Obama most popular candidate among Arab-Americans, poll shows

[TeamJordan23]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070629/NEWS07/70629060

Obama most popular Democratic presidential candidate among Arab-Americans, poll shows

June 29, 2007

BY NIRAJ WARIKOO

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama is the most popular Democratic presidential candidate among Arab-Americans, especially those who are Muslim, according to a new poll released this week.

Thirty-seven percent of the Arab-American Democrats or Independents who were polled said they would vote for Sen. Obama in a primary, while U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton got 33%. John Edwards got 12%, and Bill Richardson, 10%.

Among Arab-American Muslims, Sen. Obama’s support jumped to 50%, while Sen. Clinton got 38%.

The nationwide poll was conducted by Zogby International and was released by the Arab American Institute on Thursday. They polled 501 Arab-Americans across the country from May 22 to May 26, asking them 38 questions. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The biggest issue for Arab-Americans is the Iraq war, with 61% of them saying it’s a top concern, according to the poll.

“It’s somewhat more important for them than the general public,” said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute.

[Posteritatis]

1. Drudge, Fox, FR, etc. start howling this one in 5... 4.... 3.... (nt)

[TeamJordan23]

3. yeah, its something you can't really escape tho, Arab-Americans tend to vote Dem now

regardless of the candidate.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

14. Yes. They voted Rep in 00'. Hate cost the repukes VA and hence the senate in 06'

The hatefest the repukes have unleashed against brown people and Muslims has caused them to lose the Arab, Muslim, as well as South Asian, votes for a generation. The only minorities they had backing them in 2000, aside from Cuban-Americans, were Muslims and Arabs. As these groups are rapidly growing and concentrated in key electoral states (Michigan, Ohio, PA, FL), the Republicans will continue to pay a heavy price for their bigotry. They lost the senate due to their collapse among these groups in VA. I read one poll that said 92% of Muslims in VA voted for Webb.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. After what Obama said about impeachment

he is off my list of favorite candidates.

[Ethelk2044]

4. Well Then I guess Edwards and Hillary is off too, none of them support impeachment.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Yes I won't support a candidate

who ignores the criminal acts committed by the current prez and vice prez.

[maximusveritas]

7. You're an Arab-American? n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Huh?

[maximusveritas]

24. I was trying to come up for an explanation

for how your comment fit into a thread about Arab-American support for Obama. Unless you're Arab-American, the only connection appears to be Obama.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Oh I have to be an Arab American to post in this thread?

Sorry I must have missed that fine print.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. The post is about support for Obama

I pointed out that he is no longer on my favorites list because he won't support impeachment. In other words, I no longer support him.

[zulchzulu]

9. Besides Gravel, do any of the candidates want to impeach Bush?

Kucinich wants to impeach Cheney... who else is there? Feingold and Conyers aren't for impeachment...

As much as I want Bush AND Cheney impeached, we shouldn't do it until we have the votes, which could happen after the FISA investigation pans out. That's the most obvious crime.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Kucinich wants to impeach both bush and cheney

Feingold and Conyers aren't candidates.

[MasonJar]

6. Can you honestly imagine any Arab-American voting for a GOPer in 08?

[Nimrod2005]

8. How many of them are voters? Do we know?

[zulchzulu]

10. Estimates are that there are 3 million Arab-Americans in US

http://www.allied-media.com/Arab-American/Arab%20american%20Demographics.htm

There is no check mark for "Arab" in Census forms and in 1990, about a million Arabs registered. Out of those 3 million, I'd guess less than a million vote or of voting age.

[Nimrod2005]

11. A million voters can make a BIG BIG difference in the primaries and the general...nt

[draft_mario_cuomo]

15. There are more than that, plus Arabs-Americans have very high voting turnout rates

They are also concentrated in key swing states. They account for 5% the electorate in Michigan (Kerry won MI by 3%), 2% in Florida (* won by 5%), 2% in Ohio (2% margin there), and 1.5% in PA (Kerry won by 2.5%).

We must also remember that there is much overlap between the issues that are top concerns for Arab-Americans and Muslims' top issues. When you factor in the Muslim populations in these states the impact is even greater. Kerry would have lost Michigan and its 17 electoral votes without the Arab and Muslim vote. He would have lost PA too if they went for Bush at the same high rate they backed Kerry.

==The four states covered in our study all rank among the top ten in Arab American population.
Together they include more than 1.1 million persons. Given the propensity of Arab Americans
to vote in somewhat larger numbers than the overall population, Arab Americans in these four
states represent a likely voter turnout of more than 510,000 voters (235,000 in Michigan,
120,000 in Florida, 85,000 in Ohio, and 75,000 in Pennsylvania.) The Arab American vote
represents slightly more than 5% of the overall vote in Mi==

http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:gcw7YJ1Kc6wJ:www.aaiusa.org/page/file/7da4f584fdc66681d9_pibmvya9i.pdf/2004_State_Tracking_Poll_1-Feb.pdf+Arab+Americans+2+percent+Florida+Ohio+Pennsylvania&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

[illinoisprogressive]

16. Well, Keith Ellison is supporting him and that is a good thing. I see it as a good match

what with americans in general so anti muslim and DU so anti Obama.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

33. I am sure that will be a big help, given the fact KE is the top Muslim elected official in the US nt

[w4rma]

17. His name is "Barack Hussein Obama". No poll was ever needed for this information. (nt)

[NYCGirl]

18. Hey, good impression of a right winger. You ought to take that act on the road.

:eyes:

[w4rma]

20. I'm a right-winger because I typed his whole name?

How do you expect a candidate whose supporters are embarrassed about his name to win? If you think his name is a political liability, then you had better find another way to handle it instead of trying to imply that everyone who mearly writes it is a racist right-winger.

Anyway, my point is that folks tend to like folks who are like them and Obama has an Arabic-sounding name (and grew up around Muslims) so of course he's going to have the support of a plurality of the Arab-American community.

[NYCGirl]

22. So you're saying the Arab-American community is so shallow and dumb

they'll vote for someone with a middle name they like? Geez, it gets worse.

Did anyone ever tell you when you're in a hole to stop digging?

[ripple]

31. Embarrassed????

Of course I'm not embarrassed by Obama's middle name. I have, however noted that when most people make it a point of mentioning his full name, it is usually done to feed ignorant xenophobic biases.

What is Edwards' middle name? Biden's? Dodd's? Kucinich's? Gravel's? For that matter, what is Hillary's middle name(not her maiden name, her middle name from birth)? Unless you can answer those questions without looking it up, you appear to be guilty of using the same sort of low-blow tactics the right wing uses to prejudice the public. I'd like to think that isn't your intent, but that's what you are doing all the same.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

34. Sure, but not on DU

==I have, however noted that when most people make it a point of mentioning his full name, it is usually done to feed ignorant xenophobic biases.==

This is true when you hear right-wingers use it in the CMSM but this is DU. Maybe 0.2% of DUers would vote against someone because of his or her name.

Edwards' middle name is Reid, by the way.

[ripple]

36. I'd like to think that

I'm not so naive to think that racism isn't alive and well, even within the democratic party. The racist immigration rants I hear from democratic callers on Washington Journal tell me that. Since DU by and large trends to the left of national democrats, though, I don't think that sort of mentality is as common here. While I agree that few DU'ers would refuse to vote for Obama based on his heritage, I think a higher number might find it acceptable to exploit his middle name for the purpose of turning people off to him and on to their own candidate.

Thanks for the info about Edwards. I thought his initial was 'R', but I didn't know what it stood for. William Jefferson Clinton is the last major democrat I can think of who really took ownership of his middle name and seemed to embrace having his full name used. With a middle name like Jefferson, the reasons for that are pretty obvious.

I was a little bit surprised to see your response to my post, d_m_c, as you implied you were placing me on ignore. Guess we'll have to keep on scrapping... :toast:

[draft_mario_cuomo]

37. I agree. Even among Dems it is a problem

DU and the netroots are just way more progressive, especially on social issues, than the rest of the party. I can understand BO supporters being on the lookout for such individuals but I think in this context it was simply used to point out that his Muslim heritage helps him among Muslims and Arab-Americans, just like his black heritage helps him among African-Americans. And the recent news about his Irish heritage was greeted by positive expressions of pride among Irish DU'er. That will surely be a plus for him as well, although on a lesser scale since the Irish are now members of the majority.

For the record, I first began saying "HRC". I did not begin referring to Obama as "BO" until about 2 weeks ago. I did not include his middle name because he does not use it, but also because I did not want to promote the "H" meme. After that I added "JE" for Edwards.

I removed most people off of my ignore list. They were almost all Obama supporters. Many of the attacks on me were provoked by my crusade against BO over the past 2-3 weeks. I finally realized that it was wrong. Questioning and criticism is healthy for the party in choosing our nominee; smearing a candidate is not. We are all on the same team. We agree on 80-90% of issues. The real "enemy" is the Republicans, not any of our candidates. So I decided to, as Obama would say, "turn the page" and begin anew. :)

Sure, I look forward to our discussions. :toast: The only post of yours that I had a problem with was that one. Aside from that, I had no problem with you and actually praised you and mckeon!

[ripple]

38. Whew! I think we're actually in complete agreement

I wasn't feeling too great, either, for criticizing Edwards so harshly in my efforts to defend Obama. I like Edwards a lot and he's my second choice for the nominee.

I know I mentioned this in another thread with you, but the only thing that worries me about him is the damned haircut thing. I think he's perfectly justified in paying as much as he wants for a haircut and it's a stupid, distracting non-issue. Most people, though, follow politics on a very superficial level and only pay attention to things they can relate to. I hope I'm wrong, but I fear that it will be used in a similar fashion to the flip-flopper, wind-surfing Kerry attacks. But, of course, the same will most certainly be attempted with Obama's name. It's amazing how the spin-doctors can change public perception of a candidate for the most superficial of reasons.

We are on the same team. While I haven't launched any threads attacking a particular candidate, I have on occasion remained silent when candidates other than the one I support have been unfairly attacked, and as I said, I've been more aggressive in my criticism of Edwards than I would normally be. In fact, I'm always a little bit amused at our ability to spin one way on behalf of our own candidate, and then we turn around and accuse supporters of other candidates of doing the very same thing. In a way, we're just as bad as the agenda-driven pundits.

I agree- it's time to turn the page and begin a new dialogue. We have a hell of a field of candidates and while many of us believe that *our* candidate is THE candidate, the alternatives are pretty damned good, too. ;-)

[draft_mario_cuomo]

39. Good post

And, yes, the alternatives are all good. ;) All of our candidates are a million times better than any of the Republican candidates. They all bring something unique to our primary debate as well and that is definitely a good thing.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

32. w4rma is no racist

Let's ease up, folks. Pointing out his Muslim heritage in a thread about his popularity among Arab-Americans and Muslims is as non-racist as pointing out his black heritage when talking about his popularity among African-Americans.

Still, I understand the apprehension. Right-wingers pathetically use his name to smear him. Two things about that: 1) We need to realize that we will hear that 24/7 if he gets the nomination. 2) This will actually help him if makes it to the GE. Why? The repukes shameful attacks on his name will hurt them with everyone not named John Smith or Bob Johnson. That will only further their weakness among Latinos, Asians, Arabs, and Muslims. When Obama speaks of growing up as a skinny kid with a "funny" name millions of us immediately identify with him.

I think, though, a lot of his support is due to the Iraq war. Obviously, the war is a higher priority in terms of being a voting issue for Muslims. The fact that he is a minority is also a plus for him with minorities, particularly with a minority group that is under right-wing fire on a daily basis. Notice that Richardson was at 10%, which is at least three times his support nationally. No one is going to vote for him because he is a minority but it gives him an instant edge over the field among some voters--just as, to be fair, HRC's gender does among some women and Edwards' background does with white males.

[Ethelk2044]

19. So what about his name are you from FAUX News?

[w4rma]

21. Folks tend to like folks who are like them and Obama has an Arabic-sounding name

(and grew up around Muslims) so of course he's going to have the support of a plurality of the Arab-American community.

Apparently some of his supporters are so sensitive of his name that anyone who speaks it is a racist right-wing Faux News watcher. My point has nothing to do with racism and you should have known that before you posted.

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

23. I agree

Connect the dots. I don't see the shame in this either.

[sleipnir]

29. Ding, Ding, Ding. You've hit the nail on the head w4rma.

"some of his supporters are so sensitive of his name that anyone who speaks it is a racist right-wing Faux News watcher."

There certainly are a good deal supporters would would like to gloss over his background and his name for the sake of could be called "electability." It's a perception issue, and misguided at that.

It's completely obvious that he's the most aligned with Muslim and Arab-American interests ranging from his name to his youth. No other presidential candidate even comes close to having any real connection with Muslims or Arab-Americans.

My completely unscientific real-world experiences have found there are about as many Obama supporters who want to attack anyone who speaks his full name as there are right-wingers who love to say it loudly.

[geek tragedy]

28. Ann Coulter made the same point last week. eom

[TeamJordan23]

30. Also, you can't overlook that he was against this stupid Iraq War from the start. NM

[bling bling]

35. If I were Edwards I would be groaning with embarrassment at your post.

You have no idea how glad I am that you're not on my side.

Having said that, keep it up.

[Mugatu]

40. They must not know how big of an Israel supporter he is.

There's only one candidate who really benefits Arab Americans.