The normally reliable Ron Brownstein makes an (innocent?) error in today’s LA Times:

“But the initial Edison/Mitofsky National Election Pool exit poll had found that Jews preferred the Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, over Bush by 74% to 25%. The Los Angeles Times exit poll had found an almost identical 74% to 26% split among Jews.

… the results represented only a small change from the last few elections. In 2000, exit polls found that Al Gore won 79% of the Jewish vote; Bill Clinton carried 78% in 1996 and a record 80% in 1992. Republicans held Democrats to two-thirds or less of the Jewish vote during the three elections of the 1980s — Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 and George H.W. Bush in 1988.”

Looked at differently, the Republican share was:

1992 20%
1996 22%
2000 21%
2004 25% – 26%

So shouldn’t the story be that Bush increased his share of the Jewish vote by 20% or more? That’s a huge jump in a traditional bastion of Democratic strength (and it still is, with 75% still voting Democratic).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2005 at 12:26 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable, Election 2008 Live Team Coverage!, Los Angeles Times, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.