What a difference four years make.
Poll: Arab Americans want Kerry for President
More Arab Americans in key battleground states say they will vote for Senator John Kerry than for President George W. Bush in November, according to a new poll released Wednesday by the Arab American Institute.
In a three-way race factoring in Ralph Nader, 45 percent of those polled in Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania said they would vote for Kerry, 28 percent for Bush and 14 percent for Nader. Another 14 percent were undecided.
Bush maintained his 30 percent support, Zogby said, because of core Republican backing in the community.
Interestingly, Nader, who is Lebanese-American and has put forth positions on the Arab-Israeli conflict and issues like civil liberties that are considered in-step with the community's views overall, dropped 6 percentage points from February, showing that if that slide continues, Nader may not weaken Kerry's support as some had speculated.
The voters "are deciding where to go," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute and the brother of John, the pollster.
"There is still obvious displeasure with President Bush" but "not overwhelming support for Kerry yet," he said. "They're in Kerry's camp but not in love with him yet."
The numbers reflect a complete flip from the 2000 results. Then, in the same four states, Bush won 46 percent of the Arab American vote and Vice President Al Gore won 29 percent. Nader won 13 percent.
Ooops! Bad choice, I guess. Yes, I do recall reading a number of articles in the Arab press, both American and not, back in 2000 gloating about how Bush and Cheney were going to turn back Clinton's "pro-Israel bias." Didn't last long, though.
The drop in support for Bush reflected a disappointment in the community with Bush's handling of the Iraq war and other domestic issues.
I guess that's one way to put it. On the other hand, maybe this sheds a little more light.
Asked if attempts by the White House to win new support in the American Jewish community was spurring the drop in support from the Arab American community for the President, John Zogby said, "Whatever the White House calculation is, they're not doing so well among Arab American voters in these four states."
By the way,
Of the American-Jewish vote, which Zogby has also surveyed, he said he saw no appreciable rise in polling data to suggest that Bush would win overwhelming support among Jews in November.
He predicted Bush would win 23-25 percent of the Jewish vote, up from 18 percent in 2000. Many have predicted that Bush will win far more because of his support for Prime Minister Sharon.
