Obama and the Jews

Today I had a very frustrating conversation with a Jewish woman who's voting for McCain. She told me she doesn't "trust" Obama, and doesn't think he would support Israel. She also explained to me that she was still very worried about terrorism, very worried that Iran would bomb Israel, and was even more worried Obama would be too "soft on terror."

We talked for a long time.

I told her about how I thought "terror" was a brilliant word used by Republicans to create mandates for unreasonable wars, and that McCain, like any elected president in '08, would be forced to into diplomacy with Iran, and that Obama has shown, with his incredibly uniting campaign, that he is a shrewd diplomat, and could engage in diplomatic talks with Iran. And he's even said that he would use force if necesery. "What's so soft about that?" I asked. She didn't have a response.

We also talked about Israel. Both candidates are going to be put into situations where they're going to have to talk about Israel, and both candidates are going to have to respond to political situations in Israel.

It seems she was still a bit affected by some of the internet rumors she'd read- about Obama being a muslim, about Obama being anti-Israel, and she even seemed to have some sort of vague idea that because Obama went to a Muslim school during his "formative years", this would somehow affect his dealings with Israel, and he would have more sympathy for Muslims than for Jews. She seemed to think no one can ever outgrow their secoundary education, and that his "muslim education" would continue, perhaps unconsciously, to affect his decisions.

There's more.

She told me she thought Bush was a "terrible president" and that Palin was a serious mistake of a VP. She admitted McCain had made many gaffes already in his campaign, that he was old, and that she liked Obama's message of uniting the country, but she was ultimately too cynical to think it would actually work.

She had no real reasons not to vote for Obama, besides the fact that she "didn't trust him." She talked a lot about the threat of terrorism, and the threat muslims posed against America, but she didn't know how McCain would better protect America from terrorism.

All of which is to say- I guess I'm just kind of shocked that these people still exist. Oh, and of course-she's not from Seattle.