Obama: Outside group watch
Posted: Monday, June 09, 2008 9:10 AM by Domenico Montanaro
The Boston Globe takes a look at Willie Horton ad-producer Floyd Brown's anti-Obama web site. "Brown is raising money for a series of ads that he says will show Barack Obama to be out of touch on an issue of fundamental concern to voters: violent crime. One spot already on the Internet attacks the presumptive Democratic nominee for opposing a bill while he was an Illinois legislator that would have extended the death penalty to gang-related murders."
Newsweek wonders if Obama’s perceived weakness among Jewish voters is a myth. “Barack Obama received a standing ovation when he proclaimed his unwavering support for Israel to the influential lobbying group AIPAC last week. In her own AIPAC speech, Hillary Clinton said she was sure ‘that Senator Obama will be a good friend to Israel.’ But Clinton's reassuring words didn't soothe the wounded feelings of some prominent Jewish Obama supporters, who charge that Clinton campaign operatives manufactured fear about Obama's ethnic background and doubt about his loyalty to Israel in an effort to turn Jewish primary voters against him.”
More: “Obama has trailed Clinton among Jewish voters in polling matchups against John McCain (though both beat him soundly). But Obama has many high-profile Jewish fund-raisers, and aides claim his support among Jews will equal or surpass John Kerry's 75 percent in 2004. McCain has enlisted high-profile help of his own to help win Jewish votes: Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a self-described ‘independent Democrat’ who has criticized Obama's leadership qualities, has agreed to head up a booster group called Citizens for McCain. In a brief but animated Senate floor confrontation last week, according to a campaign aide who asked for anonymity when talking about private discussions, Obama told Lieberman he was surprised by Lieberman's personal attacks and his half-hearted denials of the false rumors that Obama is a Muslim. (The aide says Lieberman was ‘strangely muted’ during the exchange; a Lieberman spokesman says the chat was ‘private and friendly.’)”
