Neurotic Democrat - “JTA: ‘Obama Making Big Gains With Jewish Voters’”

Aaron Keyak — October 24, 2008 – 2:18 pm | Barack Obama | Election 2008 | McCain | Republicans | Stop the Smears Comments (0) Add a comment

Another great post from Josh Rolnick of the Neurotic Democrat.

[I]t’s also very clear that Obama is showing gains from his serious outreach to Jewish communities across the country. This, despite a raft of nasty and misleading negative ads directed against him by the Republican Jewish Coalition, published in Jewish newspapers like the Cleveland Jewish News and many others. As the JTA reports:

In addition to citing the Palin selection, both [National Jewish Democratic Council Executive Director Ira] Forman and Democratic pollster Mark Mellman emphasized the extensive efforts of Obama and his campaign to introduce the Democratic nominee to the Jewish community. The campaign has sent dozens of Jewish surrogates — including Jewish members of Congress and well known figures in the community such as Ed Koch and Dennis Ross — to key states to talk about Obama’s background and his views on Israel and the Middle East.

“As people got to know him better, they felt a lot more comfortable” with him, Mellman said.

That effort continues next week in my hometown, Akron. The Ohio Democratic Party is bringing Dan Shapiro, Obama’s senior policy advisor and National Jewish Outreach Coordinator, to town to speak to the local Jewish community. (See event details at end of this post.) Like Obama advisor Dennis Ross before him, who came to Cleveland last month to address the local Jewish community, Shapiro will talk about Obama’s positions on Israel, the Middle East, and other areas crucial to Jewish voters.

Obama himself came to Cleveland during the primary, to meet with about 100 members of the Jewish community. He answered any and all questions we had for him, directly and intelligently, speaking from the heart about the critical nature of the U.S-Israel relationship.

It’s all part of an unprecedented effort by Obama to speak directly to the Jewish community, to lay out his positions, and to talk specifically about his record.

Click here to read the rest.

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