Israelis prefer McCain

Washington Times:

Sen. Barack Obama's recent efforts to woo American Jewish voters by staking out pro-Israeli positions seem to have fallen on deaf ears in the Jewish state, according to a poll published Friday.

Asked to name their preference to become the next president, a sample of 500 Israeli Jews favored presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, over the Illinois Democrat by a 36 percent to 27 percent advantage.

The poll, the first presidential such survey in Israel since the end of the Democratic primary race, was conducted June 18-19 by Israel's Mutagim survey institute for the right-wing weekly paper Mekor Rishon. The 500-person sample has a 4.5 percentage margin of error.

As in the U.S., the balance of support for the candidates moves rightward as voters get older. Mr. Obama's sole advantage among Israelis comes among voters aged 18 to 24, who support him by a seven percentage-point margin. But among Israeli senior citizens, Mr. McCain holds a 30-point lead.

"Israelis are very disturbed about the Iranian threat. If they know anything about John McCain, it's that he's supposed to be tough on Iran," said Dahlia Scheindlin, a Tel Aviv-based pollster and political analyst.

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The story goes on to indicate that Obama's speech on Israel appeared to be too perfect, and came across as less credible. The fact that he started backing away from it within hours might have had something to do with that perception. It is a reflection of his growing Slick Barack reputation of people "misunderstanding" his "clear statements." That seems to happen regularly now as he tries to flip flop his way to being loved by everyone.