MSNBC: "He is not the president he promised to be in 2000"

Time for Junior to go out and start huggin' some freedom-lovin' Arab-Americans, eh?

Arab-Americans turning away from Bush
In switch from 2000, majority seen favoring Kerry

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6056602/

As the 2004 presidential election draws near, recent polls indicate a sharp decline in popularity for President Bush among a segment of the population that was pretty equally divided in 2000: the nation's Arab-American voters.

Recent polls of Arab-American, as well as Muslim voters, demonstrate how the war in Iraq and the ongoing crisis between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East has had a negative effect on a voter demographic that may have helped Bush against Al Gore.

“He is not the president he promised to be in 2000," said Samer Hanini, a 29-year-old architect. "He failed us in areas of Mid East peace, foreign policy and the economy. I’m embarrassed I voted for him.”

“Among Arab-Americans,there is an extra dissatisfaction with George Bush’s policy toward Iraq, the Israel-Palestine issue, his treatment of Arab and Muslim immigrants through the Patriot Act and civil liberties problems since 9/11,” said James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute which recently conducted a poll of 502 Arab-Americans living in sizable Arab-American communities within Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. “A trend in this election is that Arab-Americans feel alienated from this White House. They want someone new,” Zogby said.

today on Hardball with numbers on Kerry/Bush in the Detroit area. Which has one of the largest arab american communities in the states. It supposedly had 78% (going off of my bad memory) of Arab Americans supporting Kerry.
Which is great.

I was talking to a good friend of mines whose Arab American, that was undecided. I told him just about Kerry's position without any negativity towards Bush and he seemed really pumped on the guy. He was pretty shocked that the media haven't been getting Kerry's issues known to the public.
Hopefully he decides to read more info on Kerry and vote for him. It's good to know that you can make an impact in this election, THE RIGHT WAY. Instead of the horribly dirty tactics of some of the right wing supporters.

Arab-Americans? Is there enough in this nation to make a major impact? Where are they generally located?

If they went 50.50 for the Chimperor and have now decided to go 70.30 thats a great sign.

That's the figure I've seen. So not insignificant. The Arab/Muslim community in the US is relatively disorganized compared to other ethnic groups. So politically they don't wield the kind of power you might expect. Probably lots of reasons for that - relative newcomers, a lot of them are not religious and there is not really a liberal stream of Islam (so a lot have nothing to do with the community which is mostly centered around the Mosque), a lot of intermarriage, loyalty based on national origin (Iranians associate with Iranians, Palestinians with Palestinians, etc.). Some deliberately shun politics for the obvious reason that it's not popular to be an Arab or a Muslim these days. The community is highly entrepenurial and Republican economic policies have appealed to them (like the Indian community which is more Republican than people might guess).

What I think is really amusing is that Bush is going to get clobbered with Jewish voters as well. The two major polls of the Jewish community this election cycle are showing Bush will likely not get more than 25% of Jewish votes either. Isn't it ironic that the one thing that brings Jews and Arabs together is a mutual antipathy for *?

No shit.

The economy is so bad, I can barely put food on my family.

In Iraq, we have a clearly misunderestimated a catastrophic success. This has caused people to be captured and held hostile.

As for right-track polling it is unfortunate that none of this is going upside the heads of those who got us into the Mess o' Potemia in the first place.

Unfortunately, the press won't ask the question, is our leaders learning?

you.... fool me.... I cant be fooled again! :eyes: