Posted on 08/05/2008 7:46:53 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan
First John McCain enlisted the support of the country's only Jewish vice presidential nominee, Joe Lieberman, who ran on the Democratic ticket in 2000. Now he might tap a Jewish vice presidential choice of his own: Eric Cantor.
The 45-year-old fourth-term congressman from Virginia has emerged as a serious - if still long-shot - candidate for the VP job in recent days, though the McCain campaign wouldn't confirm reports that Cantor has made the short list.
Cantor, the House of Representative's chief deputy minority whip, is known as a rising star in the Republican party with a talent for fund-raising. He also has roots in the Richmond, Virginia Jewish community and is a staunch supporter of Israel - where a cousin of his was killed in a terror attack two years ago. Like Lieberman, Cantor is also an active surrogate for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
Bad strategy. VP’s shouldn’t be selected based on the States they could help the Presidential candidate win..... simply because a VP can’t win anything for a Presidential candidate.
McCain needs to pick the best person for the job. I still don’t know if McCain knows what he wants his VP to do.
Does he want a VP that will be very involved? Or a VP that will be more traditional?
McCain seems lost on this issue.
Nice post and wow, what an exciting thread! Let me add my two cents.....from the movie, `The Good Shepherd’.
Joe Pesci (playing Traficante): “Let me ask you something... we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish, they have the homeland, Jews their tradition; even the niggers, they got their music. What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?”
Edward Wilson (Matt `Douche’ Damon): “The United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.”
Cantor is the best person for the job, certainly the most conservative.
He’s very sharp, and would not be afraid to be “bad cop” to McCain’s “good cop.” That’s an old trick, and a powerful pair.
He also happens to be Southern, Jewish, and according to Mrs. MWT “very hot” (she is partial to Jewish men with Southern accents, however . . . ). This is important, too. (Romney, for example, with his record, would have been a complete non-starter, even with his money, but for his good looks.)
He’s very good on the issues. Not particularly well known.
Cool. If Cantor is the best man for the job then he should be offered the position.
People say he’s a no name guy..... Who cares? As long as he is ready to step in a get the job done I’m all for him being McCain’s VP.
But this talk about him bringing in the Jewish vote is garbage. Conservative Jews are going to vote McCain no matter what. And liberal Jews will only vote for McCain if they find Obama unacceptable. So McCain’s VP pick will have nothing to do with getting the Jewish vote.
It’s the Jerusalm Post!
It’s really not a surprise it’s JudeoCentric.
“And liberal Jews will only vote for McCain if they find Obama unacceptable. So McCain’s VP pick will have nothing to do with getting the Jewish vote.”
You know, I don’t think that is true.
As noted upthread, my family (older Jewish folk) hate the economic polcies of the Democratic party, but never think about Republicans because of Buchanon and James Baker and the like. (They also are scared to death of someone like Huckabee, who they view as trying to form a theocracy.) Having Cantor on the ticket would assuage them of their fears.
Well stated.
Cantor is very popular here in Virginia. I wish he was my representative. Unfortunately, my Virginia congressional district is represented by the disgraceful and infamous Jim “Moron” Moran. The latte liberals that compose the overwhelming majority in Northern Virginia keep voting him back in no matter how outrageous he is. If McCain did pick Cantor for his VP, that would make it easier for me to pull the lever for McCain in November.
I would encourage you to sign the petition for Cantor.
I really think McCain knows he has a serious problem with the conservative grass roots, and a grass roots pick may be listened to. The petition is here:
http://www.ericcantorforvp.com/
He's one of the founders of Freedom's Watch, a 501c4. You might remember their response to moveon's Petraeus , Betray Us ad. Needless to say the left doesn't like them. 501c's shouldn't be set up by the right, and particularly by Jews. They're usually characterized as a bunch of warmonger neocons.
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Freedom's Watch is a Washington D.C. based 501(c)(4) lobbying organization. Freedom's Watch is supportive of the Bush administration's positions in the War on Terror and of Republican Congressional candidates. The group is run and supported, in part, by several former officials of the Bush administration.[1] The organization states that its goal is "educating individuals about and advancing public policies that protect America’s interests at home and abroad, foster economic prosperity, and strengthen families." [2] In the 2008 election cycle, Freedom's Watch purchased advertisements in support of Republican congressional candidates.
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Freedom's Watch has tight connections to the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and the American Enterprise Institute.[3] The group was conceived at a Florida meeting of the RJC in March 2007 [4][5] in part to counter MoveOn.org and help the Bush administration sell its Iraq policy.[3] It was founded by a dozen conservatives of immense wealth,[4] most notably Sheldon Adelson, who donated almost all of its initial funding.[6] Four out of five members of Freedom's Watch original board are Republican Jews, and four of the eight initial donors are Jewish, though board member Matt Brooks said "it would be a mistake to regard the group as having a Jewish direction," and noted that "half of the donors contributing to the group's first $15 million ad campaign are not Jewish."[7] [8]
In 2008, the group became paralyzed by internal problems and plagued by gridlock and infighting, with operatives complaining of Adelson's insistence on parceling out money project by project limiting the group's ability to plan and be nimble.[6] For example, the group spent weeks working on a package for the presidential election, only for Adelson to decline to fund it.[6] Some staff members blamed the problems on Freedom's Watch president Bradley Blakeman, who resigned in March 2008.[6]
Freedom's Watch believes that President Bush's Iraq War policies should be supported. "More and more Democratic and Republican members agree: The surge in Iraq is working," according to one ad. "Victory is America's only choice."[9] The group also claims that Iran is a grave threat to the United States and Israel. According to the group's president, "If Hitler's warnings were heeded when he wrote 'Mein Kampf,' he could have been stopped." Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he continues, "is giving all the same kind of warning signs to us, and the region — he wants the destruction of the United States and the destruction of Israel." One ad calls Ahmadenijad "a terrorist."[4]
The original president was Bradley Blakeman, though he resigned in March 2008 after a series of high-level staff departures. [11]
Freedom's Watch's donors include:[12]
On August 22, 2007 Freedom's Watch announced a $15 million advertising and grass-roots campaign in 20 U.S. states to maintain Republican support for President Bush's policies.[12][13] The ads rolled out upon this announcement focused on sacrifices being made by U.S. troops and their families.
On September 13, the group aired a new television ad, challenging a MoveOn.org advertisement which questioned the integrity of General David Petraeus saying "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" and "Cooking the Books for the White House." [14] The advertisement stated, "Name calling, charges of betrayal it's despicable. It's what MoveOn shamefully does — and it's wrong. America and the forces of freedom are winning. MoveOn is losing. Call your Congressman and Senator. Tell them to condemn MoveOn." They also plan to run print advertisements on the subject. [15]
Freedom's Watch also purchased advertisements during the 2008 election cycle in support of Republican congressional candidates. For example, the group purchased $550,000 in advertising in the Mississippi 1st district special election in support of Republican candidate Greg Davis.[16] The group also ran ads in support of Republican candidates in two other special elections to fill vacant house seats in Illinois and Louisiana. All three Republicans were subsequently defeated by their Democratic challengers in historically Republican districts.
Freedom's Watch's first major advertising campaign emphasized the sacrifice of U.S. troops and their families in Iraq. As The New York Times wrote, "Several of the group's spots suggested that Iraq, rather than Al Qaeda, was behind the Sept. 11 attacks, even though the independent Sept. 11 commission investigation and other inquiries found no evidence of Iraq's involvement."[4] ABC News, among others, concurred: "The ads also link the war with Sept. 11, despite no reliable evidence Iraq played any role in those attacks."[17] In one advertisement, a war widow claims, "I lost two family members to Al Qaeda -- my uncle, a firefighter, on 9/11, and my husband, Travis, in Iraq. Congress did the right thing, voting to defeat terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan," adding that, "Switching their votes now, for political reasons, it will mean more attacks in America." In another ad, an Iraq war veteran states, "They attacked us, and they will again. They won't stop in Iraq."[18]
In 2008, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee charged that, in a Congressional race in Louisiana, Freedom's Watch was running a television advertisement with a script that came from the National Republican Congressional Committee. Such coordination with the NRCC would be illegal for Freedom's Watch because of the latter's status as an independent group. A media consultant working for Freedom's Watch responded that the apparent origin of the script with the NRCC was the result of an innocent mistake.[19]
But allow me to explain why I disagree.
Jewish population of each state is fairly well documented. Just for the sake of argument, let's also suppose that their participation is 30% over the population norm. This means 33% of their vote is in play, rather than the 25% stated under my analysis (25%* 1.3).
I will agree with you that New York is irrelavant because it will vote Democrat anyway. I'm also going to point out that Florida is roughly the same to the Republicans that Pennsylvania is to Democrats-- they may be a close vote but no way the respective parties can win without them. Still, let's analyze all four states which you mentioned anyway.
Using 2004 as a benchmark, we'll multiply the percent of Jewish voters in each by 33%. These are the results:
In no case is a 2004 result going to shift as a result of a highly optimistic shift of the Jewish vote.
It would make about as much sense as Obama thinking he could shift the Mormon vote by picking Harry Reid as VP. The nationwide percentages of each religious group are approximately similar (2% of the national total) and both concentrated in swing states, though I do not know of a reliable Mormon data site similar to the Jewish data link to absolutely prove my point.
Don't know what happened, but there is no upthread.
don’t pick cantor for that reason, won’t work
I do; had to do with a poster’s sweeping ethnic statements. Mine was probably in reply.
It’s not the reason.
Cantor is a hard core conservative and smart. THAT’s the reason.
The rest is gravy.
I loved that movie.
It was a box office failure because of the subject material (too dry for the typical American movie-goer) but was a nicely done movie nonetheless.
I think the Jews are probably more important for their political contributions than for the number of votes.
They will have no effect in New York or California. Even Pennsylvania is a stretch.
So, according to you, Jews don't qualify as real Americans?
So, according to you, in order to be "American" you have to be part of a generic glob of mush, each part of the glob of mush indistinguishable from other parts of the glob of mush?
Even we on Free Republic describe ourselves as "Conservatives".
So, what are we? Conservatives or Americans?
Does your brain not get the concept that we can be Conservatives Who Wear Purple on Tuesday and still be 100% American?
And what about you McCain Haters?
What are you?
Americans or McCain Haters?
Or are you hyphenated McCain-Hating-Americans?
If anybody is living in a glass house about being an "American", it should be those who are now helping Barack Obama gut America's defenses by bashing McCain every chance they get before the election because they consider themselves McCain Haters first and Americans second.
Yes, I realize that.
But there's another thread from an American newspaper that basically says the same thing about McCain picking Cantor to get the Jewish Vote.
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