President Obama enjoys strong, steady support from Jewish Americans amid concerns that he faced an erosion in their backing.
A new Gallup Poll found Monday that 60 percent of Jewish Americans said they approve of the way Obama is handling his job, a figure that’s relatively consistent with the high level of support he’s enjoyed from that bloc this year.
Thirty-two percent of Jewish Americans said they disapprove of the way the president is handling his job, a figure that hasn’t really jumped since May 19, when Obama delivered a major speech outlining a peace process for Israelis and Palestinians.
That speech was sharply rebuked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and spurred speculation — especially on the right — that Jewish voters who had been aligned with Democrats might shift their support away from Obama.
That storyline has prompted some coverage, and Democrats have been sensitive to the charge; the Democratic National Committee recently went out of its way to boast that a fundraiser featuring Jewish Democrats in Washington was oversold.
The Gallup Poll, conducted throughout June, has a 7 percent margin of error.
(Source: The Hill)
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24 Responses
That makes sense. Most Jewish voters are secular, and Obama is totally in tune with them on all issues, especially Israel.
Very few Orthodox Jews supported Obama to begin with, so a growing antagonism towards him among non-supporters has no impact. Also remember that most Orthodox Jews can’t vote (being under age), whereas almost all secular Jews are eligible to to vote (due to their small family size). The age of secular Jews also means they will be very upset over anything that results in lower Medicare or Social Security benefits (they want vastly more than they paid for).
It is a sad day in this country when a poll shows 60% support for a president who agenda is to destroy Israel and hates Jews. Wake up liberal America before it is too late, I”YH it is not too late already, it was the liberal/socialist Jews who supported Hitler in the beginning also, those who do not learn from history are damned to repeat it.
how many of those jews are frum…
“Very few Orthodox Jews supported Obama to begin with”
I know a lot of Orthodox Jews who supported Obama over McCain in 2008. He carried my neighborhood in a landslide.
“it was the liberal/socialist Jews who supported Hitler in the beginning also”
I challenge you to name even ONE such liberal/socialist Jew.
Please note the “margin of error” SEVEN PERCENT !!! that means that the sample that was interviewed was woefully small (probably two-three hundred people)and this survey means NOTHING!
This is a common ply by pollsters to trumpet their findings and then-in the smal print- show that the survey was essentially worthless.
And how did they choose their sample? This too is crucial in establishing the “bona fides” of a survey. It is probable that they chose members of Jewish organizations and these are-by and large- secular. Hence, the (skewed) results.
Nebuch pity on American Jews who are so far away from Torah values that they don’t even see what’s wrong with supporting the most anti Israel President in who knows how long
Sorry CH,
“I know a lot of Orthodox Jews who supported Obama over McCain in 2008. He carried my neighborhood in a landslide”
I) I didn’t realize that your neighborhood consituted the majority of Orthdoox Jews.
II) You should probably preface that your neighborhood is made up of mostly minorites and illegals.
III) Just gut feeling but “my neighborhood” is probably a little bigger than “your neighborhood” and I highly doubt that he carried even a 1/4 of the orthodox vote in my neighborhood.
I am frum and PROUDLY support my presodent. I fully intend to work for his re-election next year.
Nebuch pitty on those whose knoweledge is so pitifully low, whose ethnic jingoism is so monstrously high, and whose tolerance for differing opinions is so non-existant that they can come out with such horrible nonsense as:
“a president who (sic) agenda is to destroy Israel and hates Jews”
“it was the liberal/socialist Jews who supported Hitler in the beginning”
“Nebuch pity on American Jews who are so far away from Torah values that they don’t even see what’s wrong with supporting the most anti Israel President in who knows how long”
Torah values is not the issue…there is nothing in the Mesorah that supports such stupidity.
CharlieSmall…the “Small” fits well
I totally support President Obama. Obama is one of the greatest Presidents in American history. He single-handedly created more than 2.1 million jobs, killed bin Laden, brought democracy to the Arab world, saved the auto industry, enacted universal health care for all, and brough marriage equality to the military. Global warming is stopping for the first time in a century thanks to President Obama’s policies.
In addition, it behooves us in the Jewish community to show our respect to the black community by overcoming racism and re-electing the President for another well-deserved 4 years.
No. 5: A poll with a margin of error of 7% is not worthless – it is more accurate than a poll with a margin of error of 8% and less accurate than a poll with a margin of error of 6%. The poll reported was by Gallup, which is a respectable organization that knows how to pick a sample. Your unsupported speculations about how Gallup selected the sample for this poll has an unmeasurable margin of error, which is a high-falutin’ way of saying that your idle speculations are worthless.
The meaningful question that no one has asked is: what predictive value, if any, does this poll have about the “Jewish” vote in the 2012 presidential election? I could speculate on the answer, but that would have an unmeasurable margin of error, which is a high-falutin’ way of saying that my idle speculations are as worthless as No. 5’s speculations.
I suggest everyone calm down and go back to work.
Dear YonasonW:
Torah values is ALWAYS the issue
‘Tolerance for differing opinions’ is a goyish, not Torah value (and in any case how is that is at all relevant here??)
..but IF you do so admire being ‘tolerant of differing opinions’, why resort to petty name calling when people express an opinion so different then what yours apparently is..??
YonasonW is the “W” for Geroge W Bush????
Is it just me, or when the polls aren’t in his favor, they get discounted as arbitrary and meaningless numbers?
“II) You should probably preface that your neighborhood is made up of mostly minorites and illegals.”
The largest ethnic group in my neighborhood is….Jews. The local state assemblyman, a non-observant Jew, was stunned at how well Obama did in the Orthodox election districts, carrying all of them with majorities of 65% to 88%. Admittedly not all of those pro-Obama voters were Orthodox, but an awful lot of them had to be.
“No Erosion In Support”?!?!
He was at 83% Jewish approval. I’d say 83 to 60 is a significant drop
Its not about the votes since most jewish voters live in states that Obama will anyways win (with the exception of Florida that is a swing state) Its about the MONEY!! And by their own admission they are feeling it.
Charlie Hall’s “I know a lot of Orthodox Jews who supported Obama over McCain in 2008. He carried my neighborhood in a landslide” made me chuckle.
I too used to belong to a nominally Orthodox synagogue, out of town, at which a minyan could never be counted on, and where “shiur” was an unknown concept, and to which the kehilla drove on the yom tovim (which was just about the only time we went there). Yeah, we were the Obama set, and we called ourselves “Orthodox”. Thank G-d, that was all before I became Orthodox.
Times have changed, though, because even back then when we were totally irreligious, we still would not have imagined the day would come that we’d actually campaign for a president who would order an international investigation of Israel for an IDF raid on a terrorist boat that was purposely flouting Israel’s security.
“order an international investigation of Israel for an IDF raid on a terrorist boat that was purposely flouting Israel’s security”
YOU SLANDEROUS LIAR! Not only did the Obama administration defend Israel’s right under international law to conduct the raid, it BLOCKED an attempt in the UN to have an international investigation, insisting that the investigation be done BY ISRAEL.
This just shows that the Obamahaters either (1) have lost all connection to reality, or (2) deliberately decided that motzi shem ra is mutar.
charlie,
then it seems like DEMOCRATIC jews are exactly that
DEMOCRATS first then jewish
A liberal jew is a liberal first and a jew …. maybe.
liberalism is THE religion.
ItsFunToBeBT (#19) – I want to add to whay CharlieHall said to you in (#20) – Your arguments against Obama must be pretty weak if you stoop to either fooling yourself with falsehoods or making an outright lie. Shame on you.
MarkLevin says “A liberal jew is a liberal first and a jew …. maybe. liberalism is THE religion.”
How stupid, frankly…I mean…I’ll be a bigger and angrier tough guy…. A Tea Party Jew is mean spirited conservative and ain’t a Jew at all. There…Got Ya