WASHINGTON – The Republican Jewish Coalition took their ad about disenchanted
Democratic Jews from the computer screen to the small screen Wednesday, as the
spot began airing in heavily Jewish communities in key swing states.
The
ad buy is part of the $5 million media effort the RJC is undertaking to make
inroads with Jewish voters in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada.
The
campaign, dubbed “Buyers’ Remorse,” features a relatable self-described lifelong
Democrat, Michael Goldstein, who backed Barack Obama in 2008 but now is voting
Republican.
The RJC has promised several more switch voters in future
spots.
Goldstein points to Obama’s speech about using the pre- 1967 line
as the basis for negotiations over a two-state solution and his rude handling of
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at a White House visit as key reasons for his
change of heart.
“He was disrespectful to him to a point that I’d never
seen,” Goldstein says of Netanyahu’s Oval Office visit in the
ad.
Goldstein also warns of what he expects to come from Obama in a
second term.
“I think that he’s going to change the game when it comes to
Israel,” he says. “He’s going to place Israel in a position where they’re in
danger.”
Democrats have assailed the ad for being misleading, charging
that Goldstein, a New Jersey voter, is not registered as a Democrat and in fact
contributed $250 to former Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in
2007.
Goldstein told The Washington Post that the donation had not come
out of political allegiance but because the former New York mayor was a close
friend of his late father. He also told the newspaper that his contributions to
Obama, for whom he once held a fundraiser, amounted to significantly more than
that, though made in much smaller increments.
Democrats promoted their
own Jewish supporter Wednesday as well. Actress Natalie Portman was featured at
an Ohio Women Vote 2012 Summit in Cincinnati, Ohio on Wednesday
morning.
Portman appeared at a conference devoted to women’s issues and
what Obama has done to promote them.