Thursday, June 12, 2008

Jay Footlik Weighs in on McCain vs. Obama and the Jewish Vote

Y'all remember Jay 'I'm no Meshugana' Footlik, right? Well, for those of us who have been wondering what he's been up to, he surfaced today in a reference to the presidential race, offering some comments regarding Joe Lieberman and Obama, as they relate to the Jewish vote (as set forth on the Golden Thoughts Blog):

Lieberman surprised many in December when he endorsed Republican John McCain for president, but others dismissed it as just another step in Lieberman's march to the right, spurred by a mix of support for the Iraq war and frustration with Democrats who did not support him after his primary loss. The real confusion, however, has come in recent weeks, as Lieberman has gone on the offensive against Democratic candidate Barack Obama, suggesting he is "naive" on U.S. policy toward Iran and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"If... anybody thinks you can go over there and sort of talk reason, and hug and kiss Ahmadinejad, and he's... just going to act better, that's just naive," Lieberman told FOX News on May 20. "It's very naive of Senator Obama."

After Obama spoke to AIPAC last week, Lieberman participated in a McCain campaign conference call with reporters, where he said Obama was blaming American foreign policy for the current situation in Iran.

His comments play into hesitation some Jews already have about Obama's commitment to Israel and his policies toward Iran, raising hope in Republican circles that McCain can garner more American Jewish support than the
25 percent President Bush won in 2004.

"Lieberman can certainly help with those who are teetering and normally vote Democratic but have some concerns or questions" about Obama, said Jay Footlik, who served as Lieberman's liaison to the Jewish community in his 2004 presidential bid and later played the same role for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.


So does that mean that Footlik is stumping for McCain? By extension, does that mean he'd support Mark Kirk?

Not so fast. The article concludes:

Jewish Democrats say they will showcase other Jewish senators who are actively backing Obama and perhaps paint Lieberman as a Republican in Democratic clothing. But it may be hard to attack someone who once held their highest esteem.

"I have great respect for him," Footlik said. "I just disagree with him on this."

Looks like Footlik hasn't grown any smarter since getting trounced by Dan Seals. Wonder if he'll resurface in 2010 as Kirk's next opponent.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lieberman likes Kirk more than Seals (even though Seals used to work for Lieberman).

Team America said...

No shock. Seals likes to look on his time with Lieberman as something to be avoided in polite dicussion with Seals' core crowd of Highland Park/Wilmette peaceniks. The war is, and apparently always will be, his one issue. His foray into economics (the gas give-away debacle) showed he doesn't understand fiscal issues and, moreover, couldn't plan a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese without screwing it up.

Anonymous said...

Green guy is in the Herald today slamming Seals again for vote buying.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=207256&src=

Anonymous said...

60 poeple with Kirk in Libertyville,

15 with Seals.

Giving gas-for-votes does not work

Anonymous said...

Jay's done. There are 2 points of power in the democratic party, the nutroots and the machine and he has close to neither group. No one's impressed with running the White House Hanukah party. Mark should campaign with the Green Guy to show up seals.

Don Castella said...

Senator Lieberman stood up twice (9/18/2007 and 4/8/2008) to speak in favor of completing the mission in Iraq and fulfilling our commitment to the American and Iraqi peoples.