A Few Worthwhile Articles

Aaron Keyak — November 10, 2008 – 11:33 am | Barack Obama | Election 2008 | McCain | Polls Comments (0) Add a comment

Today, Politico printed a piece titled, "Dem groups claim Obama win." Politico's Avi Zenilman writes about the many groups that contributed to President-elect Barack Obama's victory. As part of this article, Zenilman talks about the NJDC. I also thought you might be interested in a few articles from last week titled, "Strong Outreach Contributed to Obama’s Surge Among Jews," "Loose Ends II: Oy-bama and the Jewish Vote," and "Congressional roundup: Three new Jews, but no rabbi."

Below you will find a few excerpts of the above articles, but I encourage you to take a look at all of them.

Politico - "Dem groups claim Obama win."

"The National Jewish Democratic Council noted that 'American Jewish voters have once again overwhelmingly supported the Democratic presidential nominee' and that 'with Obama's victory, we selected a candidate who shares the values of the vast majority of American Jews, including the separation of church and state, a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, and reproductive freedom.'"

The Forward - "Strong Outreach Contributed to Obama’s Surge Among Jews,"

And while the RJC ads drew sustained criticism, Brooks said that the organization was successful in driving the agenda of the national Jewish conversation.
To this, Forman replied, “If this is the results we get when they drive the agenda, I hope they drive the agenda in all future years, as well.”

ABC's Political Punch - "Loose Ends II: Oy-bama and the Jewish Vote,"

And yet, the Republican Jewish Coalition is today trying to paint this as a victory, in what might be the worst spin of the day.

"Compared to John Kerry's results four years ago, Obama increased his level of support among all voters," says RJC executive director Matt Brooks. "Yet, Obama's gains among Jewish voters were smaller than among other key demographic groups."

Brooks argues that Obama bested Kerry on the percentage of Catholic voters, African-American voters, and Latino voters he won by anywhere from 7 to 13 points, "(y)et, his increase among Jewish voters was only 4 points ahead of Kerry's numbers in 2004...This data clearly shows that there are still nagging doubts in the Jewish community about how President-elect Obama will lead on important issues affecting the Jewish community and our national security."

"Nagging doubts" so much so that Obama won more than three out of four Jewish voters and did better than Kerry among them?

I believe the word for that is meshugenah.

JTA - "Congressional roundup: Three new Jews, but no rabbi."

The 111th U.S. Congress is slated to have 13 Jewish senators and 32 members of the House of Representatives, with the three first-time victories of Democrats Jared Polis of Colorado, John Adler of New Jersey and Alan Grayson of Florida.

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