Obama loses Election in NY-9

As reported here and here, Republican Bob Turner trounced David Weprin, the Democratic Party apparatchik who had been viewed as the sure-fire winner in the contest for the seat in New York's 9th Congressional District, which became vacant with the resignation of Anthony Weiner (who was Chuck the Shmuck Putzhead Schumer's successor and protege).

The real loser of the race, of course, is Barack Hussein Obama.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Congresswoman from Florida who is now chair of the Democratic National Committee, is in denial (at least publicly), and claims that NY-9 is an aberration because it has a disproportionate population of religious Jews who begrudge Weprin's carrying the water for the same-gender marriage law recently passed in Albany. But that doesn't explain it because according to DNC Debbie's logic, they also should be up in arms against New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who also supported the abominable legislation.

Moreover, from 1923 until now, NY-9 has consistently sent Democrats to represent it in Washington, notwithstanding its disproportionate population of religious Jews. And the registration ratio is 3:1 in favor of Democrats. And plenty of non-religious Jews (and, for that matter, non-Jews, religious and otherwise) have told the news reporters that they voted out of disgust with the Obama adminstration.

In my mind, there is an even stronger indicium of the seriousness of Obama's loss. There is a Brooklyn-based rag called the Jewish Press [Note: the Jewish Press website has been uncharacteristically slow to load over the past few days.]. Yes, my household does subscribe to it, but with the understanding that beneath its strong advocacy for the Jewish community worldwide, it is largely yellow journalism with blue ink.

The Jewish Press endorsed Weprin in the race [alternate repost link here]. Its rationale:

"He has a long record of standing up for the interests of his constituents in terms of child care, health care, senior care, etc., and has always impressed us with his understanding of the special needs of the Orthodox community’s broad array of voluntary social service safety networks." … " Mr. Weprin’s opponent in the race is Republican Bob Turner, a retired communications industry executive. Preliminarily, Mr. Turner has advocated a prompt 35 percent cut in government spending without any new taxes, but insists this would not necessarily impact significantly on the lives of those who depend on such government funds, particularly Social Security and Medicare. " "Given his overarching negative view of government spending, it is hard to imagine Bob Turner going to bat as strongly as David Weprin in any struggle for funds to minimize the impact of government cutbacks on the 9th CD."

In other words, the Jewish Press's (not so well) hidden agenda is the government funding that some of its cohorts receive. One dirty little secret in the Jewish community is that disproportionate numbers of Jewish families from the more sheltered and insular groups, by dint of their inferior practical educations, are dependent upon diverse government-funded social welfare programs.

But even those sectors of the NY-9 population did not come out in droves to vote for Weprin to protect their rice bowls, as the Jewish Press implicitly exhorted them to do. Indeed, yesterday, the day of the election, I had occasion to walk along the street in a NY-9 neighborhood populated mostly by religious Jews, and the mood of the street was squarely for Bob Turner and against Obama. And not only on account of Obama's policies regarding Israel, either.

Many Democratic candidates for lower offices have, publicly and otherwise, expressed concern over the effect of Obama's national policies on their own local campaigns. My betting record on the outcomes of races for political office is not that great. But I do believe that Bob Turner's win in NY-9 is a bit more significant than DNC Debbie would have us believe.