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Mr. President, What Do You Think of ‘Girls’?

The Jewish vote and the Millennial vote

by
Marc Tracy
April 27, 2012
Michelle Obama and Jimmy Fallon hold a potato sack race at the White House.(White House/Flickr)
Michelle Obama and Jimmy Fallon hold a potato sack race at the White House.(White House/Flickr)

Ami Eden has an inspired post on the eerie and telling similarities between the Obama campaign’s outreach to the Jewish vote and the Millennial vote. These are groups that would seem to be natural constituents and whom he overwhelmingly won in 2008, but who lately have feinted toward straying toward the Republicans (in the Jews’ case) or staying home (in the Millennials’ case).

I think a crucial difference is that some Jews are feeling iffier on Obama because of things he has done (pressured Israel, not fully backed Israel on Iran), while Millennials, the majority of whom are politically liberals, might be pissed at promises unkempt (Guantanamo Bay is still open, he hasn’t done all that much high-profile on the environment). I also think it’s fair to say that the wavering Jews might feel they have more to worry about should Obama be re-elected (renewed pressure on Israel) while Millennials would have more to look forward to (I’d bet anything that a second-term President Obama would be the first president to endorse same-sex marriage).

This is all a really long way of saying that I’m a Jewish Millennial and I demand to be doubly pandered to. And endless emails about George Clooney aren’t going to cut it. George Clooney is, like, old.

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