• 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.’ ”

Sure, Joe Lieberman was very popular among Jewish voters in 2000, but would his inclusion on the Republican presidential ticket this year inspire significant numbers of them to jump to the GOP? Jewish McCain supporters say yes, but a recent poll indicates the Connecticut senator might not be much of a draw anymore among his non-Republican co-religionists.

Lieberman had just a 37 percent overall favorability rating in a survey of 800 self-identified American Jews released last month by the dovish J Street organization, with 48 percent expressing disapproval of the now independent senator. And Jim Gerstein — principal of Gerstein Agne Strategic Communiciations, which conducted the poll — noted that a good percentage of that favoribility rating comes from Jewish GOPers, who registered 65 percent approval for Lieberman, compared to just 25 percent among Democrats and 45 percent for independents. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

Furthermore, the stats show that older Jews who were enamored at the first Jewish vice presidential candidate in places like Florida aren’t any more favorably disposed to Lieberman — he has the same 37 percent approval rating among Jews over 64 that he receives from the overall population, and a higher disapproval rate of 53 percent. In addition, Orthodox Jews — the most likely denomination of the Jewish community to be Republicans — has a huge 76 percent approval rating for Lieberman, but Reform Jews only give him a 34 percent positive rating.

“The bottom line is Lieberman doesn’t help McCain” among Jews, said Gerstein, because many Jews are upset at Lieberman’s departure from the Democratic Party and strident support for the Iraq war.

National Jewish Democratic Council executive director Ira Forman agrees. “First of all, I’d be very surprised if Lieberman was selected,” said Forman. But if he was, he doubts he has much extra appeal, noting that the Democratic vote for president only rose 1 percent from 1996 to 2000. If Lieberman truly made a difference to Jews, “you would think you’d have seen some difference” with him on the ticket.

But Jewish Republicans say they would be very comfortable with the Connecticut senator as McCain’s running mate, and should help their efforts to bring more Jews over to the GOP side. “I certainly hope he would,” said Fred Zeidman, a Republican Jewish Coalition board member from Houston. “I’d like to believe the Jewish community would embrace him.” Zeidman said he had been on the road campaigning for Jewish votes with Lieberman in Michigan, and noted 300 people had turned out to hear him speak at a Holocaust museum in Detroit.

McCain supporter Gary Erlbaum of Philadelphia, who has financially backed candidates of both parties over the years, said he thinks Lieberman would still be a draw for Jewish voters. “Joe has made friends and lost friends,” he said. “He would be a great asset” in attracting independents and Jews. But Erlbaum doubts Lieberman will be McCain’s pick, since the number of voters it could attract would be outweighed by the alienation of so many conservatives.

When Al Gore picked Joe Lieberman as his running mate eight years ago, many Republicans said he was their favorite Democrat. But that doesn’t mean they want him to be the Republican vice presidential nominee.

The Politico’s report that Lieberman, or fellow pro-choice politician Tom Ridge, was apparently being seriously considered as John McCain’s vice presidential pick was not welcomed by conservatives yesterday. “You will not have a unanimous vote at the convention, that much I can tell you,” said one unnamed Republican.

And there’s more on the McCain-Lieberman front…

• The Washington Times reports that state GOP officials are already plotting how to reject a Lieberman pick.
• Rush Limbaugh offers an emphatic “NO” to the idea.
• The National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez feels similarly.
• Jim Geraghty of the same publication also agrees, adding that Lieberman won’t win Connecticut for McCain.
• Jewish conservative John Podhoretz makes the case in Commentary magazine for Lieberman as McCain’s pick — foreign policy strength and both could pledge to fight the “corrupt political culture.” But he says Lieberman would have to pledge not to seek the presidency in order to mollify political conservatives.
• Byron York of National Review writes that McCain would like to pick a “friend” like Lieberman and the campaign believes it would give him back his “maverick” image — but he’s still struggling with the decision.
• And Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard has a similar take, writing that if McCain was making the decision without regard to policy or politics, it would be Joe — but that in the end, he’ll pick Pawlenty.
• Liberal blogger Jane Hamsher of The Huffington Post believes McCain will choose Lieberman and announce it next Friday, because the media will love it and it will steal Obama’s thunder after his convention speech.
• Time magazine political guru Mark Halperin said a choice of any “pro-choice” VP would be a “disaster” for McCain.

Signs do point this morning to Lieberman being vetted, according to Politico. And he’s also now on the Republican convention speaking agenda, although no specifics on when. And the Connecticut senator is following in the footsteps of another rumored VP nominee, Joe Biden, by heading to Georgia this week.

As Barack Obama gets ready to roll out his running mate, Jewish political insiders and activists say they would welcome any of the three most talked about possibilities.

Some say Sen. Joseph Biden’s (D-Del.) extensive experience on foreign policy issues makes him a big favorite among pro-Israel activists, but others prefer Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) as a solid, appealing choice. And while some Jewish Democrats admit they aren’t too familiar with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D), they say reports of his good relations with the Virginia Jewish community reassure them.

“I have not heard a single name that has caused conternation” or is considered a problem, said Steve Rabinowitz, a Democratic political consultant who often works on Jewish issues.

Steve Grossman, a former president of AIPAC and chair of the Democratic Party, said that while there are a group of Jewish voters who are looking for an experienced foreign-policy hand, others just want someone who fits well with Obama and matches their “progressive” views on a variety of issues. Grossman, who backed Hillary Clinton in the primaries, believes Biden would be popular because he’s “as well known an individual as any elected official in America” with a lengthy “track record” of backing the U.S.-Israel relationship, but also noted that Bayh has “enormous credibility with the pro-Israel community” and Kaine gets high marks from his Jewish constituents. Grossman emphasized, though, that he doesn’t think that the VP selection will make much of a difference to Jewish voters because Obama will have proved his bona fides on foreign policy issues by Election Day.

Rebecca Geller, a co-founder of “Chai for Hillary” who is now backing Obama, said younger pro-Israel activists seem to prefer Bayh for his relative youth combined with his experience, although “there’s not really a consensus of one person,” just “a relief that all people vetted” would be satisfactory. Geller herself, a native of Richmond, Va., is a big fan of Kaine, who served as the mayor of that city before ascending to state politics. While studying abroad, she spent time with the then-mayor when he visited Jerusalem for a mayors’ conference.

And Marcel Groen, chair of the Democratic Party of Montgomery County, Pa., belives that “if you took a poll Hillary [Clinton] would be the overwhelmingly choice,” although that selection appears unlikely.

The only name that would universally disappoint Jewish activists would be Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, whose name has been bandied about but not been mentioned as a serious possibility. One said she would reconsider her vote, because of his record as a critic of Israel. Rabinowitz noted, though, that the Hagel choice would be unpopular with all Democrats, because they don’t want to vote for a Democratic president and possibly end up with a Republican if the vice president ends up taking over.

Is the Associated Press unconsciously channeling the feelings of many Democrats about Joe Lieberman? Check out the typo in the 10th paragraph of this AP story on vice presidential speculation, which includes an extra letter when describing the 2000 Democratic VP pick.

How about Carl Levin for Barack Obama’s VP? Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic makes a pretty good case–national security experience, attractive to Jewish voters–but doubts it will happen because we haven’t yet heard the Michigan senator’s name floated.

Meanwhile, over on the GOP side, Joe Lieberman’s name is once more being bandied about as a possibility for John McCain’s number two, with a report the other day that he’s on the “short list.” Lieberman seemed to say he wasn’t interested a couple weeks ago on Meet the Press, and I’m willing to believe him. Sure, it might be historic to run for the VP nomination of each party in an eight-year span, but do you really want to run twice for vice president?

A top evangelical leader warns McCain that picking Lieberman would be a “catastrophe.” But the Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land likes the possibility of Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia because of his “pro-life” record. Land does say he would “love” Lieberman as secretary of state or defense in a McCain administration–but not as attorney general or on the Supreme Court.

Lieberman will continue to work on the Jewish vote for McCain: he’s scheduled to be stumping Michigan tomorrow and Pennsylvania next week.

When he called Eric Cantor “wildly out of step” with the Jewish community’s values, was National Jewish Democratic Council executive director Ira Forman implying that Cantor is not truly a part of the “Jewish community”? It sounded that way to Denver-area Rabbi Levi Brackman, and he doesn’t like it.

• The Jerusalem Post asks Barack Obama if he would support an Israeli strike against Iran. And he says: “Israelis alone have to make decisions about their own security. But the grave consequences of either doing nothing or initiating a potential war with Iran are such that we want to do everything we can, to exhaust every avenue to avoid that option.”
• Remember the dispute between the Republican Jewish Coalition and the National Jewish Democratic Council about Obama’s comments in Jordan? Well the NJDC has also taken aim at the Republican National Committee.
• And, in case you missed it, the Zionist Organization of America criticized Obama over the remarks in Jordan, saying they reflect the “old, repeated misunderstanding and misinterpretations of the continuing Arab war against Israel — thinking which shows little insight into the nature of that war.” (FYI The ZOA has essentially said the same thing about the Clinton and Bush administrations.)
• A writer in Ha’aretz wonders if Israel is a Red or Blue state.
• Even a visit to Yad Vashem cannot escape the politics of the race.
• Time’s Joe Klein and Commentary’s Jennifer Rubin: Round III (review: Round I and Round II)

In the ooops category … The Republican Jewish Coalition issued a statement Monday blasting Barack Obama for planning to take Chuck Hagel with him on his upcoming trip to Israel [UPDATE: RJC has taken down the statement from its Web site and issued a new statement]. To hammer home the point, the RJC cited a previous statement put out by the National Jewish Democratic Council in 2007, raising questions about the Nebraska Republican’s record on Israel.

Only one problem … While Hagel and Obama are taking part in the same congressional trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama is separately visiting Israel, and Hagel won’t be with him on that trip, according to the Obama campaign.

But before you spend too much time poking fun at the RJC … Hagel has been rumored to be on Obama’s short list for Veep and Pentagon chief.

Hey, you like Eric Cantory? Think he’d make a good Veep?

Well, look what just came across the transom:

News from info {at} ericcantorforvp(.)com

For more information contact: info {at} ericcantorforvp(.)com

Conservatives Launch Grassroots Campaign to Influence McCain

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA (06/17/2008; 1116)(readMedia)– A group of politically unaffiliated concerned Americans have come together to make a serious effort to change the course of the national debate. Their launch statement is below:

“Today, we are launching a grassroots movement (you know that phenomenon conservatives use to lead but the Left now excels at) to convince John McCain to select a dynamic young conservative to be his running mate. Instead of waiting around for McCain’s brain trust to make a choice this project is promoting a movement conservative (Representative Eric Cantor) who is pro-American, pro-Israel, pro-life, pro-markets, pro-family. He comes from a key battleground state and region. He is Jewish and has demonstrated he can win over non-Jewish votes.

Several Main Stream Media news outlets (the Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, NY Post, etc.) have noted Congressman Cantor’s assets. Now we are using the Internet to launch a grassroots movement that will provide a platform for the millions of Americans to support a dynamic, young Republican-Conservative leader.

To date the Left has provided reasons for its supporters to get active in the presidential election: The Right has not.

We believe Congressman Cantor can change this dynamic.

This project is totally independent of Congressman Cantor.

Contact us by sending an e-mail to: info {at} ericcantorforvp(.)com