I’m sure the Weekly Standard will love this news:
Gallup Daily tracking for the month of September found 64% of U.S. Jews approving of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, significantly higher than the 52% average among national adults in September, and also higher than was seen among Catholics, Protestants, and Mormons. Only nonreligious Americans equal Jews in their support for the president.
Of course, I’m sure those are only the self-hating Jews.
El Cid
If you exclude Southerners, the results would be better. Also, it would provide very different poll responses, too.
Brachiator
We atheists and agnostics love Obama. Thank God.
demkat620
Well, if Charlie Cook has his way, these shameless hypocrites will be back in charge of the House and Senate.
John Feehery actually has a piece on CNN blast Democratic incomptence.
God these people wear you the fuck out.
General Winfield Stuck
<blockquoteOf course, I’m sure those are only the self-hating Jews.
That and the demorats planting evil Oak trees in everyones front yard.
Linkmeister
@Brachiator: You win today’s internet.
“Thank God,” indeed.
JK
This is good news for Robert Stacy McCain because it will build momentum for his call to resettle Jews into the heartland
balloon-juice.com/?p=26538
OT
Members of Americans For Prosperity cheering after they were told that Chicago had been eliminated during the first round of voting
huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/02/conservatives-revel-in-ob_n_307794.html
ellaesther
It’s such an interesting cognitive dissonance, because if you listen only to the people who are used to being listened to in the Jewish institutional leadership, you will hear that Obama is going to sell Israel down the river, and all of his efforts toward a two-state solution are disastrous.
If on the other hand you listen to the majority of the actual Jewish community, you will find that 75% of us like the two-state idea, and more than two-thirds of us are willing to see Obama put pressure on ALL the parties (read: Israel, too!) in order to achieve that solution.
Here’s the poll from which I got my numbers: American Jews’ Views on US Role in the Middle East (click on “Survey Analysis)
And of course, if you want to read my ruminations on the cluster-fuck that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, come onna my place! There’s always room for more angst. In My Head
And if you’re eating your dinner in a sukka tonight (or even if not!): חג שמח Happy Sukkot!
slag
Shhh…You’ll spoil the Holy Race War they’ve been working on this whole time.
Manzers. All of them.
(full disclosure: I had to Google loch in kop because I’m an ignoramus. Manzers was just too perfect to pass up.)
aimai
Good point about Sukkot. As usual, I’ve forgotten to observe it. Can I fake it?
aimai
Also, I still love Obama. And so do all the other jews I know.
Ash
Isn’t like 1.5% of the US Jewish? Why don’t they ever include Hindus or Buddhists or Taoists in these stupid polls?
ellaesther
@aimai: I will invite you to join us virtually in our sukka. You can be like one of the ushpizin (spiritual guests)!
gocart mozart
Did you know that the Obamessia has fathered two children by a black woman! That’s one more than Strom Thurmond even. Just saying.
Mike
Wait until they find out about the Olympics.
BTW, why hasn’t Obama been asked to comment on Jesse Jackson’s ‘hymietown’ remark yet?
BDeevDad
@ellaesther: Most of those in the “Jewish institutional leadership” think there is only one opinion in Israel and it’s somewhat to the right of Netanyahu.
handy
@JK:
This is all part of the continued rightwing assault on urban America. They revel in this culture war stuff and it’s just a matter of time before they realize that they will have lost every major metropolitan area in this country because they insist on embarrassing themselves like this.
I’m not from Chicago, I visited there once and honestly found it a bit overrated as far as classic, world class cities go, but seriously these people need to get their heads examined if they think painting whole groups of people with the ridiculous broad brushes is the way to go.
Jay C
Naaah, they’re too busy right now: they’re preoccupied with their onanistic frenzy over Chicago losing the 2016 Olympics bid – ODS is a crippling disease – by the time they get around to noticing this poll, they’ll have moved on to some new fetish.
Oh, and slag: I think the word you’re looking for is momzer. You may have had to look it, but on the Internet, you don’t have to go far to find examples….
Linus
@Ash: FWIW, according to 2007 data from wikipedia, 1.7% of the U.S. is Jewish, vs. 0.7%, 0.6%, and 0.4% for Buddhists, Muslims, and Hindus, respectively.
Comrade Dread
You know, if it weren’t for fear of angering and driving away the Evangelical Christians, I could easily see some of the GOP talk loons start raging against the Jews.
ChrisB
So, nu, no need for another Great Schlep?
thegreatschlep.com/
And for the goyim out there:
rabbiseinfeld.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-nu-is.html
General Winfield Stuck
@Jay C:
Good god almighty, aren’t they though. The entire wingnuttosphere. It’s Like they just bought their burial plot and are excited about the great view.
linda
here’s a media related question. i haven’t seen any commentary on dylan ratigan on msnbc in the morning and i’ve happened to see his program a couple of times and been impressed. he’s amazingly harsh in his criticism of wall street and his guest line up is surprisingly liberal. never watched cnbc, so don’t know the guy’s m.o. but i wish he’d move to nites.
valdivia
@ellaesther:
did you see that film ushpizin a few years ago? really good.
and to all of you celebrating sukkot, enjoy the stars wherever you are.
Midnight Marauder
@General Winfield Stuck:
The way they’re celebrating, you would have thought that Ben Nelson, Lieberman, and Conrad just came out in support of a Republican filibuster against HCR.
It boggles the mind how and why they’re so excited. There really is no there there.
asiangrrlMN
@Brachiator: Damn it, you stole my line almost word for word, you godless heathen!
JK
Dennis Prager thinks he knows the answer
Why Are Jews Liberal?
realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/04/why_are_jews_liberal.html
MikeJ
Because liberals don’t send them to the ovens?
Zuzu's Petals
@ellaesther:
You must know about this movie. I really loved it.
Ha-Ushpizin
Ash
@MikeJ: Pshaw, if you read the article you’d know that the Nazis were obviously crazy lefties because they were all about the socializzzzzmmmmmm
JGabriel
Midnight Marauder:
Why do the Republicans hate America?
.
JK
John Podhoretz on liberal Jews
amnation.com/vfr/archives/014347.html
Liberal Jews and the Legacy of Neoconservatism
americanthinker.com/2009/09/liberal_jews_and_the_legacy_of.html
Zuzu's Petals
@valdivia:
Great minds and all that.
ellaesther
@ BDeevDad – I know, it’s ridiculous! I fear that the Jewish community (“the actual Jewish community”) has begun to be more open and more expressive a little too late in the game, but at least it’s happening…. Did you see the piece on J Street over at the NY Times?
@ valdivia – I think I’m the only Israeli-not-living-in-Israel who has yet to see that movie! But, hey, maybe this week. It would certainly dove tail nicely with the time of year!
@ asiangrrlMN – Alright, girl, you’ve forced my hand and I simply must blog pimp again! Hey, don’t blame me, it’s all asiangrrlMN’s fault that I have to link to my “On godless heathens” post yet again. She made me!
krissed off
This self-hating agnostic also approves of Obama.
ellaesther
@ellaesther: BUT, I will make up for the above shameless self-promotion by linking to my favorite rabbi’s blog, and his thoughts about the Goldstone report/what the Jewish community needs to do about Gaza.
And now I really must go attend to my holiday. Shabbat shalom and chag sameah to one and all! Even the godless heathens among you!
JK
One happy Jewish wingnut
atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/10/obama-oloser-olympics-scale-of-defeat-is-a-bombshel…
valdivia
@ellaesther:
chag sameach!
Midnight Marauder
@JGabriel:
You know, we joke about this constantly, but after their display today with Chicago losing out on its Olympic bid–not to mention their behavior over the last
8 months8 yearsseveral decades–I think it actually needs to be discussed as a legitimate question. Their cynical and nhilistic behavior and rhetoric really needs to be challenged aggressively and publicly. It’s time to put these fuckers on the hot seat and make them (attempt to) justify their actions.JK
@Midnight Marauder:
Michelle Malkin would simply argue that she was rooting against Chicago cronyism.
chrome agnomen
the right winger’s patriotism cannot fail!
it can only be failed.
Midnight Marauder
@JK:
Which is expected. But if the Fourth Estate in this country hadn’t atrophied into a nebulous entity of rampant stupidity and high school-like social cliques, then they would keep the questions firing at those know-nothing fools like a tennis ball machine set to high with the knob broken off.
They would pepper them with pointed question after pointed question, brushing aside the expected obfustication and outright lying. They would go into those interviews knowing what kind of dance those fuckers would be doing, and they would have the exact set of questions prepared to keep those happy feet moving.
But instead, we get Wolf “-$5400 on Celebrity Jeopardy in real life, not a SNL sketch” Blitzer wanking like his job depended on it.
Because it does.
Because he’s a tool.
Cerberus
@Comrade Dread:
Actually the evangelicals are the ones who hate the jews the most. They just support Israeli aggression so that they can have an expanded Israel so that the Rapture can come and all the jews can be slaughtered for being unbelieving heathens.
Also, they never stopped the jew hatred. What do you think Hollywood liberal, Soros-controlled, liberal media, and aclu hatred were codes for? The implied threat is that they’re shadowy and manipulative because they are filled with jews. You can see it more directly with the insinuations that Rahm Emmanuel is controlling the president.
So yeah, they haven’t really stopped, like with the blacks, they’ve just gone code-word about their hatred.
slag
@Jay C:
Heh. You say momzer, I say manzer, Wiki says mamzer, let’s call the whole thing off.
Bastards. All of them.
Also, @asiangrrlMN: I feel your pain. I was going to go that direction too. Kind of sad I didn’t.
Cerberus
@Midnight Marauder:
Well, they really hate democracy and they certainly share their hatred of what America is (aka filled with a giant melting pot of all races and cultures who do non-subgroup-approved-activities) with muslim fundamentalists.
They’ve wanted a christian fundamentalist state for awhile, what would technically be called fascism, perhaps since the age of fascism, perhaps more recently in the 80s. They’ve gotten really close and now they’re twitching for it. They want something where only their viewpoint is expressed where other people no longer exist and sometimes make laws that help themselves and other minority groups.
They want to rule it all and trust that God will then smile on them and give them magic free-market ponies and they hate sharing.
In essence, they are a five-year old child shrieking their head off about how they hate mommy because they want more cake and fantasizing about running away and having an awesome adventure that’ll make their parents give them that cake.
slag
@Cerberus:
Speaking of which, does anyone else find the phrase “doing God’s work” to be more than a little self-aggrandizing? Or does one need to understand the origin to appreciate it?
Paul
Haaretz
….
Despite the general liberal stance of U.S. Jews, 58 percent of those polled said that they believed that within the framework of a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians, Israel should not compromise on the status of Jerusalem as a united city under Israeli jurisdiction. 75 percent also said that they agreed with the statement “The goal of the Arabs is not the return of occupied territories but rather the destruction of Israel.” Only 19 percent said that they disagree with the above statement.
The poll also revealed that 51 percent of those polled oppose Obama’s call on Israel to freeze all settlement construction (as opposed to 41 percent in favor.) However, 52 percent said that Israel must dismantle some of the West Bank settlements under a peace agreement, 8 percent said all the settlements must be dismantled, and 37 percent said that none should be dismantled.
Fern
@slag:
You mean, as in the almighty can’t handle this on his own and needs me to help?
Funny – I grew up on that language, but sometimes it needs someone else’s take on it to really see it for what it is.
Cerberus
@slag:
I’ve always seen the comment as a sort of wingnut plausible deniability.
Oh, this is actually unethical, evil, potentially illegal? Well, it’s God’s work, so totally not my idea. It’s sort of a way to both trump up the importance of living a life of a hateful small-time cog into some dramatic earth-saving heroic action, while also being able to dodge uncomfortable questions if you get the nasty blowback of being a judgmental petty prick.
And yes, I’ve personally witnessed someone simultaneously doing both sides of this statement. It actually happens a lot right now in the anti-gay activism. “How can you call me a bigot, I’m doing God’s work.”
Uloborus
I really tried to read the links to these guys bashing the connection between Jews and Liberalism. I did. I just… I have such a limited tolerance for logic defined by pointing to a random fact or anecdote and drawing a broad conclusion. Actually, it pisses me off when Rabbis do it, and is one of the reasons I’m no longer Jewish. But rabbinical logic is NOT a topic to be summed up that easily.
Anyway, I just want to pick on one point they love to make. Basically, it goes ‘Jews are Democrats because they fear and hate Christianity, which is silly because we love them!’
Okay. Jews do not hate Christians because Christians want to hurt Jews somehow. That is pretty rare. Jews distrust Christian religion and organizations and especially any entry into the body politic because the express goal of that is to make America a ‘Christian Nation’. A nation based for Christianity, by Christianity, representing Christian beliefs and morals. Why exactly should Jews not be appalled by the desire to make someone else’s religion the official one? If they don’t like Happy Holidays, why should Jews like the GOVERNMENT celebrating Christmas? Any way in which Jews are not the same as Christians will be automatically surpressed if the code of law reflects Christianity. Very few Jews are worried about pogroms. They do feel uncomfortable with the idea that crosses might be hung in schools and their children required to study the New Testament. How are those not likely if the entities of organized Christianity get their way? So, yes. Republicans throw in heavy with fundamentalist. That definitely turns off Jews.
Sorry to get longwinded, but it irks me that these people over and over miss such an obvious point.
Cerberus
@Uloborus:
Yeah, they get into the same trouble when they try and outreach to blacks or gays or women or latin@s. They always claim it’s because these groups are stupid or hateful or reverse bigoted, but it’s just simply that groups that are openly hated don’t feel comfortable hanging with those that openly hate them.
Oh, they’re physically safe? That’s nice, that’s real comforting. We’re just going to hang over here where the hate doesn’t come off in waves. As long as they cater to and are the home of the hater groups, the hatees aren’t going to hang.
Cerberus
@Cerberus:
See also blacks voting against economic interests in first half of 20th century because the party for them economically absolutely despised them socially.
WereBear
Taoists for Obama!
I’m just waiting for the wingnuts to claim Obama threw it to Rio because he’s A secret Brazilian.
And then they blame it on the Bossa Nova.
bob h
If it is true that Obama is at single digits approval in Israel itself, while George W. is hugely popular there, that would indicate a very strange and sad state of mind.
Jill
Wow…I haven’t heard the expression “loch in kop” in years. When I was a kid my mother used to use it all the time. Are you a secret M.O.T. (member of the tribe)?