After a long fall filled with mudslinging ads, record spending, masturbation double-standards, glamorous Hollywood endorsements that don’t work, digs about hair styles, kosher salami and kosher pastrami, we’ve almost made it. Stay tuned throughout the day for MitzVote’s coverage of Jewish voters at polls across the country. Here are some morning-of bits to tide you over.
The Other [Uncovered] March: Think only Glenn Beck can lure tens of thousands to the National Mall for a march? Well, think again — because over the weekend, an estimated 200,000 liberals attended the “One Nation Working Together March,” organized by unions, civil rights groups and other left-inclined groups. (The Week)
A previously little known, earnest Christian woman running for a high-profile office her first time out confronts derision, scorn and outrage in 2010 thanks to dredged up 14-year-old comments in which she criticized masturbation for its purported role in stoking lust and discouraging intimacy. She’s pummeled, eviscerated, all but left for politically dead.
Glass Half Full: With the election 29 days away, Democrats are gaining hope as polls make them out to be more competitive than they seemed over the summer. Or at least talking heads are saying so: As Axelrod said last week in Google/Politico’s election preview, “You’re going to see Democrats winning in places that you didn’t expect them to win…. I think we are going to win some races that you guys perhaps don’t think we’re going to win.” Strategists still expect Republican gains, but say their projected impact has diminished. This change in tone comes just as the Democratic National Committee posts record fundraising stats in this election cycle: $16 million in September. (Politico)
-Eric Cantor, minority whip and congress’s only Jewish Republican, penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Tax Fight: GOP Won’t Back Down.” He cites the economic struggles of “small businesses and investors” as a reason why he and the GOP won’t back down in opposing a continuation of federal tax cuts that would exempt those earning more than $250,000. (Wall Street Journal)
Members of the Delaware Jewish community did not intend to capture national headlines when they put together their biannual congressional candidates forum. But when the news came out that this would be the first opportunity to see Tea Party sensation Christine O’Donnell in action, the media began pouring into the Wilmington Jewish Community Center to cover the event, which was sponsored by the local Jewish Community Relations Committee and Hadassah.