JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Political tidbits

By Eric Fingerhut · August 21, 2008

• MSNBC's First Read reports that Dan Shapiro, Obama's new senior foreign policy adviser and Jewish outreach coordinator, lobbied for the American Petroleum Institute – but the campaign responds that he de-registered as a lobbyist before joining the campaign.
• Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times notes two instances yesterday of Republicans "making plays to erode Obama's Jewish support" – and the Obama campaign's pushback.
• Brett Joshpe of TownHall.com argues, not particularly persuasively, that a VP pick of Eric Cantor could transform "traditional Jewish voting patterns."
• Cantor continues to be a top McCain surrogate, joining Mitt Romney in Denver to try to distract attention from the Dem convention, reports Media General.
• The New Jersey Jewish News provides some details on what went on at that $1.3 million fundraiser the pro-Israel group NORPAC sponsored for McCain last week in Teaneck – as well as a second one Cindy McCain spoke at in the home of a Jewish philanthropist.
• Time's Joel Stein suggests Obama's strategy in Florida should be based on the principle that "a Jewish grandchild is never wrong."
• A Jewish Republican blogger provides highlights from a debate between Obama and McCain surrogates at a Los Angeles synagogue.
• And the Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors Los Angeles want the two presidential candidates to join Mike Huckabee in "denouncing the folly of [the] Israeli-Palestinian 'two-state solution.' "