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John McCain
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US Jews in Clinton's pocket?

Fifty-eight percent of Jewish voters support New York senator in Florida primary elections. 'Jewish support for Hillary Clinton greater than support she gets among white voters,' says Steve Rabinovich, political strategist who served in White House during Bill Clinton era

WASHINGTON – The Jews continue to support the Democratic Party, and Hillary Clinton is the preferred candidate for the president of the United States.

 

A survey conducted among voters leaving the polling stations during the Florida primary elections on Tuesday revealed that 58% of the Jews voted for Hillary Clinton, 26% voted for Barack Obama, and only 13% supported John Edwards, who quit the White House race on Wednesday.

 

The poll was based on a sample of 1,516 voters and was ordered by the country's leading media outlets in a bid to segment the voting distribution. Florida was the first state with a population composition similar to that of the entire US to hold primary elections.

 

The Jews comprise only 3.5% of Florida's population, but are known to have political awareness and take part in the elections. The Jewish voting power in Florida reached 9% of the democratic voters.

 

The percentage of Jews among the Republican voters stood at 3% - a figure which is within the statistical error and therefore makes it impossible to check the distribution of support between John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani.

 

A poll conducted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in November revealed that most Jews support Clinton and Giuliani.

 

Obama's dramatic leap in the primary elections appears to have no impact on the Jewish vote. One estimate is that the chain letter Obama he is hidden Muslim, alongside the questions regarding his stance towards Israel, have hurt the Jewish support for the African-American senator.

 

Obama himself tried to relieve the concerns in a phone conversation he held this week with a small number of Israeli and Jewish reporters. He also plans to publish ads in Jewish newspapers in a bid to encourage Jews to vote for him in three states rich with delegates and large Jewish populations – California, New York and New Jersey.

 

Democratic political strategist Steve Rabinovich, who served in White House during Bill Clinton era, told Ynet that the Jewish support for Hillary Clinton is greater than the support she gets among the White voters.

 

According to Rabinovich, about one-quarter of the White voters (excluding the Hispanic population) in New York, New Jersey and California are Jews.

 

Jews to move their support from Giuliani to McCain

According to estimates, Florida's Republican Jews voted for Giuliani and are now expected to move their support – along with Giuliani himself – to Senator McCain.

 

McCain is the most prominent candidate ready for a military confrontation with Iran over its nuclear problem and has stated that the only thing worse than a military move against Tehran is a nuclear Iran.

 

McCain's foreign policy team includes hawkish and neoconservative members like David Frum, Daniel Pipes, Michael Rubin, Norman Podhoretz and Martin Kramer.

 

One of his main fund raiser, if not the most important, is Fred Zeidman of Houston, who also helped raise funds for US President George W. Bush. Zeidman is the chairman of the US Holocaust Museum in Washington.

 


פרסום ראשון: 02.01.08, 23:05
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