McCain's Arab-American problem
Will John McCain lose the presidency because of the Arab-American vote?
Arab-Americans are both very likely to vote -- their turnout is 20 percent higher than that of the general population -- and they are concentrated. Two-thirds of them live in just 10 states, including the swing states of Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, Arab-Americans have made up 2 percent of the electorate in recent elections. That sounds like a small proportion, but in a close race it can make a difference. In 2000, Bush won the Arab-American vote over Gore by 7.5 percentage points. ... [This year, however,] Zogby polling has found that a strong majority of Arab-Americans now favor Obama.
(Hat tip: Sullivan.)
Caveat: Admittedly, I just said yesterday that polls can't be trusted at this stage of the race. However, the notion that any Republican presidential candidate would face an uphill struggle with Arab-American voters in the wake of the Bush presidency seems fairly intuitive to me.
Posted by: Brendan | May 30, 2008 9:22:14 AM
However, the notion that any Republican presidential candidate would face an uphill struggle with Arab-American voters in the wake of the Bush presidency seems fairly intuitive to me
I can understand that.
It must really suck to get singled-out by a Presdient for no reason other than some of your fellow Muslims blow themselves up killing hundreds of innocent people, torture and behead others because ... well, just because apparantly.
Oh wait, he didn't single them out?? What did he do to them as "Arab-Americans" to make them less of a person?? Nothing?!!!?Sorry, my bad.
Posted by: Brent | May 30, 2008 9:30:15 AM
Brent, I wasn't making a judgment one way or the other, I was just stating a political reality. The Republicans are unpopular with Arab-Americans right now. Whether that unpopularity is justified is a separate issue that I have no desire to wade into right now.
Posted by: Brendan | May 30, 2008 9:42:05 AM
Yeah Brent I don't know, I think maybe McCain's supporting the murder of more than 200,000 Arab men, women and children over the past 6 years could be part of it. I mean maybe.
Posted by: Sandy Underpants | May 30, 2008 11:38:41 AM
Yeah Sandy, we should go back to letting the Arabs slaughter themselves by the hundreds of thousands rather than wading into their affairs. What chutzpah!
Posted by: Andrew | May 30, 2008 12:36:07 PM
Hmm... is that the "White's Man's Burden" justification for war?
Posted by: Brendan | May 30, 2008 12:40:24 PM
How's he doing with Persians? Or does this article equate the two?
Posted by: JT | May 30, 2008 12:41:18 PM
Since the article does make the distinction (which many fail to) between Arabs and Muslims, I doubt it is so sloppy as to then turn around and conflate Arabs and Persians. But I don't know for sure.
Posted by: Brendan | May 30, 2008 12:57:57 PM
I'm just highlighting the absurdity of Sandy's claims, not to mention their dubious statistical validity.
Posted by: Andrew | May 30, 2008 1:20:23 PM
Hard-working, freedom-loving Arab-Americans will vote for McCain because they believe in American security and keeping more of their hard earned income. Angry, American-hating Arabs will vote, naturally, for the liberal candidate.
Posted by: Duck | May 30, 2008 1:46:57 PM
Andrew, you make as much sense as the McCain supporter. Arabs slaughter Arabs and that's bad, but Americans slaughtering Arabs is good. Okay.
I know a persian dude (from Iran) who voted for Bush because he wanted the US to invade Iran and slaughter the Mullahs because he hates them, and obviously that wasn't going to happen with Kerry. So everybody's got a different agenda.
Posted by: Sandy Underpants | May 30, 2008 2:16:55 PM