by Susan Rosenbluth,
Editor, Jewish Voice and Opinion

September 2008

Jeffrey Golkin is a long-time Democrat, a party affiliation he refused to abandon even when he ran for town council in Warren Township, NJ. Friends and neighbors, who supported his candidacy, told him that, to win, he’d have to change his party. But Mr. Golkin proved them wrong, and went on to become Warren’s first—and, thus far, only—Democratic town councilman.

This fall, Mr. Golkin, an attorney who practices in Manhattan, is leading the New Jersey branch of Citizens for McCain, an all-volunteer group headed nationally by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). Its aim is to convince Democrats, Independents, and undeclared voters to pull the lever for Republican candidate for President, John McCain, in the fall.

"For Jews like me, it’s really a no-brainer. McCain is the clear choice for anyone who cares about Israel, the Jewish community under siege there, and national security issues here at home," said Mr. Golkin, a transplanted Brooklyn native who, with his wife, is raising their family of six children, ranging in age from 6 to 25, in Warren, a bucolic enclave in Somerset County, in the heart of the Watchung Mountains.

While Citizens for McCain is certainly not a Jewish organization, Mr. Golkin did not deny that many of the voters who have been drawn to the group are Jews.

Mr. Golkin said Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s "two chief failings" had prompted him to favor Mr. McCain: "Obama’a character and his destructive policies."

Four years ago, he said, his then-17-year-old son, Ben, had a chance to see Mr. Obama’s character first-hand and upfront.

In 2004, as a member of the Junior Statesmen Leadership Forum, Ben Golkin was invited to attend both the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and he did.

In Boston, he had the opportunity not only to hear Mr. Obama deliver the keynote address that catapulted him to national attention, but to meet him. Running into him in the hall at one point, Ben Golkin asked the Illinois junior senator if the two could have a photo taken together.

Mr. Obama brushed the young man away, telling him he had no time, and the senator rushed to the elevator. But, according to Ben Golkin, barely five minutes later, when Mr. Obama was already in the elevator, a young black teenager approached him with the same request. According to Ben Golkin, Mr. Obama came out of the elevator and posed with the young black teenager.

"He didn’t even give Ben a second glance," said Mr. Golkin. "It tells you something about the man, his character and his policies."

When told about this story, Dr. Richard Benkin in Chicago, said he knew exactly how the Golkins felt. When Dr. Benkin was approaching Congressmen and Senators to help his close friend, Shoaib Choudhury, a dissident Muslim journalist who had been arrested in Bangladesh for the "crime" of seeking peace with Israel, the only legislator to turn him away, empty-handed, was Mr. Obama.

"By the time I approached Obama, I already had the support of about 15 percent of the House and at least a dozen Senators, ranging from the very liberal Dick Durban to the very conservative Rick Santorum. All of them—Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives—responded to my urgent plea for help by agreeing to make a phone call, sign a letter, or even just make a statement that I could then forward to the Bangladesh government. The only one who offered me only a handshake was Barack Obama," said Dr. Benkin.

Jeffrey Golkin stressed that he is supporting Mr. McCain not only because he believes Mr. Obama is "inexperienced, hypocritical, and dangerous," but because he believes Mr. McCain, "Obama’s polar opposite," can protect the US.

"John McCain is a straight-talking independent leader whom we Jews—and every other American—can depend on," he said. "We need a President with a strong military background and a bipartisan voting history."

A volunteer fire chief in Warren as well as a police commissioner, Mr. Golkin said he speaks frequently to working-class Democrats in NJ and has been "overwhelmed" by the support Mr. McCain has been receiving in the state.

"There are a lot of non-vocal people, the old-time silent majority, who will not vote for a man like Obama who is the most left-wing Senator in office," said Mr. Golkin. "No matter what the polls say now, New Jersey is definitely in play and we are going to take the gloves off."

He is convinced many former Democratic mayors in NJ "from serious municipalities," as well as other retired Democratic elected officials will soon be announcing their support for Mr. McCain.

"Sitting Democratic officials won’t do this, of course, because, even though they may vote for McCain, it could be hurtful to their careers to admit it. But those who are retired can come forward, and I think they will," he said.

In New York, there are several chapters of Citizens for McCain as well as a group that calls itself, outright, Democrats for McCain. The latter is headed by novelist Bartle Bull, who in 1968 served as Robert Kennedy’s campaign manager in New York. In 1976, he held the same position for Jimmy Carter.

A civil rights attorney who supported Charles Evers, the brother of slain activist Medgar Evers, in Mississippi, Mr. Bull, in 1980, estranged himself from Mr. Carter, seeing him as representative of the more radical strains of the Democratic Party. Instead, Mr. Bull began working for Sen. Ted Kennedy, hoping he might secure the Democratic nomination in Mr. Carter’s place..

Today, Mr. Bull sees Mr. Obama as following in Mr. Carter’s footsteps. "Carter was a terrible President," said Mr. Bull, who compares Mr. McCain’s character to that of the late Robert Kennedy.

"The election of 2008, reminds me of ’68," said Mr. Bull.

Earlier in this Presidential cycle, Mr. Bull supported former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. When Mr. Giuliani dropped out of the race, Mr. Bull switched his allegiance to Mr. McCain.

Mr. Bull said it is telling that Russian President Vladimir Putin and many Arab leaders, including some from the terrorist group Hamas, have voiced support for Mr. Obama over McCain.

He said he is certain Mr. McCain will stand up for Israel, because "he just gets it."

There is no question that many Muslim leaders throughout the world have expressed a preference for Mr. Obama over Mr. McCain. "When we analyze why that is so, it leads us naturally to select McCain over Obama," said Mr. Golkin.

At the recent US-Islamic World Forum, held in Qatar, Mr. Obama won overwhelming support in a mock election. The influential Egyptian Islamist television preacher, Amr Khaled, told AFP: "I would like to see Obama become president of America because he champions ‘change and hope,’ which we Muslims need as much as the Americans do."

Mr. Khaled explained that, for him, "hope and change" means "solving the political problems in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan," which, he said, he would expect Mr. Obama to tackle in a more "even-handed manner."

"McCain’s adversaries are, for the most part, Israel’s adversaries. If Obama can’t stand up to Putin now, how will he ever stand up to the enemies of our very good friend, Israel?" said Mr. Bull.

Among Mr. McCain’s supporters, there are suspicions that some of those adversaries are providing Mr. Obana with more than moral support. According to federal election records, Mr. Obama’s campaign has received a record number of donations from abroad. By the end of June, he had received $2.8 million in donations from foreign sources.

By contrast, in the same time period, Mr. McCain received a little more than $380,000. During the entire 2004 presidential campaign, President George Bush took in almost $750,000 from foreign sources, while his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry, received a little over $550,000.

According to US law, contributors to federal, state, and local elections must be US citizens or permanent residents with Green Cards. Because so many Americans who reside overseas contribute legally to political campaigns, it is not always possible to ascertain whether or not any particular donation from abroad is legal.

According to The Hill, a congressional newspaper that publishes daily when Congress is in session, foreigners often can get away with contributing to a political campaign, especially if they are willing to make false statements about their status.

According to Larry Noble, a former Federal Election Commission general counsel, the ability to donate money to a political campaign online "has raised the ease with which someone can make a foreign national contribution."

Throughout the metropolitan area, chapters of either Citizens for McCain or Democrats for McCain are popping up.

Peter Feldman, Mr. McCain’s regional communications director for New York and New Jersey, said many of the Democrats who are disavowing their party’s candidate are "organically" drawn to Mr. McCain.

"They are frustrated with Obama and fear he has too little experience," said Mr. Feldman, who admitted that "in order to be effective in NY and NJ, McCain must reach out to Democrats and Independent."

Last month, longtime Democrat Roberta Weisbrod hosted the first meeting of the Brooklyn chapter of Citizens for McCain. An environmentally-conscious Brooklynite who, in 1992, chaired "Environmentalists for Clinton-Gore," Ms. Weisbrod said support for Mr. Obama among Jews in her borough is declining. She admitted about 75 percent of Jews still favor Mr. Obama, but, she said, "that support is wavering."

"People are increasingly confused, and Obama is weaker in the Jewish community than he was three months ago. Increasingly, people say McCain really has the right instincts for foreign affairs, the right combination of strength and a willingness to engage," said Ms. Weisbrod.

At the meeting, Ms. Weisbrod encouraged the non-Republican supporters of Mr. McCain to hand out leaflets at busy subway stations, an activity Mr. Bull called "lit-blitzing," blanketing literature.

Recognizing that, at present, only a small percentage of Democrats plan to vote Republican this year, Mr. Bull encouraged every Democrat-for-McCain to "become a rabbit and multiply."

"This effort is not just for McCain, but for our country," said Ms. Weisbrod.

Rita Cohn, another Democrat who attended the meeting, said her unhappiness with Mr. Obama was based on his affiliation with controversial Rev Jeremiah Wright. After listening to Mr. Wright’s racially offensive and politically charged sermons, Ms. Cohn said she could not accept Mr. Obama’s explanation that he was unaware of his pastor’s antipathy towards the United States and Israel.

"I still have serious doubts about the reason he stayed in that church for 20 years and didn’t find any reason to walk out. I just didn’t feel comfortable with his pronouncements," she said.

Others at the meeting said they were supporters of Hillary Clinton and did not feel that she had been treated fairly by the party.

Some of the Jews said they were turned off when, a few months ago, Mr. Obama delivered a spirited pro-Israel speech at AIPAC, which included support for an "undivided Jerusalem" (code words for keeping all of Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty), only to rescind that support a few hours later.

When challenged by Muslims, who insist that the eastern half of Jerusalem (the part that contains the Western Wall and the Temple Mount) must be the capital of their future Palestinian state, Mr. Obama said he "misspoke" at AIPAC. He explained that he meant only that barbed wire should not run through the city, not that Jerusalem should remain completely under Jewish control.

According to Mr. Golkin, many Jews have told him that while Mr. Obama has made statements that sound pro-Israel, when his sentences are parsed, they discover that his policies "would do irreparable harm to the US and Israel."

Mr. Golkin said his challenge is to make voters in New Jersey aware of the discrepancy between Messrs Obama and McCain. Once that is accomplished, he said, he feels certain the voters "will make the right decision."

"In NJ, by the end of September, McCain will be within striking distance of Obama, and, in October, McCain will peak and stay there until Election Day," Mr. Golkin predicted.

Some of the polling data seems to indicate things may be moving in that direction. Throughout August, Mr. Obama struggled to maintain his Democratic base, and, according to Gallup Poll analyzers, his problem seemed to be his loss of conservative Democrats. According to the Gallup Poll, almost 40 percent of Democrats who identify as conservative are now supporting Mr. McCain.

As a result, support for Mr. Obama among all Democrats fell from 81 percent in early August to 78 percent by the end of the month.

Among Republicans who considered voting for Mr. Obama, those who identify as moderates and liberals have also been moving back towards Mr. McCain. While at the beginning of August, Mr. Obama enjoyed the support of 19 percent of these moderate and liberal Republicans, by the end of the month, that support had eroded to 13 percent.

According to the Gallup Poll, Mr. Obama’s troubles last month were also evident among married women, whose support for the Democratic candidate fell from 46 percent to 39 percent. His support among unmarried women fell from 58 percent to 55 percent.

Mr. Feldman said it is no longer unusual to find enthusiasm for Mr. McCain among Democrats in the tri-state area.

"In New York, we are finding that there is a groundswell of support by Democrats who are fundamentally uncomfortable with Obama and coalescing around John McCain," he said.

For more information on Citizens for McCain, Mr. Golkin can be reached at 212-393-1200 or at golkin2000@aol.com.

Mr. Golkin said he expects Jews to be a significant part of Mr. McCain’s campaign. While most Republicans are lucky to win 25 percent of the heavily Democratic, mostly liberal Jewish vote, Ronald Reagan received an unprecedented 40 percent in his contest against Mr. Carter.

Mr. Golkin said he hopes Mr. McCain will meet or even break Mr. Reagan’s record this year. "McCain should be an easy decision for Jews, and I think they will support him in overwhelming numbers," he said.