Obama: "The Jews will come around..."

JTA ~ July 24, 2008:

Barack Obama voiced confidence that American Jews will turn out for him come Election Day.

The U.S. senator said in an interview published Thursday that while polls show he enjoys around 65 percent support among American Jews - less than previous Democratic presidential candidates - he expects better results at the ballot boxes in November.

"In my opinion, the Jews will come around by Election Day," Obama told Yediot Achronot.

The Jewish Daily Forward ~ August 19, 2008:

“The Obama campaign is reaching out aggressively to the Jewish community through the creation of Jewish Community Leadership Councils in cities around the country, and Dan joins National Jewish Vote Director Eric Lynn to augment and expand this outreach effort,” an August 19 statement issued by the campaign read.

The Jewish Journal ~ August 20, 2008:

The most prominent rabbinical participant at the Democratic convention will be Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, who will deliver the invocation on Aug. 28, when Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) accepts the nomination before a crowd of at least 70,000 at Denver’s Invesco Stadium.

Other Jewish clergyman slated to participated include Rabbis Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, who will deliver the keynote address at the interfaith event; Jack Moline, a Conservative rabbi from Alexandria, Va., who chairs the Interfaith Alliance, a coalition of faith groups that advocate for church-state separation; Amy Schwartzman, a Reform rabbi from Falls Church, Va.; Marc Schneier, an Orthodox rabbi from New York and a co-founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding; Steve Foster, a Reform rabbi in Denver; and Steve Gutow, a Reconstructionist rabbi who directs the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a Jewish organizational public policy umbrella group.

Poll: McCain surges past Obama (ReutersVideo, August 20))

AfterThoughts:

See also today's "Lieberman Agonistes" at the Wall Street Journal, and "Nixon Agonistes" at BtB (July 2nd), especially the Jennifer Rubin money quote:

The risk is ... too great

that when Israel needs help the most,

Obama will buckle

and Israel will be crushed.