Know your Obama hater code

I have never heard anyone say they support John McCain. I have heard very few people say they actively oppose Obama. What I have heard is quite a lot of people express "doubts" or "reservations" about Obama, and I assume that most of these people are McCain supporters who are embarrassed to identify themselves as such. So I started talking to these people, and I realized that there are two different "doubts" that people tend to express about Obama, and that these two kinds of "doubts" are expressed by two distinct groups of people. The doubts are a code.

The first line I get is "We just don't know who he (Obama) is" (or "We just don't know what he stands for"). This despite the face that McCain is the far more frequent flip-flopper, with the far less consistent voting record. This line is code for "We don't trust liberals, we don't trust blacks, and Obama is a black liberal." The people saying it are just ordinary garden-variety Republican voters - the people who have been convincing themselves to punch the R ticket since the days of Reagan, and can't easily get out of the habit. They're probably afraid Democrats will raise their taxes and regulate the economy. But more importantly, they think of Republicans as the "normal" party, because they've been thinking that way for so long.

The second line I get is "Do you think he has enough foreign policy experience?" This despite the fact that McCain has basically none. This line is code for "Obama is too friendly to Iran and the Palestinians," and the people who give me this line are almost entirely Jewish. Though most Jews support Obama, about 20-25% really buy the message that America needs to bomb Iran to defend Israel. And the fact is that black leftists like Obama's former pastor have traditionally been among Israel's harshest critics here in the U.S. This makes Jews who care a lot about Israel deeply suspicious of Obama.

Can these groups be won over? The former probably can to some extent, with economic issues. Some people will never vote for a D, but pocketbook rationality can sway a few hearts and minds. As for the Israel-protectors, no, I don't think so. But since they are such a small part of the already tiny Jewish electorate, and probably make up only a small part of the Jewish donor base (Hollywood being decidedly liberal), I think they can be safely told to bugger off.