The Chareidi Political Myth

Jonathan Rosenblum in Cross Currents rants about how the Mainstream Media (MSM) was so deeply in Obama's pocket that they tried to steal the election. The fact that there is a whole conservative media infrastructure (e..g., Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, etc) that provided its own perspective on the election seems to have escapted Rosenblum. As an aside, Rosenblum states:

Note to American Jews, who polls showed fleeing from the Republican ticket because of Palin’s presence: Continually giving expression to your loathing of devout Christians and expressing your worries that they are busy plotting the next pogram or the imposition of a Christian theocracy, on no evidence, is a pretty fair recipe for alienating Israel’s strongest supporters in the United States and creating anti-Semites where none were previously found.

As if the only reason that American Jews might have rejected Palin was her religion. Vice Presidential selections rarely have a substantial effect on a Presidential race, but in this case, polling data suggests that if Palin had any effect, it was a positive one. Reports the National Review

on balance, people who thought Palin's presence on the ticket was important were more likely to vote McCain by a significant margin.

The fact is that most American Jews, if they cared at all at Sarah Palin, were simply further swayed by McCain's appalling lack of sense in picking perhaps the least prepared women in the Republican party to be his running mate.

Rosenblum, who is one of the least myopic of the Chareidi commentators, is so incensed that his candidate lost, dismisses the possibility that Jews, like the majority of the American people, made a considered choice for broad, complex reasons. Ynetnews reports that 78% of American Jews voted for Obama, up 3% (within the margin of error) from those who voted for John Kerry. So, American Jews increased their support for Obama, in spite of the hateful smear campaign, to which Rosenblum contributed. Instead, American Jews were the one white group to overwhelmingly support Barack Obama, our next President.

Like so many American Jews, on election day and for the days since, I am proud to be both an American and a Jew.