Dean defector: Kerry to get Jewish vote

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1077077741968

Howard Dean's former campaign chairman, Steve Grossman, who defected from the campaign before Dean's defeat Tuesday in the Wisconsin primary, has thrown his support behind Sen. John Kerry, and predicted that Kerry "will be able to count on Jewish support, perhaps overwhelmingly," if he wins the nomination as is widely projected.

"On the issue of the Middle East and the US-Israel relationship specifically, I think the American Jewish community can feel entirely comfortable with John Kerry," Grossman told The Jerusalem Post in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

Grossman, a national Jewish and Democratic leader from Massachusetts, who served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee and president of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, caused a media stir earlier in the week when he told a reporter before the Wisconsin primary that the nominee "obviously" looks to be John Kerry, and that he would back Kerry if Dean lost in Wisconsin.

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[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. But what is also surprising is that Kerry gets wide support from

other middle eastern groups and has never received AIPAC money.

[IndianaGreen]

2. You mean the AIPAC vote!

Speaking for myself and my Jewish friends, we are not voting for Kerry.

[mobuto]

4. Really? In the general?

I take it your slogan is "four more years?"

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[dave29]

6. Ditto

:)

[leftynyc]

9. Jewish liberal weighing in here

Me, my entire family and most friends will be voting for Kerry.

[Claire Beth]

29. That is wonderful to hear! n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

13. IG, your contempt of AIPAC is noted

However, refusing to vote for Kerry in November because AIPAC is comfortable with him is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Does that really override your contempt of Bush?

Bush has been such a bad president (for want of a better word) that it should be no surprise that opposition to his continued occupation of the White House would draw support from widely differing quarters.

This election is too important to worry about the perfect candidate. Bush is a threat to American democracy. We must rid ourselves of a man who would steal an election, turn the federal budget surplus over to his cronies, trample on the Bill of Rights and lead the country into a colonial war based on a pack of lies. I'll make a pact with the Devil to do that; I'll certainly take AIPAC's money to that end.

After the election, we can go back to disagreeing with each other as a democratic people should. If President Kerry gets us into some other colonial war, we can hit the streets again. At least we won't have to worry about being put on no-fly lists or federal agents asking librarians what we've been reading and threatening to imprison them if they let us know; at least we won't have Justice Department officials talking out loud about giving the President and the Attorney General the authority to strip Americans of their citizenship and making them disappear.

That is important to me. That is why, if Kerry is the nominee, I'm going to vote for him in November regardless of who else does.

[sangh0]

17. and equating AIPAC with "the Jewish vote" is contemptible

.

[Name removed]

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[nothingshocksmeanymore]

21. Find me AIPAC money going to Kerry in any of the former election

cycles...really do it...go to their site and find me a DIME going to Kerry...oh ...and Mr AIPAC was ok with you being on Dean's team so why make a fuss about it now?

[Name removed]

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[mobuto]

3. Of course he will

John Kerry can expect to receieve 70% or so of the vote from the constituency that is second-most loyal to the Democratic Party, American Jews, who trail only African Americans.

[madrchsod]

7. that`s great

so kerry is going to keep the same policy as bush when it comes to israel,that`s nice to know we`ll face the same shit we face now..oh well,anything to keep the war on terror going...i`m running to of options on who to vote for.

[NNN0LHI]

8. What does American Jews voting for Kerry have to do with Israeli policy?

Explain that to me. I am very interested in your answer.

Don

[Guaranteed]

10. If it doesn't have anything to do with policy, why would they vote for

him?

[mobuto]

14. With Israeli Policy, that's the question

I hate to break it to you, but Jewish voters vote Democratic because they're liberals, not for any one issue.

Jews have voted overwhelmingly Democratic in every Presidential election since 1924. The only reason Warren Harding got the most votes from Jews (43% of the total) in 1920, was because the progressive Jewish majority was split between the Socialists (38%) and the Democrats (19%).

You've got to be kidding me if you think Jews vote Democratic because of Israel.

Jews voted for Mondale over Reagan by a margin of over 2:1.
Jews voted for Dukakis over Bush by nearly the same margin.
And in 2000, 79% of all American Jews voted for Al Gore. I guess that signalls a decline from the heady days of 1944, four years before the founding of the state of Israel, when Jews reelected FDR with 90% of their vote. Stevenson beat IKE both times amongst Jews, hell in 1948, Dewey came in third behind both Truman and Henery Wallace.

There's an explanation for why no Republican in recent decades come even remotely close to winning the Jewish vote, and it has nothing to do with Israel.

[Guaranteed]

11. Did you read your own article?

"'On the issue of the Middle East and the US-Israel relationship specifically, I think the American Jewish community can feel entirely comfortable with John Kerry,' Grossman told The Jerusalem Post in a telephone interview on Wednesday."

[mobuto]

15. The American Jewish Community

can find commonality with Bush too on the subject of Israel.

Yet well upwards of 70% of American Jews, possibly many more, will turn out to vote for John Kerry in November.

Why?

Because there is no group more liberal or more Democratic than American Jews, save African Americans.

[sangh0]

20. NNN0LHI is not Steve Grossman

the opinion you quoted is Grossman's, not NNN0LHI's

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

22. Arabs feel similarly about Kerry...gee maybe some Jews really

DO want peace in the region...ya think????

[Name removed]

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[JNelson6563]

12. Kerry will be the fortunate beneficiary

of the extreme disatisfaction the entire nation has for Bush. I know, I am on the political frontlines and I see it firsthand. All the folks who joined our local party on caucus day all had lots of nevers to report: never voted in a caucus, never got involved in politics before, never joined a party before and on and on it went. Not one reported their motivation to be a candidate at the caucus, they all gave one reason: Bush.

So all will vote Dem no matter what, no matter what that stupid whore Grossman says.

Julie

[LittleDannySlowhorse]

16. That's funny

I'm still planning to vote for Dean in my primary. I guess I didn't get the memo. Does God not like me?

I love these politicians who decide that racial and ethnic groups can all be counted on to vote en masse, as if they're not groups made up of individuals. I know plenty of Jewish Republicans. I know plenty of Jews who will not vote for Kerry. I know other Jews who have been Kerry supporters from the beginning. And so forth.

So how about the Scottish-American vote? Or the second-generation Korean vote? Or the French-Egyptian vote?

[Rich Hunt]

19. yes, but...

we all know that the most reliable constituency is the fundamentalist a-hole vote.

[LittleDannySlowhorse]

23. That's the one thing about them that I admire

and that's about it.

[Name removed]

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