Swing states target of Jewish outreach this weekend
With less than a month to go before Election Day, Barack Obama's campaign is sponsoring Jewish outreach events in three important swing states this weekend – and that doesn't even include "The Great Schlep."
At noon at a Philadelphia Jewish community center, Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and U.S. Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) are among the speakers at an event billed as a discussion on "Senator Barack Obama, Israel and the 2008 election." The event follows on the heels of a parade of Jewish surrogates who fanned out to speak all day last Sunday, including former New York Mayor Ed Koch, U.S. Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) and Sander Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.)
At 4 p.m. this afternoon in Delray Beach, Fla., the campaign will be providing "Jewish outreach training" at its S. Florida headquarters. While "The Great Schlep" is an independent effort and the Obama campaign is not permitted to coordinate with its sponsor, the Jewish Council for Education and Research, South Florida campaign spokesman Bobby Gravitz said that "we are hoping folks who are travelling this weekend" and in town by this afternoon would be interested in attending. He said Florida Jewish outreach director Halie Soifer would be discussing Obama's positions on the Middle East, and also conduct a question and answer session.
And on Sunday at 5 p.m., Obama foreign policy adviser Dennis Ross, U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Carl Levin, again, will be part of what the campaign is calling one of its largest Jewish outreach events of the year in Cleveland.
Recent polls have Obama competitive, and in some cases leading, McCain in all three states – which George W. Bush won in 2000 and 2004. And all three are considered to have Jewish populations large enough to possibly make a difference in an extremely close race.
But not all the Obama activity is in swing states. Koch, U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) and former U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer will hold a town hall meeting to discuss "Why Obama is best for Israel and America" in Paramus, N.J., a state that is widely considered to be a safe blue state this year.
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Jewish voters need to understand that in addition to his 20-year membership in Jeremiah Wright’s anti-Semitic church, Obama has 20 years of associations with radical leftists and Muslim extremists: Father Pfleger, Bill Ayers, Khalid al-Mansour, Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said, Raila Odinga of Kenya and others.
The people Obama has worked with and been friends with want America to become a socialist country - and want Israel destroyed.
I would like to wish JTA a shana tova and to see if this comment also gets an “awaiting moderation” message.
I bet Carl Levin, Dennis Ross, Jane Harman, Ed Rendell, Allyson Schwartz, Jan Schakowsky, Ed Koch, Anthony Weiner, Sander Levin, Halie Soifer, Steve Rothman, Daniel Kurtzer and Dennis Ross know Senator Obama better than Mr. Levinson does.
I dont trust endorsements. I think more of Obama because of his wife and marriage-- than McCain. I have a problem with anyone who cheats on a limping ( injured) first wife!
sheila,
I don’t trust anyone who has 20-year relationships with anti-Semites and tries to cover it up. Or who refuses a simple request to provide his birth certificate to a Pennsylvania district court to prove he is qualified to be President (see “Berg v Obama").
McCain admitted he messed up his first marriage (40 years ago?) when he returned from his years as a POW in Vietnam with broken bones and post traumatic stress syndrome. McCain repented publicly and has been a good husband and father since.
People make mistakes in their personal lives. That is why Judaism allows people to make tshuva. I believe we just had a holiday that recognizes that.
Bill L., Natan - get a life.
(Ehud) Barak Obama is the man!
As for your lady-love, Sarah “Mooseburger” Palin:
Going as far back as 1992 and most recently in the case of Barack Obama, Zionist Organization of America national president-for-life Morton A. Klein has insisted that a candidate for national public office should be held responsible for their church/pastor’s political views. GOP Vice-Presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin is a creationist and Pentecostal Christian who grew up in the Assemblies of God church. That denomination has long been the largest institutional financial supporter of “Jews for Jesus” and similar evangelical missions expressly targetting Jews. That means that, despite her efforts to suck up to Chabad; and no matter what politically-convenient or disingenuous statements she may make to AIPAC or similar groups: by definition, as a matter of principle, theology and dogma, Palin has nothing but contempt for rabbinic Judaism and the highest regard only for those Jews who have betrayed their ancestral faith by converting to Christianity. Thus speaketh the Klein doctrine.
Get with it!
hyperfrumm,
I will support Sarah Palin any day over a candidate who stayed 20 years in the church of a virulent Israel-hating pastor with ties to Louis F’s Nation of Islam.
The current President happens to be an Evangelical Christian and Israel considers him to be one of the best friends they have ever had. You can argue about that point, but you cannot say that President Bush has not been supportive of Israel.
Jews can defend themselves against proselytizers by simply telling them to get lost or by walking away. Christians are not the ones threatening to annhilate us, in case you haven’t noticed.
Ahmadinejad and other Islamic extremists have plans to wipe out Israel. This is a legitimate fear that Jewish voters should have. Palin eating mooseburgers is not. Moose is kosher, by the way.
I bet that if Mitt Romney were a candidate, you would be making similar comments about his Mormonism. Going after candidates’ religious beliefs is un-American. Shame on you. How do you like it when people make fun of Judaic beliefs?
Maybe I and some other Jewish readers here also believe what the Torah says about God creating man. If Palin were a Jew who believes in the Torah, would you be ridiculing her?
Your “Mooseburger” and “lady-love” comments are undignified and uncalled for. Your statements about her relationship to the Jewish community are nothing more than false accusations.
Re: “I would like to wish JTA a shana tova and to see if this comment also gets an “awaiting moderation” message.” Natan, many sites will hold for moderation comments with a certain number of URLs, as a precaution against spam. The comment above seemed to appear immediately because it contains no URLs.
Re: “I bet Carl Levin, Dennis Ross, Jane Harman, Ed Rendell, Allyson Schwartz, Jan Schakowsky, Ed Koch, Anthony Weiner, Sander Levin, Halie Soifer, Steve Rothman, Daniel Kurtzer and Dennis Ross know Senator Obama better than Mr. Levinson does.” Rendell and Koch are the only individuals on this list whom I both recognize and respect, but I remind you that they have to at least pretend to support their party’s nominee no matter how much they may loathe him privately. I recognize Jan Schakowsky and Carl Levin from their involvement with the dishonest Million Mom March in 2000, and I have no use for either of them.
Re: “GOP Vice-Presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin is a creationist and Pentecostal Christian who grew up in the Assemblies of God church.” When I last heard, the United States had freedom of religion. I do not share Mrs. Palin’s views on creationism, but she has a right to believe in that.
Obama’s friends in MoveOn.org, though, played a major role in alienating a genuine Jew, Senator Joe Lieberman, from the Democratic Party. They exulted over it, too: “Jew Lieberman done, Corporate Clinton next.” They also called the late Tom Lantos a “whining, arrogant Jew” while accusing the Jewish members of Congress of being more loyal to Israel than to the U.S. Obama’s friends at MoveOn.org also said that getting the “Israel-obsessed Jews” out of Congress would prevent a lot of killing (in the Middle East).
I know who my friends are, and I also know my enemies. I will line up with Christians like McCain and Palin against the likes of Obama who belong to racist churches that preach hatred of white people and the United States while blood libeling both Israel and the U.S.
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Bill Levinson
10/10/08 03:05 PM
I think we need to remind Jewish voters of how Obama praised and endorsed a prominent anti-Semite and racist (Al Sharpton) in April 2007, and how his pastor called Zionism racism and advocated for divestment from Israel.