JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Political tidbits: Schlep talk, Coleman pulls negative ads

By Eric Fingerhut · October 13, 2008

• Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) says Yom Kippur convinced him to withdraw all his negative ads in his race against Al Franken.
  
• The New York Times looks at Andy Martin, the “man behind the whispers about Obama” who has a trail of anti-Jewish comments in his past.
  
• Newsweek says Sarah Palin is costing John McCain Jewish votes.
• “The People of the Button”: New York Rabbi Peter Schweitzer on the history of presidential campaign buttons in Hebrew, in the New York Times.
• Alan Dershowitz states that all the major party presidential and VP candidates are enthusiastic backers of Israel, so supporters of the Jewish state should base their voting decision instead on “more general considerarations” of who would be best for America and the world. The Green Party, though, is another story, he writes in the New York Daily News.
  
• British newspapers love “The Great Schlep”: The Times of London talks to Jews visiting their families in Florida. So does The Guardian.
  
• Haviv Rettig in the Jerusalem Post argues that the Jewish Council for Education and Research videos (those featuring Sarah Silverman and retired Israeli generals) are actually hurting Obama in the Jewish community – because they’re not taking Jewish concerns seriously.
• Jonathan Rosenblum tells bubbe and zaide to ignore the grandchildren, in the Jerusalem Post.
• The latest on this weekend’s courting the Ohio Jewish vote, from the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
• What right-wing extremist groups has Todd Palin been “palling around” with? Menachem Rosensaft wants to know, in the Huffington Post.
  
• Liberals always threaten to move to Canada if a Republican wins the presidency? Where should conservatives threaten to go if Obama wins? Chris Wilson in Slate suggests Israel as one possibility.
• The Forward’s Brett Lieberman wonders if the Jewish community in Virginia could end up playing a crucial role in the election.
• Arab American Institute leader James Zogby criticizes McCain – and the Republican Jewish Coalition – for using “Arab” as a pejorative term.
• Rep. Robert Wexler is still a “heavy favorite” for re-election, but he has some “aggressive” opponents this year, writes the Palm Beach Post.
• Sarah Silverman talks to Keith Olbermann about “The Great Schlep,” but the best part of the interview is probably when Silverman tells Sarah Palin how she should have answered Katie Couric’s question about the newspapers and magazines she reads.

0 Comments | Share This | ads, Alaska, Barack Obama, Congressional races, Florida, Israel, Joe Biden, Norm Coleman, Ohio, Presidential Race, RJC, Sarah Palin, Tidbits, Virginia

Political tidbits: More guilt by association, a plea to stop talking about Israel

By Eric Fingerhut · October 10, 2008

• More guilt by association from the GOP, as he chairman of the Palm Beach Republican Party is e-mailing around a video of an eight-month old speech in which Louis Farrakhan calls Barack Obama “the messiah.” Obama already responded to this endorsement in a debate during the primaries: After some badgering from Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton saying that simply denouncing Farrakhan wasn’t enough, Obama said he would “reject” the Nation of Islam leader’s support.
• Some guilt by association for McCain and Palin, from Menachem Rosensaft in the Huffington Post.
  
• From Jesse Kornbluth in the Huffington Post ... Yom Kippur letter to Joe Lieberman’s rabbis, urging them to “talk to Sen. Lieberman about the hatred the McCain-Palin campaign is encouraging” – and complete with somewhat over-the-top allusions to Kristallnacht.
• Bradley Burston, in Ha’aretz, accuses Sarah Palin for stirring up prejudice and hatred when she talks about Obama.
• In the National Review ... Mona Charen argues that Sarah Silverman’s “Great Schlep” video is just one more example of Jews substituting liberalism for their religion – and blames the New York Times for going along with it.
• Shmuel Rosner, in Slate, urges the candidates to stop talking about Israel so much.
• Politico reports that John McCain didn’t disclose his affiliation with the U.S. Council for World Freedom as a freshman congressman; his campaign says he didn’t have to report the connection.
• In the L.A. Jewish Journal ... former AIPAC head Morris Amitay lays out why he supportd McCain.
• And former top Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross does the same for Obama.
  
• The Jewish Week talks to some undecided Jewish women about Sarah Palin.
  
• The Christian Science Monitor weighs in on Obama’s “struggles to attract Jewish voters.”
• A report on Obama’s Jewish outreach efforts in Pennsylvania, from the Jewish Exponent.
• Michael Gerson in the Washington Post on the importance of the Iran threat in making one’s choice for president.
• The National Jewish Democratic Council claims the Republican Jewish Coalition is lying in its new ad when it says Obama would be willing to meet personally with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Actually, the NJDC is wrong, because Obama did say that, at the YouTube debate last year (the questioner even puts a photo of Ahmadinejad on the screen when he asks the question) and he said it again two months later after the Iranian president spoke at Columbia University.

7 Comments | Share This | ads, Barack Obama, Florida, Israel, John McCain, NJDC, Presidential Race, Primaries, RJC, Sarah Palin, Tidbits

Swing states target of Jewish outreach this weekend

By Eric Fingerhut · October 10, 2008

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.

16 Comments | Share This | Barack Obama, Florida, Israel, John McCain, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Presidential Race, Uncategorized

Political tidbits: Silverman talks about the “schlep,” new ads and more

By Eric Fingerhut · October 7, 2008

• Sarah Silverman talks to the New York Times about her video for “The Great Schlep.”
  
• The National Jewish Democratic Council’s new advertisement deals with energy independence, while the Republican Jewish Coalition’s latest is about Obama’s statement that he would meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “without preconditions.”
• Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reveals that Barack Obama’s campaign returned $33,000 to two brothers in the Gaza Strip who had bought t-shirts in bulk from the campaign’s online store. They listed their addresss as “Ga.,” which the campaign thought was Georgia.
• Time’s Joe Klein asks “where’s the outrage” from conservative Jews over Sarah Palin’s church and Sean Hannity citing a “Jew-hater” as a source.
• The Cleveland Plain-Dealer explores whether Republicans can make inroads in the Jewish vote in Ohio.
• Joe Lieberman tells Chabad of Boca Raton, and the Palm Beach Post, that it’s OK to attack Obama’s associations, but that doesn’t mean McCain is trying to avoid issues.
• Lieberman introduces Palin at a big fundraiser in Palm Beach.
• Matt Littman, at the Huffington Post, wonders how many Jews Sarah Palin has met.
  
• Those pro-Obama videos from Israelis give a false impression of his support in the Jewish state, according to Shmuel Rosner in Commentary.

0 Comments | Share This | ads, Alaska, Barack Obama, Democratic convention, Florida, Iran, Israel, Joe Biden, John McCain, NJDC, Ohio, Presidential Race, Sarah Palin, Tidbits, Uncategorized

Political tidbits: Franken up by nine, Mason flip-flopped on McCain

By Eric Fingerhut · October 6, 2008

• Al Franken (D) leads Sen. Norm Coleman (R) by nine points in a new poll of voters in Minnesota, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The paper also has a report on the first debate of the campaign, held Sunday night.
• On “Meet the Press"… Democratic strategist Paul Begala warns that the GOP’s guilt-by-association reasoning could be turned on its head to make John McCain look like someone who has associated with anti-Semites.
  
• Jackie Mason flip-flopped on McCain? The Miami New Times posts a video of the comedian calling John McCain a “disgusting lowlife” and a “fraud” during the Republican primaries, quite a contrast with his pro-McCain, anti-Sarah Silverman video released Friday.
• Andrew Silow-Carroll, in the New Jersey Jewish News, decodes the presidential candidates’ High Holiday messages – and finds that they encapsulate their strategies for winning the Jewish vote.
• By the end of this campaign, every South Florida Jewish voter will have been interviewed at least once about the campaign. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel contributes with this article.
• And Salon does its part, but with a fresher spin – it finds a lot of Florida Jews who really don’t like Sarah Palin.
• Palin said during the vice-presidential debate that she backed a Sudan divestment bill in Alaska, but the bill’s Democratic sponsor says she was against it before she was for it, according to ABCNews.com.
• And Joe Biden’s statement that the U.S. and France “kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon” wasn’t accurate either.
• The Levin brothers, Carl and Sander, stump for Obama at a Bucks County, Pa. synagogue, reports the Bucks County Courier Times.
• Menachem Rosensaft urges Jews to listen to Ed Koch and vote for Obama.
  Willy Stern, in the Weekly Standard, quotes a Palestinian pollster who says Palestinians aren’t that optimistic about an Obama presidency.
• Fox host Sean Hannity uses a source with a history of anti-Semitism to attack Obama, according to Todd Gitlin at TPMCafe.
• The Jewish Council for Education and Research has released a video of seven former IDF generals and Mossad chiefs endorsing Barack Obama, but two of them say they had no idea their interviews were going to end up in a pro-Obama video, according to Haaretz.

1 Comment | Share This | Al Franken, Barack Obama, Ed Koch, Florida, Israel, Joe Biden, John McCain, Michigan, Norm Coleman, polls, Presidential Race, Sarah Palin, Senate races, Tidbits

Political tidbits: Hastings apologizes, more Jewish pro-Obama videos

By Eric Fingerhut · October 2, 2008

• Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) now says he regrets his comments last week about Sarah Palin, but maintains a McCain-Palin administration would be “anathema” to most African Americans and Jews.
• Georgetown University professor Jacques Berlinerblau, in the Washington Post’s On Faith blog, likes Sarah Silverman’s “The Great Schlep” video, but doubts it will have much impact on which way Florida votes.
  
• Jewish friends and supporters of Barack Obama, including Penny Pritzker and Abner Mikva, talk in this campaign video about why they support him .
  
• Benjamin Hartman in Ha’aretz says a debate in Israel last week between proxies for the American presidential candidates was a lot more exciting than the real candidates going at it the next evening. A question about Palin caused the greatest stir at that debate, according to CNS News.
  
• Jim Besser in The Jewish Week notes that the AJC survey found Obama surprisingly less popular among younger Jews than older Jews – although that number may be skewed by the strong support McCain enjoys in the Orthodox community.
• Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) says her opponent criticized her for coming home to celebrate Rosh Hashanah; Republican Tim Bee’s campaign said it was an innocent mixup and that they meant no harm.
• Obama adviser Dennis Ross tells the New Jersey Jewish News that his candidate would “change the dynamic” in the Middle East.
• Ed Koch recounts his trip to South Florida over the weekend to campaign for Obama.
  
• Doug Bloomfield, in the Washington Jewish Week, says John McCain’s no-earmark policy would be bad for Israel and the Jews.
  
• David Benkof in the Jerusalem Post argues that Jews shouldn’t use the Supreme Court as an excuse not to vote for McCain.
• Gawker tallies up how Jewish members of Congress voted on the bailout.
• Has Congress always taken the High Holidays off? No, it’s a fairly recent custom, reports the Associated Press.
  
• Sarah Palin has used Queen Esther as a role model, but is she really more like David battling Goliath? Mark Joseph on FoxNews.com thinks so.
• The Boston Globe wonders whether Joe Biden’s propensity to speak from “the kishkas” will get him in trouble tonight.
  
• Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show” worked on Rosh Hashanah, and he thinks Congress should have worked, too.
  
• Andy Borowitz has some fun with Bill Clinton’s announcement that he wouldn’t be campaigning until after the Jewish High Holy Days.

5 Comments | Share This | Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Congressional races, Florida, Giffords vs. Bee, Israel, Joe Biden, John McCain, New Jersey, polls, Presidential Race, Sarah Palin, Tidbits

Political tidbits: Is Bubbie’s vote really that important?

By Eric Fingerhut · September 29, 2008

• Writing in The New Republic, Nate Silver explains “Why your Bubbie will not decide the election” – no matter how many grandchildren make The Great Schlep.
• Barack Obama tells a group of mostly Jewish donors in Detroit why he likes the Jewish New Year.
• Abba Spero, in the Jewish Press, compares John McCain and the rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto.
  
• Former New York Mayor Ed Koch hits the campaign trail in South Florida, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
• Cox News Service checks out the “army” the Obama campaign is building in Florida to sway Jewish voters.
  
• What will the “Palin Effect” be? Bradley Burston explores that question in Ha’aretz.
• Jeffrey Goldberg, blogging at The Atlantic, says Sarah Palin demonstrated ”terrifying ignorance” when asked about Hamas’s electoral victory in Gaza.
  
• The Wall Street Journal on campaign yarmulkes – and whether they’re appropriate for synagogue.
  
• Over at Ynet, Israeli Likudnik Yoram Ettinger compares the worldviews of the two presidential candidates – turns out he isn’t a fan of Obama.
  
• In the Huffington Post, Sherman Yellen argues it is “deeply offensive to any Jewish voter who cares about Israel” for the presidential candidates to “exploit” fears of an Iranian attack on Israel.
  
• Marilyn Henry, in the Jerusalem Post, examines the role of clergy and houses of worship in politics.
• Thirty-three pastors endorsed candidates from their pulpits yesterday, hoping to get sued.
• As Congress races to vote on the big bailout before Rosh Hashanah starts, here’s a look at House Democrats’ point man on the bill, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who quips that “it’s a well-known rule” that “God will only hear your prayers if you’re in your congressional district.”
• And some background on Eric Cantor’s role in the bailout drama, as one of the House Republicans who helped scuttle the original plan.

0 Comments | Share This | Barack Obama, Ed Koch, Eric Cantor, Florida, Iran, John McCain, Presidential Race, Sarah Palin, Tidbits

Political tidbits: Ad wars, Sarah Silverman and more

By Eric Fingerhut · September 26, 2008

• JTA’s Ami Eden critiques a Republican Jewish Coalition ad linking Barack Obama and Pat Buchanan, and reports on another one quoting Democrats who have praised John McCain.
• The New York Times reports that Obama is now running dubious ads about McCain, including one that hits below the belt in an effort to scare Latino voters.
  
• And the RJC cries foul over a Florida Democratic congressman saying, “anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.”
• The National Jewish Democratic Council goes positive with a Rosh Hashanh-themed Obama ad.
• Sarah Silverman wants you to get your Jewish grandparents to vote for Obama.
• Remember ”Rabbis for Obama”? Well, the man who brought you the McCippah and the Obamaica introduces: ”Rabies for Obama.”
  
• Brett Lieberman at The Forward looks into the big funding disparity between the Republican Jewish Coalition and the National Jewish Democratic Council – which explains why NJDC chair Marc Stanley kept joking about finding a billionaire this week at the NJDC’s Washington Conference.
• How big a factor is race in the Jewish vote? The Jerusalem Post’s Hilary Leila Krieger looks into it.
  
• Anchorage’s Chabad rabbi talks to the Jewish Advocate about Sarah Palin.
• Two leaders of Republicans Abroad Israel, in the Jerusalem Post, continue the GOP criticism of Democrats for “sabotaging” this week’s anti-Iran rally.
• A Wisconisn political scientist says Sarah Palin may drive Jews away from John McCain, in the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
• Daniel Halper, at Commentary’s blog, points out that John McCain seems to be garnering a great deal of support from independents in the AJC survey released yesterday.
• Juan Cole, in Salon, argues that Barack Obama and Sarah Palin overreacted to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s United Nations speech.
• Menachem Rosensaft, in the The Jewish Week, writes that the Republican Party stance on abortion “is in direct conflict with Jewish law.”
• In a piece headline “Sarah, Heavenly Sarah,” Laurence Kulak, in the 5 Towns Jewish Times, asks a question we’re hearing for the very first time: “Why does Sarah Palin seem to be so Jewish?”
• Yiddish singer Eleanor Reissa and actress Elaine Stritch will headline a party next month to raise money for the pro-Obama Jewish Alliance for Change.

15 Comments | Share This | ads, Alaska, Barack Obama, Florida, Iran, John McCain, NJDC, polls, Presidential Race, RJC, Sarah Palin, Tidbits

Who’s your bubbie?

By Ben Harris · September 25, 2008

JewsVote, a new organization promoting the Obama candidacy in the Jewish community, is urging young Jews to head to Florida next month to convince their grandparents to support the Dems in November. The effort, called The Great Schlep, just released this video by comedian Sarah Silverman.

UPDATE: The video below is the “clean” version. A more risque, and frankly funnier, version available here.

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RJC: Hastings and Cohen “offensive”

By Eric Fingerhut · September 25, 2008

The Republican Jewish Coalition is responding quickly to Rep. Alcee Hastings’ (D-Fla.) comment that “anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks” at Wednesday’s National Jewish Democratic Council conference. It calls that remark and Rep. Steve Cohen’s comment that Jesus was “a great Democrat” inappropriate and offensive. Here’s their release:

Washington, D.C. (September 25, 2008) – Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Executive Director Matt Brooks responded today to comments made yesterday by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Rep. Steven Cohen (D-TN):

CNN reported yesterday that Rep. Hastings, speaking to the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC), said, “Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.” Addressing the same panel, Rep. Cohen called Jesus “a great Democrat.”

“Representative Hastings stooped to the worst kind of divisive politics yesterday.  Hastings’ unconscionable remarks do nothing but sow seeds of fear and divide people,” said Brooks.  “There should be no place in our country for this sort of political discourse.  We can constructively disagree on the issues without denigrating others.  As for the comments made by Rep. Cohen, I do not believe the NJDC would have been as permissive if it had been a Republican calling Jesus ‘a great Republican.’ This sort of rhetoric is inappropriate, offensive and should be repudiated.”

Full CNN story below:

(CNN) - Rep. Alcee Hastings told an audience of Jewish Democrats Wednesday that they should be wary of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin because “anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.”

“If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention,” Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida said at a panel about the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats Wednesday. Hastings, who is African-American, was explaining what he intended to tell his Jewish constituents about the presidential race. “Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through,” Hastings added as the room erupted in laughter and applause.

After telling attendees that the most important thing Jewish and African-American Democrats could do to support one another was to get Sen. Barack Obama elected president, Hastings had one more message: “For those of you like me that supported Sen. Hillary Clinton, she lost! Get over it!”

Hastings was joined on the panel by Rep. Steven Cohen of Tennessee, who is Jewish and represents a majority African-American district; Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, who is African-American and whose district includes many of the significant sites in the 1960’s civil rights movement; and Georgetown Law Prof. Peter Edelman, who was a legislative assistant to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Cohen, who recently remarked that Jesus Christ was a community organizer, took his comments about the founder of the Christian faith further Wednesday. “A lot of what Jesus talks about is wonderful,” Cohen said. “Talks about helping people and lifting them up and caring about people who are sick and all those things. He’s a great Democrat.”

The panel was part of the National Jewish Democratic Council’s annual conference. The Jewish Democratic group recently voiced criticism of Palin’s invitation to an anti-Iran rally timed to coincide with Mahmoud Ahmedinajad’s visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Palin’s invitation was withdrawn by the rally’s organizers after Hillary Clinton announced that she would no longer be attending the event.

The support of Jewish voters is shaping up to be a highly sought after prize in the general election match-up between Sen. Obama and Sen. John McCain. Jews have historically favored Democrats by wide margins in recent presidential races. But, the McCain campaign is making a concerted effort to go after the loyal Democratic constituency and Obama has been plagued by false Internet rumors that he is Muslim which have had particular salience in the Jewish community.

1 Comment | Share This | Florida, NJDC, RJC, Sarah Palin, Steve Cohen