Obama, Clinton and The Philadelphia Jewish Vote

At Contentions, Jennifer Rubin notes that Clinton won the Jewish vote in Pennsylvania 55%-45% and comments that the spin Obama's people will put on this will not hold up because:

many Democratic Jews–especially in Montgomery County, where Obama lost–fit the mold of otherwise Obama-receptive voters. They’re affluent, educated, and liberal. His loss there indicates that they are uniquely bothered by Obama, by his association with Reverend Wright or his Hamas endorsement or his stance on Iran. He may have larger concerns (working-class and rural voters) as he heads into Indiana and North Carolina. But Pennsylvania provided one more smidgen of evidence that, if Obama is the nominee, he may have difficulty retaining as many Jewish voters as other recent Democratic nominees.

This should especially have been a factor considering that there is no major difference between Obama and Clinton on Israel. Caroline Glick writes:

But the fact is that for all his associations with Israel-bashers, Obama's stated positions on the Palestinian and Arab conflict with Israel are all but indistinguishable from those of his opponent Senator Hillary Clinton. Both democratic candidates assert that the Palestinian conflict with Israel is the root of the pathologies of the Arab world. Like President George W. Bush, both embrace the Fatah terror group as a legitimate organization and acceptable repository of Palestinian sovereignty. Both have hinted that they may be willing to open negotiations with Hamas. Both argue that the establishment of a Palestinian state will be a key foreign policy objective of their administrations.

Besides, the "Jewish vote" does not primarily sway towards any one candidate based on a concern for Israel:

[Israel] Project founder and president Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi told a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday that even in the Jewish community, the majority of likely voters do not give priority to Israel.

"Three quarters of the American Jewish community say that there are other issues more important than Israel," she said, saying only 23 percent of the Jewish population listed Israel as a top issue. The poll had a 3.5% margin of error.

While 51% of the respondents acknowledged that the economy and jobs were their major concern, only 7% cited the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and the threat of Iran.

With jobs and the economy taking priority among Jews, Obama's 'messianism' really should have been a larger pull than Clinton's new-found hawkishness for Israel. The fact that it was not is indicative of one more weakness in Obama.

Technorati Tag: Obama and Clinton.