ALL KIPPOT, NO CATTLE

Time tempers Jews' euphoria over Lieberman (Jill Lawrence, 6/09/03, USA Today)

As proud as most Jews are of Lieberman, he's no longer a novelty and he's not bursting onto the scene on a national ticket. He's scrapping with eight other Democrats, some of whom have more appeal to Jewish liberals than the hawkish, values-oriented Lieberman does.

And he's running in a world beset by terrorism, Middle East violence, anti-Semitism and anti-American sentiment. The Israeli-Palestinian peace process sits at a delicate early stage. All that leads some Jews to wonder if it's the right time for a Jewish president.

"Things have gotten a lot more fraught than they were three years ago," says Alan Mittleman, a religion professor at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania and head of a three-year study of Jews in American public life. "Then, you could have said Lieberman was the de facto leader of the American Jewish community. I'm not sure anymore."

Jews are only about 4% of the U.S. electorate, but they have clout beyond their numbers. They are active fundraisers and contributors. In competitive states such as New Jersey, where they make up 12% of the electorate, they can be a pivotal voting bloc. Jews voted 4-to-1 for Democrats in the last three presidential elections, a ratio Republicans want to narrow in 2004.

Lieberman's pollster, Mark Penn, says Lieberman has a 93% approval rating among Jews. But only about half that percentage pick him when asked whom they'd vote for in a Democratic primary.

Given the lackadaisacal nature of his campaign, it seems like Mr. Lieberman is only in this for the honor of running, rather than taking his own candidacy seriously. He'll be done after finishing well back in IA and NH, so you have to wonder if he'll not just get out of the race before the primary season even starts. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 11, 2003 1:01 AM