New Poll--Bush Support Among Arab Americans Tumbles (14% Nader)

[Nambe]

Pacific News Service

Arab Americans, who represent key votes in Midwestern swing states like Michigan and Ohio, have starkly negative views of President Bush's handling of Iraq, prefer his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, and report experiencing high levels of persecution since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, a new poll shows.

A multilingual poll by Miami-based Bendixen & Associates show that 73 percent of Arab Americans do not support President Bush's handling of Iraq. The opinion poll of Arabs, Pakistanis and Iranians in the United States was commissioned by Amnesty International USA and New California Media (NCM), a nationwide association of ethnic media.

"I haven't seen this low from any one group in the United States," says pollster Sergio Bendixen. ..

The poll shows Arab Americans now support Kerry by a three- to-one margin. Almost half (49 percent) of the 273 Arab American registered voters say they will vote for Kerry, 16 percent support Bush and 14 percent prefer Nader, who is Arab American. By contrast, in 2000 Arab American voters chose Bush over Democrat Al Gore by a margin of 46 percent to 38 percent, according to pollster James Zogby. ..

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[phantom power]

1. Examples like this encourage me. Lots of people bought into

the whole "compassionate conservative" marketing package in 2000, but they aren't being fooled a second time.

[ThatPoetGuy]

2. Nader will pick up a chunk

of the Arab-American polling numbers just because he's Lebanese-American. I do think a number of these voters will switch to Kerry in the booth.

[DURHAM D]

6. Nader on ballot in Michigan or Ohio? Not the last time I checked.

[llmart]

8. I was just going to post that.

I don't believe Nader will be on the ballot in Michigan. We're going for Kerry all the way:)

[Zhade]

7. Or maybe because he's against the occupation, and Kerry isn't?

No, that would just make sense. So instead, let's assume that Arab- and Muslim-Americans will "stick with their own".

They're sending a message here. It would be a wise move to recognize and address that message.

[babylon_system]

13. People assume that Jews voted for Lieberman so Arabs vote for Nader

Except they forget that 46% of Arab-Americans voted for Bush, 29% voted for Gore and only 13% voted for Nader in 2000. This year Nader will get 20%.
http://www.aaiusa.org/PDF/poll_031204.pdf


By the way, Nader isn't Muslim. His family was Greek Orthodox. I doubt Nader subscribes to any religion now. You proobably knew all that already!

[Pirate Smile]

3. I think someone needs to do some ads in Michigan and other states

with large Arab populations showing how the Repubs are pushing Nader because it helps Shrub. If they don't want Shrub, they need to vote for Kerry.

[On the Road]

4. This is The Only Group I Can Really Understand Voting for Nader

since Kerry isn't much different on IP issues.

[IA_Seth]

11. Exactly!

I am from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and while we do not have a huge number of Arab-Americans here, we are home to America's first Mosque and the Arabs living here are VERY politically active.

Nader has been a point of conversation with plenty of us, however the majority here will vote for Kerry only because he has a chance of winning (unlike Nader). The difference between Kerry and Bush on the I/P conflict have been discussed locally since Kerry won Iowa, and it is still a sore spot.

Kerry will win the Arab vote, but mainly because he isn't Bush.

[Malikshah]

12. Arabs voted for the chimp because of what his father did

in the early 90's--threatening to hold back aid to Israel when Shamir was dragging his feet. In the end, Shamir blinked and they got their money.

Not all Arab-Americans voted for this reason, but those I was speaking to used this as a key reason. The old "like father like son"-- except the chimp didn't deliver

[struggle4progress]

5. Arar, Mayfield, Yee, and thousands of other cases were noticed. eom

[markses]

9. Translation: Bush can kiss Michigan good-bye

Next.

[ldf]

10. well, whoda thunk?

and i bet the bush baby is all befuddled as to why he's losing their support.

bombing one of their countries to smithereens shouldn't be held against him, should it?

those ungrateful shits. just for that he's going to draw the line and only let the saudis own 13% of the total of american assets and real estate, instead of 7. that'll teach 'em.

edit: punctuation

[babylon_system]

14. Bush thinks (Arab)Americans should all be grateful he killed Uday n' Qusay

Just like Saddam thought Iraqis would be grateful if he killed GW and Jeb.

[Erika]

15. Falwell Calls Islam Evil

And Falwell jerks Bush's chain. He needs those radical right winger votes.