000. But she changed her registration to Republican at Temple Beth El just before Giuliani spoke and plans to vote for Bush in November. “ changed everything,” says Black, 45. Now, “terrorism is the No. 1 issue.” As her Republican husband, Greg, 50, put it, “We can either face Armageddon or take the fight to the terrorists.” Israel is another front in the same war, in the couple’s view, and they say Bush has proven he can lead by acting decisively and surrounding himself with steely and competent advisers.

[rockymountaindem]

1. Fine with me.

I hope they continue to waste their time trying to get Jews to vote for the people who want Armageddon to come so we'll all just go away...

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. Jews only make up 2.2% of the population.

According to the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/usjewpop.html


Asians, on the other hand, make up 4.2% http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_QTP5&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-_lang=en&-_sse=on

So why I have seen dozens of articles about how Jews will vote but nothing about how Asians will vote? :shrug:

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

4. Asians don't vote as a bloc

And no one knows how to campaign to them.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

6. That because no effort has gone into it.

Asians are considered statistically irrelevant.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

10. True

Yet I also doubt there will ever be an "Asian vote". Jews have always been overwhelmingly Democratic, whether they are in Chicago or Atlanta or Beverly Hills.

Jewish is an emic identity, Asian is etic. Meaning, Jews think of themselves as Jews; Asians (coming from Asia to US) must learn to think of themselves as "Asian". There isn't as much identity there as outsiders like to put to it.

In general, though, the longer-term Asians in America (pre 1965 immigrants) with a history of extreme discrimination are liberal. The more recent arrivals from Communist countries tend to more conservative politics. All have been characterized as pragmatic, rather than partisan, voters.

The biggest inroads Asians have made are in Congress, especially with Hawaii reliably sending Asians to the Capitol. They've had a lot of success getting Asian nationalities on the census form, without which that 4% would look more like 2%.

[dansolo]

13. Because it isn't the Jewish vote that interests them

It's the contributions.

[Catfight]

3. Isn't Bush happy with his 4 million 'christian' followers? Why does he

have to woo anyone for votes? You'd think we'd all vote for him solely on his record...OH THAT'S right, he doesn't have a record! A vote for Bush means you endorse 4 more years of WAR.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

5. A Jew who votes for a Nazi....

Should be under psychiatric observation.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. There were many.

Not just today, but in WW2. The sick bastards really thought he was best for Germany.

[dennis4868]

8. As a jew I have to say.....

that any other jew who would vote for Bush is an ignorant and uninformed person and I am embarrassed by that jew. Why would any jew in their right mind vote for a man who is very close and good friends and is social with a man (Prince Bandar Bush) who has done so much in supporting the death of so many jewish people in Israel......there is no question that Bandar Bush helps finance the very people who murder jews in Israel. Plus, Bush's religon should make any jew nervous....Jews need to know that Bush's "love" for Israel has to with his belief that there has to be a state of Israel for the baby jesus to return and when he does all jews are going to hell....Bush actually sais this in a 1998 interview by a Dallas reporter. And on top of this, Bush's family mad a hel of alot of money funding the nazi party in Germany in the 1940s.....and there are jews who support this shit?

Some jews are so fucking stupid it makes me so mad!

[Gyre]

9. No sense in courting this group further.

The percentage of 2.2% of the population that this group represents, that remains undecided is negligible. Probably, 12% of 2.2%. Which equals exactly just over half of one percentage point (.58%) of the population.

If Kerry goes off track attempting to appeal to special interest groups now, for no articulable advantage, he would be a fool.

Gyre

[xkenx]

11. WHY BUSH SUPPORTS ISRAEL

Try to tell any Jewish voter you know who might be supporting Bush because of his perceived strong support of Israel, this.....

The evangelicals who back/control Bush need to have Israel preserved so that Jesus has a place to return at the Armageddon, at which time the Jews (no longer needed) will either convert or die. Therefore, Bush's support is cynical and not related to the firm committment of all previous U. S. presidents. Furthermore, Bush's failure to be evenhanded in the region increases, not decreases the threat to Israel. And with the U.S. so overstretched with the Iraq misadventure, how could the U.S. help Israel if she were attacked?

[The Chronicler]

12. Jews are waiting for the messiah to arrive in Jerusalem as well

They just think it will be his first arrival. Christians see it as Jesus' return.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

14. "Vote for me and I'll put a good word in for you before you go to hell!"

Yeah right. :eyes: