Arab American Voters Drop Support for Bush

[BUSHOUT]

Arab American Voters Drop Support for Bush

By Michael Ellis

DEARBORN, Mich. (Reuters) - Hundreds of Arab Americans danced and celebrated in the streets of this Detroit suburb after the fall of Baghdad last year, and enthusiastically shouted thanks to President Bush.

Now, even some of the most vocal supporters of the president blame him for failing to stop the disorder and death in Iraq. One opinion poll shows Bush trailing Democratic Sen. John Kerry among Arab Americans in four key battleground states including Michigan, where every vote could count in a close Nov. 2 election.


Angry with the Iraq war, more of the estimated 1.1 million Arab Americans in the four battleground states of Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania back Kerry over Bush, according to the polling firm Zogby International.

In a poll of Arab Americans in those states conducted in September after the Republican convention, 47 percent of voters favored Kerry to 31.5 percent for Bush. Nine percent favored Ralph Nader, the independent candidate who is of Lebanese descent, while 12 percent were undecided.

Four years ago, Bush won the support of 45.5 percent of Arab Americans, compared to 38 percent for Vice President Al Gore and 13.5 percent for Nader, according to Zogby data.

READ REST OF STORY HERE

More bad news for Bush. Kerry is making points by pointing out the obvious problem with Bush...his lack of planning.

Did anyone see Frontline last night? There was John Kerry in the Senate in 2002 explaining that his vote for the war was being made because he'd had assurances from Bush that the UN would be involved as a partner and careful planning for the aftermath would be done.
It was sweet!

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. With this HUGE swing in Arab and Muslim voters, Michigan is SAFE...

Kerry Territory, regardless of what the polls say!

[Eurobabe]

7. I tend to agree with you

a friend from Algeria (who has lived in USA for 30 yrs.) says what Bu$h has done is a disgrace. He and all of his friends are voting Kerry. Repeat after me....* is toast.

[On the Road]

2. It Started Happening Before the Iraq Invasion

I was in an anti-war march in DC which brought together a collection of groups, some of which were Muslim. The turnout was huge -- they had buses coming from mosques all over the east coast. A lot of them held sign such as "Bush -- You Lost Our Vote."

[BUSHOUT]

3. Yes, but read the article. It speaks about Arabs that supported the war.

turning to Kerry because of the mishandling since the war.

They don't want Bush taking his crusade anyplace else....they see now that he's not capable of doing it right.

[On the Road]

6. Good -- That's Even Better

According to the article, Bush's support has declined 14% in the Arab community. With over a million Arabs, that works out to a swing of 150,000 votes. That's probably enough to win Michigan, and may help put Virginia in play.

[David__77]

4. These numbers sound strange.

I cannot imagine that Gore got that much in 2000. And I cannot imagine that Bush will do that well this time.

[durutti]

5. A Few Thoughts

1. Arab Americans generally opposed the war. There was more support among Iraqi Americans, for obvious reasons.

2. Many Iraqi Americans did not support the war.

3. Those Iraqi Americans who did support the war (who were in the majority) had too easily forgotten the recent past. Now they are remembering.

[Ravenseye]

9. We opposed the war...

...because we knew that an American invasion of Iraq would be a disaster.

As an Arab American (Iraqi-American actually) I'll tell you that we hated Saddam. I don't know an Iraqi-American who doesn't have at least one relative who wasn't killed/tortured/imprisoned/shot at/gassed/you name it by that tyrant. We wanted him gone.

We knew however that if the US went in what would happen. This. We were screaming it from the rooftops, while sycophant criminals like Chalabi got white house invitations. We were screaming at the time 'He's a criminal! He's a liar! His entire family isn't to be trusted!' My family is even related to Chalabi's through marriage and I can tell you that if ever there was a perfect Iraqi family to be in bed with Bush it's theirs.

We knew that thousands, tens of thousands, of innocent iraqi's would die. We knew that while a good percentage would welcome the troops, they'd want them to leave immediately and they wouldn't. We knew it would turn Baghdad into Beirut. Nobody listened to us.

The ones that did support the war were ones that trusted that Bush would be able to build a coalition, and stabilize the country. We quickly realized this wasn't going to happen.

Top that with Bush's crusading talk, and his embrace of the fundamentalist christian groups who spew hatred at arabs and muslims.

Sprinkle liberally with racial profiling and unfair treatment. Pulling people off of planes after they've passed through security because some woman doesn't like the color of their skin.

I don't know how many black/african american du-ers are here, but I want you to be aware that being an arab-american while certainly not the same thing...well we might not be in the same boat, but you're right off our port bow.

I could go on and on, but it'd just be rambling more.

The arab american community is a conservative community, but not a stupid one. We're for Kerry...and those that aren't are not for Bush (I know a few either not voting or voting libertarian)

[iamjoy]

8. Two Words: Racial Profiling

I've talked to a few Arab Americans for Kerry and they are upset by Bush's treatment of Arab Americans. I was discussing this with an Arab American the other night and I said that racial profiling just didn't work because the man who blew up the building in Oklahoma City was white and "christian."

Kerry's vulnerability with this constiuency is his stance on social issues (abortion, gay marriage, etc)

But see, I think Kerry genuinely respects Arabs and Arab Americans as people, not just a constituency. Notice how rarely he specifically addresses Arab American issues? While he isn't pandering to them, his local campaign offices all have outreach programs, very grass roots. Rove, on the other hand, made plans to court the constituency.

[ladybugg33]

10. Damn! What took them so long?

What did they think would change?

[Barrett808]

11. Grover Norquist delivered Florida to Bush by aggressively courting Muslims

Sami Al-Arian, the engineering professor at the University of South Florida who had referred to Jews as "monkeys and pigs," asserted that the role of the Muslim vote in Florida was "crucial, even decisive."

Even the party regulars agreed. As Tom Davis, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, put it, without the Muslim endorsements "Florida would have been reversed." In other words, without the mobilization of the Saudi-funded Islamic groups, George W. Bush would not be president today.

Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, p. 216