Thursday, May 22, 2008

Watch out for more of this: Republicans twist reality

And don't expect to see it only from Republican Party mouthpieces. It will also filter into the news media, and soon there will be a story on every political reporter's agenda: Democrats losing support among ... (fill in the blank with any constituency) African-Americans, Jews, Hispanics, working people.

This week it's the Jewish community's turn to have its voting preferences twisted. What I like about this is the speed at which the Florida Democratic Party reacted -- right away.

Here's a statement issued Thursday from the state party in Tallahassee:

"On an extremely brief attack conference call today, House Republican Majority Leader Adam Hasner falsely claimed that Jewish support for Republicans in Florida is increasing when, in fact, it is declining.

"Hasner started by correctly noting that President George W. Bush received about a quarter of the Jewish vote in 2004 (24% according to CNN exit polls, which also showed Republican Mel Martinez receiving 22% of the Jewish vote that year).

"Then Hasner veered away from the facts, calling Jews a "swing" constituency and falsely claiming that Republican support among Jews has been on the rise since 2004.

"In fact, the opposite is true. Jewish support for Republicans is on the decline.

"In 2006, despite winning the race, then-gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist - a Republican - garnered only 18% of the Jewish vote. At the top of the GOP ticket, U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris managed to pull only 14% in her crushing defeat."

For those who don't think the Florida Democratic Party is worth a hill of beans, consider what a nimble press department is worth in this election year. A lot.

UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long. Front page of today's NY Times, the headline: "As Obama heads to Florida, Jews there have their doubts." The newspaper that helped give us the war in Iraq now finds a bunch of elderly anti-black Jews and lets the rumor mill roll. There will be some work necessary to get these folks into voting shape. Good quote from Rabbi Ruvi New in Boca: "The fate of the world for the next four years ... It's all going to boil down to a few old Jews in Century Village."


2 comments:

TrumanDem said...

Nice job Larry. I would also like to point out the New York Times keeps promoting the meme that the Florida Democratic Party shot themselves in the foot on having our delegation seated when it fact it was the Florida GOP driving it forward the whole time.

I did a couple of posts about this on my blog trying to clarify the real and otherside of the story.

Nice job. Keep up the good work

TrumanDem

Truman's Conscience
"The Buck Stopped Here"

Anonymous said...

Some people who read this could say that your just wasting your time and effort making it.