Ben Smith over at Politico.com has the breaking story, and yes this really is breaking news. Those push-polls that were widely reported as, as Karen Tumulty of Time described, "the ugly." It's a push poll about Barack Obama made towards Jewish voters; use your imagination on the smears that were thrown at him. Meanwhile, Mark Blumenthal over at Pollster.com wishes that reporters would debunk the claims made in the push poll rather than report just outright report on the smears. Oh, the madness. The best path to serenity is by taking action, especially by donating.
Welcome to the general election. The selection of Sarah Palin has given Barack Obama a chance to regain ground amongst my father's tribe, and my father's tribe became very receptive. Heck, we're a smart people; we've seen what one fundamentalist did. We heard about this Alaska Independence Party. Creationism in public schools, global warming as simply God hugging us closer.. we did need push polls to already be scared. Yet, what else does the GOP have left to offer us? As Ben Smith reports;
The Republican Jewish Coalition, which is launching a campaign against Obama on behalf of Senator John McCain, sponsored the poll to "understand why Barack Obama continues to have a problem among Jewish voters," the group's executive director, Matt Brooks, told Politico.
Imagine if some African-American group sponsored a poll like this to try to understand why John McCain continues to have a problem among African-American voters. Just imagine. Yet that's besides the point. They want to keep saying that Obama has a Jewish problem to make us wonder, "why does he have a Jewish problem?!" It's really pathetic, but at least the Republican Jewish Coalition had the chutzpah to admit that it was their polling. This is the kind of polling that took place in South Carolina in 2000 against John McCain. It's despicable. It's desperate.
The selection of Sarah Palin, whose record on Israel is thin and who recently sat through a sermon suggesting that terrorism in Jerusalem is God's judgment on Jews for not believing in Jesus, has re-energized Jewish Democrats and may push some voters back to Obama's camp.
Brooks' group has already released ads aimed at reinforcing Jews' skepticism of Obama. "Concerned about Barack Obama? You should be," says a print advertisement displayed on the group's Web site , with a picture Obama speaking to a large crowd in, according to the caption, Germany.
Whatever happened to thou shalt not bare false witness? How far have some of my brothers and sisters fallen, but thank God that most are still able to see the light without being twisted by fear for our cousins in beloved Israel. Never forget that we were so quick to stand up for civil rights and so swift to head South to join those who reminded us of those who suffered before us.
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