I predicted that Obama would do as well with Jews as Kerry, Gore, Clinton, etc. Now Gallup confirms it.

The best news in this is that it is possible to view the Jewish vote as a microcosm Yes, Jews always vote Democratic. But the ebbs and flows tend to reflect the country at large. The two Democrat nominees in recent memory who fared poorly among Jews were Carter (45%) in 1980 and McGovern (65%) in 1972. (Note: Carter won a plurality of the Jewish vote. It was a 3-candidate race).

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On October 3rd, Chales Krauthammer wrote that Barack Obama was another FDR, only better.

Kraut wrote: "Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. famously said of Franklin Roosevelt that he had a 'second-class intellect, but a first-class temperament.. Obama has...got both a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament. That will likely be enough to make him president." He called the Palin pick "suicidal" and has repeatedly ridiculed her as unfit for high office.

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My kids have always accused me of being just like Larry David, except without his money or talent. I am proud at the comparison. I love Larry David, or, at least the character he plays on CYE.

But now I know that he and I are totally in synch because neither one of us can stand this election anymore. We are nervous all the time. We can't enjoy reading the news, except those stories we carefully self-censor to avoid any possibility of scaring ourselves into worrying that maybe California or Illinois are slipping away.

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Imagine if Al Qaeda had endorsed Obama rather than McCain. Imagine if they had said that Obama is best for AQ because Obama's Presidency would destroy America.

That is all you would hear about! Instead, in a coded message to its supporters, AQ said that it favored a terrorist attack on America before the election to help elect McCain.

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Thank you, Mitch Plitnick, who represents B'tselem, the Israeli human right organization in Washington for bringing this insanity to my attention.

A group of Israeli settlers have filed a suit against Israeli authorities because the so-called security checkpoints -- designed to prevent terrorists from getting into Jerusalem -- are making them late for work, school, the gym, whatever.

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Martin Peretz, former New Republic proprietor, writes today that Obama doesn't need Colin Powell's endorsement.

According to Peretz, all Powell represents is "the race card." and "if truth be told, [Powell is] not really a military hero, at least not in comparison to McCain."

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This is interesting. The Jewish vote for the Democratic nominee is now within range of the traditional 70-80%.

That is not surprising. About 20% of Jews are Republicans (I'm proud that the number is so low), you add another 5% or so that won't vote for a black guy and that is pretty much that. Obama ends up with 70%-80% on election day.

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Man, this story encapsulates why the wonderful word chutzpah is Yiddish!

John McCain did a conference call with a bunch of so-called (i.e. Republican) Jewish leaders. On the call, McCain was urged by a far-right settler rabbi from the West Bank to go on the offensive and attack Obama over Rev. Wright. McCain said that he'd rather focus on Bill Ayers.

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Bob Cesca answers the question in his Goddamn Awesome Blog.

While I have you, let me link to Bill Kristol's column today challenging Peggy Noonan's argument that our politics has been vulgarized. (Of course it has but by Peggy's party not ours). Anyway, Kristol doesn't like Noonan because she is a rightwinger who can write and he knows that the Tmes would kill to steal her from the WSJ and dump the embarrassing (for Sulzberger) Kristol.

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