Obama loses ground in vital campaign rally

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/story/0,,2033354,00.html

A week ago they were competing for African-American votes in the Deep South. But late on Monday Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went head to head for another key demographic group: Jewish voters. In one of the most important campaign stops yet, supporters from the Clinton and Obama camps, as well as other presidential hopefuls, flooded the hallways of the Washington Convention Centre distributing fliers and shouting through loudhailers in their bid to draw people in.

Mr Obama made his pitch in room 150, and a few minutes later, in room 152, it was the turn of Mrs Clinton. While Mr Obama's speech was casual, his room spartan apart from a few, small posters stuck up almost as an afterthought, Mrs Clinton opted for the full razzmatazz: podium, red and blue balloons, music and a huge election banner.

And while Mr Obama, who seemed tired, attracted only about 200 overwhelmingly young supporters to his room, Mrs Clinton, less stilted than in recent speeches and with an ace up her sleeve in the form of Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to be elected to Congress, filled her room to capacity with about 300 people from across the generations.

The discussion afterwards was less about which of the two was the more pro-Israel but which was more electable.

[JI7]

1. another stupid article

and this time the Guardian ?????

[thoughtcrime1984]

2. It's laughable how people continue to attack Obama

[IndianaGreen]

3. Tom Lantos is an AIPAC cock sucker that lobbied for the war in Iraq,

and now is lobbying for an attack on Iran. Hillary is in good company with him, they both represent the failed and un-American "Israel wags the American dog" policies that have resulted in the deaths of over 3,200 GIs and nearly a million Iraqis.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. Yep.

Lantos is a bit loopy.

[Connie_Corleone]

4. LOL!!

Obama ONLY had 200 people and Hillary had a WHOPPING 300 people!!

Is this an opinion piece or is this supposed to be journalism?

[BeyondGeography]

5. Hillary had balloons!

:boring:

[zulchzulu]

6. How dare Obama mention the Palestinian people as "suffering" and not lil' devils

I've been watching the mamby pamby AIPAC wailing about Obama when he dared mention the plight of the Palestinian people in a recent speech. He merely mentioned their existance and that talks need to begin again...and whoa! An outcry! A protest! Is he anti-Israel? Blah...blah...blah...

Trying to triangulate the Jewish voter between Obama and Clinton is more of the same from the Netanyahu wing of the AIPAC crowd. If it was me, I'd be asking about when Israel was going to de-nuke themselves as well as the rest of the impendingly apocolyptic region.

[Mass]

7. AIPAC prefers Hillary to Obama? That is indeed a surprise:sarcasm:

[karynnj]

11. Given that it was AIPAC, the 3 to 2 ratio is better than expectations

I would have for Obama.

[SaveElmer]

9. Well...

Obviously I am a Hillary supporter and am thrilled with the reception she got...

But I have to say saying Obama attracted ONLY 200 supporters seems to cast it in a more negative way than that number deserves...

And I don't understand what difference it makes that they were young supporters...

[ieoeja]

10. Appealing to a limited demographic is a bad thing.

On the other hand, most reports in the past have showed Obama's appeal as being across a GREATER demographic. So according to reports to date...

Hillary appeals to a wider demograhic inside the Jewish community.
Obama appeals to a wider demographic outside the Jewish community.

[karynnj]

12. AIPAC does NOT EQUAL the Jewish community

Don't forget that Kerry got something like 86% of the Jewish vote. I doubt he got 86% of the AIPAC vote.

Also, the Jewish vote itself is only about 2% of the total.