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Obama Currently Flunking the Koch Test

Hizzoner calls on Democrats to vote GOP in Weiner’s district

by
Marc Tracy
July 12, 2011
Ed Koch in May.(JP Yim/Getty Images)
Ed Koch in May.(JP Yim/Getty Images)

More evidence that President Obama is failing the Koch Test—which is to say, failing to receive the approval of former Democratic New York City mayor Ed Koch, without which, as Tevi Troy showed, it is difficult for Democratic presidential candidates to win elections: Koch called on Democratic voters in Rep. Anthony Weiner’s former district to vote for the Republican in the upcoming special election in protest of Obama’s (alleged) policies on Israel. “If Jewish New Yorkers and others who support Israel were to turn away from the Democratic Party in that congressional election and elect the Republican candidate to Congress in 2011,” Koch argued, “it might very well cause President Obama to change his hostile position on the state of Israel and to re-establish the special relationship presidents before him had supported.”

Semi-relatedly, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen’s op-ed today, taking stock of the fall of Weiner—which, Cohen reminds us, was brought on by a decidedly non-criminal scandal and instigated by people who were not his constituents—is worth your time.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.