GOP Jews and Obama: The final debate?
The Republican Jewish Coalition’s Matt Brooks has an oped for JTA defending his organization from charges that they ran a “smear and fear” campaign against Obama. Read his oped here, and my column, a response to Brooks, here.
Key grafs, first from Brooks:
Since the first days of the election campaign, the RJC challenged President-elect Barack Obama to articulate his positions on these issues, and through our actions, let him know that the Jewish community would carefully examine his responses. As a result, neither party nor candidate took the support of the Jewish community for granted. The RJC is proud to have played a role in facilitating this important debate.
And from me:
Brooks is within his rights to assert that “there were serious and legitimate reasons to be concerned by Obama’s positions on Israel, Iran, and the Middle East,” except the ads were never about opening debate, but closing it down. If you’re looking for “clear answers” on “critical issues,” you don’t invoke the Nazis or imply anti-Semitism.
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JustASC is written by Andrew Silow-Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of the 
November 12th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
How brave of you to say you are going to rethink your policy on the ads after the ad campaign is over and you have collected the money.
The ads were fair. What wasn’t was the intolerance toward debate liberals have shown in trying to shut down free speech. When Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden made similiar arguments about Obama in the Democratic primary (arguments which were quoted in the ads) it was free speech. When conservatives make them it is hate speech.Hillary was right it is naïve to negotiate directly on a Presidential level with those who want to destroy Israel.
Obama won. Let’s hope he listens to Hillary
November 13th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I thought that the RJC ads were in poor taste and conveyed a level of vitriol that was embarrassing to those who took this campaign seriously. However, I thought that it was appropriate for NJJN to take those ads and run them. What surprised me was the lack of Democratic response. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have mattered.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
In the last two or three issues before Election Day local Jewish women contributed money towards a series of ads produced by the NJDC. All were soft-focus, positive ads about Obama’s pro-Israel record and domestic agenda.